Darkness caressed the land with a slow hand, her breath slow and yet filled with a heaviness that echoed the oppressive atmosphere of the summit grounds. It had been this way since she had arrived, in a small group of other equines from Delumine. There was an uncertainty that tightened around the throats of everyone like a noose, threatening to strangle the very life that they had always known. As if some of them weren’t already dead. It had not helped any to feel the earth shake with such force that it had sent her to her knees, and to watch as the great doors that had closed their nation’s leaders behind them become blocked with stone.

She had felt the palpable panic that had surged with the realization that the four courts’ regimes were trapped, or in the worst case dead. The people had come in droves, watching with frightened eyes to behold the sight of the rubble. Even Soleil could not hide her fear, the concern clearly etched into her fine features. What did this mean? What had happened in there? She had waited, merely an observer -- watching as others tried to dig their way into the rubble. If their leaders were gone, what would this mean? Fear had kept her away from the small crowd beginning to form, flashes of the chaos that had followed Zolin’s death looping through her mind like a film.

It was when she was sure that she could smell the smoke, feel the very heat of flame against her skin that she had turned and fled. It was all too much, and she could not afford to be caught in the midst of another rebellion. She had only returned when word had reached them that the Sovereigns and their Regimes were unscathed, appearing out of the forest. Relief had filled her like a breath of fresh air, and the way that her skin had trembled could finally be still. Her weakness was so evident that she was disgusted.

She adjusted the ivory fabric resting against gilded skin, pulling it closer to defend against a particularly bitter wind. She could feel the sting of it in the scrapes that covered her knees and ankles, not quite yet healed over from her fall. Leaden-blue eyes were focused on her route ahead, coming back to the place she had abandoned hours ago -- her lip curling back in a sneer of contempt at her response. She wanted to understand why the terror had so easily gripped her. Would it not have been a good thing for the Sovereigns and their regimes to perish? Would that not help further her goals to see Solterra returned to its former glory?

No She thought, as she stepped up the crumbled rock that hid the place where the great doors had stood. Her teke brushed gently over the stone, it’s cragged edges continuing to crumble where she touched them. She wanted to know just what had occured in there, and if the gods were really speaking to the populace again. The blonde shifted her weight, tossing a glance over her shoulder to the darkness behind the trees. Someone was there. She thought quietly, though she couldn't be sure. Something though, an inner sense, warned her to be cautious.