"HA! Tell me something I [i]don't[/i] know, why don't you? As if I trusted that stapled together piece of shit in the first place."

Bella's laughter is rippling and wine soaked, despite all of her restraint. Her whole body is filling with hot, shivering pressure that crashes across her like a wave. And just like a wave, it leaves wetness and longing in its wake. Still dripping laughter, she turns eyes suddenly sharper than her claws to the stage beneath her. 

She drinks in every detail this time. Not just the pleasure and the spectacle, but everything it means to be part of the Dance. The stomp of every foot. The crashing, crumbling, crushing surge of machines and the way they tear themselves to pieces or fly into a frenzy that would rival the Ceronians in the name of their Praetor, their Bella, and the Imperial authority that she wields. The way they flood around Redana and sweep her gifts into the furthest reaches of the background, turning her from destined princess to the merest stagehand. 

See it? See that? The most beautiful, most perfect person in the entire universe and just this second she isn't fit to be background music. Her role in the unfathomable game the gods are playing is less than the merest pawn. She was music! Lightning! Power! She's helpless against these mass produced shadows of a third-rate emperor. Even the legendary [i]Pallas Rex[/i] is just a dancer in the hall, part of the game, part of the show, no nightmare of steel and inexorable death this. Molech probably didn't even know this Cavel-whatever unit existed, and look! Look! This entire stage is nothing but a testament to the crippling inferiority of space and the inexorable glory of Tellus. Nothing here could match the perfection of Nero. Nothing was... worth her love, was... nothing...

"[i]I[/i] am in command here," she snaps across her own reverie, "And if anyone here is stupid enough to think otherwise, they won't live to see the next dawn. The only reason they've got room to be so fucking stupid in the first place is because their delusion suits my purposes right now. See what happens the second that it doesn't!"

Bella's heart is beating like it's being squeezed. She breathes as though a dark clawed demon is ripping the oxygen from her lungs as quickly as she can pull it in. Her eyes flash wild and predatory, the flexing of her claws dares her own Kaeri to speak up and try getting off the script. The wineglass in her hand sits with delicate primness in the middle of the storm, unbothered by the noise and fury because it knows that it alone is cared for. The moment passes. Bella lifts her free hand to smooth down her hair and adjust her braid as she eyes Omn with artificial coolness.

"...But you're right. I promised my Kaeri glory and here I am making them watch this farce of a play run itself out in front of them. Thank you. It feels... hmmmmmm[i]nnnnn[/i], good to hear some sane council. For once. Hear that, boys and girls? You've sat on your asses long enough! It's time to hunt. Get down there and show the... ehehahahaha, "Pallas Rex" how obsolete she is. Hunt the Princess, drive her from her precious guardian's side. Push her into every crack, rip her stupid clothes to bits on her back! Push her back to me, and I'll finish the job."

Bella takes a long sip of wine with a distant, unfocused look etched across her face. The taste is more sour than she remembers it, even from just minutes ago. 

"Oh! And... remember to show restraint, would you? The Princess hates blood, so don't spill any. Fuck this up and I'll carve you in half. [i]Understand?!"[/i]