There's electricity caught in the back of her neck. There's fire racing down her arms to settle in her fingertips. There's a hurricane thrashing about her chest. Her vision is specked with silver. This is it. This is it. The thought pounds inside her skull with the relentless pressure of war drums.

The Hunt is back on. 

Bella's body is as fluid as the river she watched on Salib, and as firm and unyielding as the walls of the [i]Yakanov[/i]. She does not glide or sway behind Redana; she prowls. Liquid motion gives way to planted feet and muscle tension worthy of a mountain that crushes the floor beneath her. There's electricity caught in the back of her neck. There's fire burning in her fingertips. Sparks are bursting all along her back, and she has to fight not to let them explode into burning wings.

Not yet. Not yet. Silver specks are building into a line, but they are still disjointed. Her nose closes off scent after scent, narrowing the possibilities down to a manageable space. She knows what she's looking for this time. Not the faint whiff of perfumes and chemicals trying to cover over that pheromone tell, that won't ever fool her again. She is sniffing for Mynx's true scent, which is to say Redana's scent. Perfected. The real Redana is sweaty and nervous and coated in wolf musk. Mynx will be a better, purer version of the smell underneath all of that. Anything less would fail to live up to Mynx's idea of the princess. It would be a failure on her part. She can fake a flaw on purpose, but not one that implies a failing of Dany's. That's her [i]true[/i] tell. Bella will never mistake it again, if she can simply find it. 

The waiting is unbearable. Her palms itch, and demand to be flexed. Her claws stretch ominously, promising death. The silver path is winding around Redana's silly dancing girl persona, tighter and tighter and tighter. Soon, the moment would come. The moment to pounce. Mynx would lower her guard to attack. She'd go after Redana first, confident she's a step ahead of Bella. She'd only need a tiny nick, and this whole fucking thing would become pointless. It would end in death. And maybe... maybe the pair of them were still very much alike after all.

Well fuck her. No. If that path ended in failure for her every time she took it, Mynx wasn't going to manage it either. No. If Bella has to keep living, so does Mynx. It's in the middle of that thought she almost misses it. The pair of princesses are dancing. The push and pull, the give and take, the inevitable defeat. The pressure in her spine is unbearable. Wait, it says. Wait. And while she's coiling tight enough to make her own strike, Mynx moves in for the kill. 

And misses. Something stops her, and in that moment of hesitation Bella closes the gap and sends Mynx sprawling across the hall. She is not gentle. The move will daze, and it leaves her in the open where escape is not an easy option. Her eye has been calculating the angle on this strike the entire time she's been prowling. 

"Mynx..."

Yes? Mynx what? What is she supposed to say? It's time to stop? You don't need to do this? I'm here for you? No it isn't. Yes, she does. No, she's not. And if she was, then she's shown more than enough times that it's a bad thing for Bella to be there for anybody. There's no way to finish her sentence. No way to even start it. The only thought worth expressing is the one she doesn't dare try.

Why? Why didn't you tell me? Why, for all that time, did you let me think I was different from you? Why did you lie?

Bella's mouth closes without a sound. She turns away from her prey, though she bends both ears back to track things anyway. There's something more important right now. Something she [i]can[/i] say, because she doesn't have to say it to just one person. Her hand clasps around Redana's wrist, and she lifts the princess to her feet as easily as if she were lifting a child. 

There's a pause. Another moment of hesitation that almost costs her everything. Bella's voice is raw, when she finally speaks.

"I need you."

She turns. Her ELF flares across her back, scorching her dress but expanding no further than a meter or so to either side of her. Controlled violence. Measured aggression. In a flash, she vanishes. She crosses the space between herself and Mynx without touching the surrounding air, and puts her fist through the floor not even a breath after a shaky Mynx has risen to her feet. Bella snarls, and both eyes gleam with menace.

You're gonna fight, Mynx. The gods damn you, you're gonna fight and get this shit out of your system. That's what Bella can offer you. If there's one thing she's learned, it's that peace only comes after defeat.

[Keep Them Busy: 4, 2, +2 = [b]8[/b]. At the end of this sequence, the fight will turn against Bella]