[b]Solarel[/b]

You’ve done your job being the focus of everyone’s attention too well. When you go, they go. It’s a brawl, sure, but it was a brawl focused around you. Angela was laser-focused on you and she’s chasing. She was the one who was holding up the empress Nialkai, so as soon as Angela broke off, Nialkai was rushing with her to chase you, full of all the energy that Angela Victoria Miera Antonius could put into their fight, glowing brightly. From there, you’ve got a split of retainers, and the empress Voctine recovering from your clash. So it’s all a chain of dominos crashing down after you, one after another.

But there’s one that was hurt a bit more than the others. Voctine was your empress. The one who gave you the Aeteline. The one who made you her champion. She is…less than she was. She has defined herself by what she lost and in so doing pinned herself to another. But in that brief cross of swords, there was something of her old self. Of the woman who hungered for the stars, damn what might stand in her way. She felt that hunger, and when you gave her nothing to feed it and then broke from her, it hurt her deeply. 

She staggers after you. Not fast, not stable. Dangerous as only a woman scorned. A woman who knows the Aeteline had always been hers to give.

As you run at the head of the pack, you catch a glimpse of Akaithon, already in the hanger, undoing restraints and detaching docking latches. But there are several women, Terenian and Zaldarian both who won’t let you go.

[Roll to defy disaster however you think best.]

***

[b]Dolly and Jade[/b]

That had been a moment where a look of real pain had crossed Valynia’s face, if you’d been looking. But it’s gone in an instant, nothing but an illusion, a trick of the light. That had been her lips curling in a sneer as she strides forward, nothing more. She reaches a hand up, and in a flash, she’s back before you Dolly, her talons barely click on the crystal floor.

“Yes, I want you” is all she says, but her voice cuts through your tears all the same. Then with a hand that is fast, rough, and strong, she yanks you, not gently, into her embrace. It’s a tug that makes your arm feel like it might pull out of its socket and it’s hard enough to spin you completely around so that one hand is over your stomach and your back is pressing against her chest. She keeps her right hand firmly on your arm, her grip tight, hands over the neural mesh that links you to Jade. 

And Jade, she’s talking to you while she holds Dolly protectively, her left hand across your priestess’s body, interposing between you.

“Oh I’m not [i]good enough[/i] for you?” she asks, and the sneer is so deep. “I’m nothing but pirate scum, is that it? Well, this pirate scum already has her prize.” She laughs, and it is a cruel laugh. Not like Dolly’s laugh, nor Angela’s, nor Ksharta’s, nor even like Whispered Promise. It’s the laugh of mockery, the laugh of Dishai the stone goddess, whose grip you could not defeat. 

“You don’t [i]deserve[/i] her” she says, and the words drip with venom. “Look what you did. Look at your priestess crying in the heart of the crystal gala, in that beautiful dress made to display her just for you. This wasn’t my doing, Smokeless Fires. It was yours. So you’ve forfeited her and I’m taking what I came for.”

With a grand motion, she rips the neural mesh from Dolly’s arm. And then, gently, slowly, ever so carefully, she tucks it neatly into Dolly’s belt as you watch, Jade. 

The gesture is excruciatingly clear. Dolly is suddenly, resoundingly cut off from you, but only as long as she wants it. She could reach down and put it back on this very moment if she wanted. But does she?

***

[b]Mirror[/b]

There’s a commotion elsewhere, but it doesn’t touch the dance floor. Marcina gives Mirror a look of commiseration for a brief moment, but you get a respectful distance. The music shifts to jazz. Slow and delicate, with a building crescendo beneath it. The band fills the dance floor with a melancholy bass, the slow building of drums, and a languorous piano. 

And around you, mixing with the Hybrasilian delegation but keeping well clear of Adriana, are your family members, who have filtered in and are avoiding the rush to the hangar as well. Slates sipping a drink, Matty’s calmed down and is even speaking with excitement about something in her specialty that somebody got her talking about, and Kiriala is relaxed and watching your dance. 

[b]Isabelle[/b]
Family. That really is something. Whispered Promise has something she asked you. Does that reflect on your family, do you think?