The feeling of wanting to fold in on oneself and disappear is not unique. Many young men and women have felt like Redana does now, wishing that they could stop taking up space, being observed, being judged. Redana is simply unique in that she can, with a wretched and broken sob, [i]do so.[/i] The Kaeri are forced to release her as she recedes into an infinite point; wind whirls around the room, stinking of ozone. And then the Nemean is here, looming tall and inescapable, her face in shadow, her star-eye cold and infinitely distant. She wears no armor, her aketon a second skin more provocative than Redana’s nakedness, the lionskin on her shoulders drinking in the low light. 

[b]“She is a fool,”[/b] the Nemean says, and her voice is the shadow of something in the storm, seen by a sudden flash of lightning before the dark crashes back down. [b]”The princess is so lonely she looks for companions where she should see servants. She even hesitated from calling me because she feared I would hurt you. Ha! You have done your duty, statue, for all that she might cry about it. But [i]you.[/i]”[/b]

She shifts, and the light falls upon that almost-familiar face, unfamiliar [i]contempt[/i] etched into her Olympian features. [b]“I liked you, little knife. Willing to speak truth to your mistress! To protect her from that pathetic little smear. But I have no patience for the [i]faithless.[/i]”[/b]

The double-headed axe slams down from some unseen point in space high above, as if thrown down by Zeus herself, and the explosion of hissing lightning clears a circle in the phalanx, burns holes in that lovely wedding dress Alexa wears, and showers Bella in chips of marble. It buries itself so deep in the earth that seven Kaeri could not shake it, but the Nemean pulls it free without a whisper.

Then the nightmare woman stops and sneers. [b]”No,”[/b] she says in aside to her unseen audience in a troubled quantum state, [b]”I won’t kill her, little coward. But if you will not punish treachery, [i]I will.[/i] You are welcome.”[/b]

And Redana Chrysopelex advances on Bella like the sea advancing on the shore.

[Blood is damaged. Bella is in trouble now. Alexa has some more choices to make about Redana and her feelings.]