The sky is awash with vibrant colors; a dancing array of patterns spreading itself in intricate detail across the heavens. The twin suns dance their way along the horizon, locked in their eternal battle to catch the other, to know their love requited, touching almost at dusk and dawn, only to be kept out of reach again by the rise of the moon between their out stretched rays.  

Their dancing light stops short of reaching within the grove in which Numbian stands, his deep grey skin blending into the shadows around him, the darkness a perfect companion for both his mood and intentions. He lifts the Onlin crystal between two fingers, holding it up to the dim light filtering down between the branches of the Fulon trees, admiring how it sparkles, even in the confines of the forest. “So much worth,” he sighs, “to part with it, even if it is from my Empresses fortune, with no hope of reclaiming it, seems such a waste.” He lowers the crystal, squeezing it tight in his palm, as if to crush it, a deep imprint forming around the gem. “No…this is but a small price to pay for revenge, so cunningly planned.”

“You look sad my love,” The confident voice floats across the empty grove as Lena steps from within the dim foliage, the light silver powder spread over her pale blue skin sparkles slightly, catching the stray rays of light that struggle to penetrate the gloom of the glade. Reaching up, she places a hand tenderly against his face, gently tracing the angular line of his jaw, her hand running down his chest slowly as she looks up at him with lustful blue eyes. “To look sad, in such a place, when the fates have been so generous; I have gone from prisoner to Empress, my sons are Princes once more, and soon will I have the destruction of my precious sons murderer. Truly my love, this is a time for passion, not melancholy. So come, show me how you love me.”

Numbian takes her slender hand in his, removing it from his chest gently, but firmly, as he brushes his lips against the soft blue flesh. “There are greater desires to fulfill this day my Empress; revenge. Today, do you get the first of your revenge against Sorin.” Bending down in one fluid motions he places the crystal in a small black bag and buries in the ground, easily accessible again, but not visible on casual observation,  before rising to his feet again. “Soon Jonas will be dead, his lady love ravished and destroyed in mind and body, and Sorin’s sons, all will take the blame.” Withdrawing a memory sphere from within his black jacket he hands the sphere to her, “now please love of my heart, take this mechanism of my plot to your new Emperor.”

Lena leans forward, kissing him softly, her lips brushing against his with passionate longing. “Oh my sweet love!”

“Please, my darling lady, you must go. I shall find your sons to aid in this plot, but you must return back to the Emperor, before you are missed. Your freedom is still new, and while his eyes are tinted with lust of your body, do not taunt the fates.” He smiles slightly at her, then turns and vanishes into the forest, off to find her sons to further their treacherous ploy.

Jonas and Daxia emerge from along the winding path, stepping into view as Numbian leaves Lena’s side, a slight look of triumph in Jonas’s silver eyes as he looks to the Empress. “Who now? Empress of my brothers heart?” He smirks at her, “No, I think it is Tonlan, come down from her bloody throne to view the kill.”

“Oh, but that I was the Goddess! I would punish you where you stand, bother me as you do.”

Daxia shakes her head, violet hair swaying, her voice silken as it passes through slender lips, “I am pleased our Lord Emperor is not here, to see you as such, what a fool he has been taken for!”

“Then tell me good Queen,” Jonas’s voice drips with sarcasm, “What then, if not foul treachery, deceit and adulterous intent has brought you out here alone with Numbian?”

“This hunt is obvious Empress, in your response to my own love,” she glances at the Empress and then puts a pale purple hand on Jonas’s, “but let us be going, you may enjoy your sport, this grove fits your intent well enough I think.” She motions to the dark grove with a slender hand, her implication clear.

Jonas wraps a long arm around Daxia as he looks to the Empress. “The Emperor, my very own beloved brother, shall hear of your affair and you will end up where you belong; back in a cell with the other space trash.”

“How wrong you have done our great Emperor! To lie with such filth as that mercenary,” distain in Daxia’s black eyes, “while you warm his bed! Tell me, did you wait a whole night to return to your lover’s arms after you were married, or did you leave the Emperors bed still warm from your body?”

Lena puts a hand to her chest, “Give me strength to endure such vial accusations and lies, and from my own brother-in-honor and his future wife, the most noble Sorin’s own daughter!”

Delonx and Montux stop short as they enter the grove, their laughter dying on jovial blue lips as they look to their mother. Delonx steps forward with concern, his boots crushing dried twigs with a audible ‘snap’ as he moves. “Why do you look so pale mother?”

“I have good cause to look pale my sons. These two,” she motions violently towards Lena and Jonas, “have lured me here, to this disserted place, and what’s more, they have told me gruesome tales of Ghoulux monsters, fires, and thorns, and after telling me such tales as none should hear, they told me they would tie me up, here, to this very tree,” she points to a large tree beside her, twisted and gnarled with age, “and there leave me to the fates, until I was dead and my body beyond recognition, such is their hate of me, who has done nothing but love their great Emperor!” She lifts a hand to her face, as if to wipe a tear. “They called me a whore, an outcast, trash, and names I shall not repeat in the hearing of you, my sweet sons,” lifting her eyes to them, “had you not, by fates chance, found your way here now, they surely would have killed me.” She looks to them, her face shifting to cold and calculating. “If you love me, you will avenge me honor, or be not my spawn anymore.”

Delonx, without hesitation, steps forward, the shinning crystal blade in his hand reflecting the pale light as he thrusts his hand violently into Jonas’s stomach, slick blue blood runing down the blade to stain the hand of his attacker. “This is how I love you mother.”

Montux steps behind his brother, his own blade thrusting forward into Jonas with spite. “And I mother, love you as only a son can.”

“You are a treacherous whore!” Daxia cries out in pain as she watches Jonas double over, his slick blood covering his once golden shirt, as he holds his stomach in shaking hands, even as he is stabbed over and over by Delonx and Montux, intent on showing their love for their mother through the violence they inflict on him.

“Give me your blade, I shall avenge my own honor.” She steps towards Daxia, a smile on her lips, murderous intent in her blue eyes.

“No mother, do not, let us, there is more to take of her then her life. Did she not scorn you because of her own virtue and honor?” Montux looks to her, a grin on his lips, a gleam in his eyes. “You cannot let her take these shields with her to the grave, no, let us remove her armor first.”

“And should she live to tell of this?”

“She will not most honored and adored mother.”

Delonx laughs with delight as he wraps strong arms around Daxia. “Come on little Daxia, show us your purity.”

Struggling to break free of the cold grip around her body, she turns pleading eyes to Lena. “Please Majesty, as a woman, do not do this!”

“Take her away to your pleasure.” Lena responds coldly.

“Lena, I beg you, do not do this! For my fathers sake, he, who spared you life when he could have taken yours, do not do this I say!”

“It is for hatred of your father I say; use her well! The worse you do to her, the more you prove your love for me my sons. Remember, when I begged for your brothers life, how coldly her father turned away, so now, I turn away, take her and enjoy your sport!”

“I beg you sweet Empress, kill me with your own hands!” Daxia struggles forward, bending over Delonx’s arm as she reaches a hand towards Lena.

Arching a brow, “And why should I do this?”

“I died when Jonas died,” she flickers her grief filled eyes to the body on the forest floor, “please, do not give me this fate worse then death, let me die with my virtue, spirit me away, never to be found or given proper rites, I do not care, but do not leave me to this torturous end!”

“And deny my sons of the pleasure of your body Daxia? You must think me far kinder then I am. No, your fate is your own, and so shall my sons have their way, and with my blessing.”

Montux kicks the body of Jonas into the pit at the edge of the grove, there for just such a use, by the careful planning of Numbian.

“Enough of this, I hunger!”

Montux grins at his brother as he grabs Daxia’s feet, unfazed by her struggles as they move out of the grove with their prize.

Looking around at the now empty grove Lena runs a finger over her lips and smiles, “Mmm…now shall I seek my lover and my own sport, while my sons enjoy theirs.” Glancing around once more, with no pause at all for the pit, or the body within, she moves away from the grove, back into the darkness of the forest.