Blackwater Islands sunset on a warm summer's eve

Akantha draws herself up to her full height and looks down at Kalika who prostrates herself in a display of extreme submission. The pink of her tongue lashes anxiously across her lips, and the motion placates Akantha's fury just enough to prevent the Matriarch's teeth from seeking her subordinate's flesh. She allows her to reclaim the steps and remains motionless, but brimming with restrained energy. Her hazel eyes bore into Kalika's brow as if searching for the truth trapped behind the woman's skull, but it spills forth anyway, summoned by the fury of the Matriarch.

The explaination, and the vow, do not fall on deaf ears. Akantha visibly begins to relax as Kalika goes into further detail, and places the Nereides before her own needs and desires. She exhales and, with it, the tension laced across her shoulders. Her hackles still bristle, and her tail still hovers high above her hips, but her face doesn't twitch with anger and her legs do not ache to consume the distance between them.

When she finally spoke, her voice was low but her tone was raw with repressed emotion. "I've told him and I will tell you: we do not love our Consorts." She explained with an idle growl of disquiet. "The Mothers word is law, and I am her voice. You will not have any further relations with that boy. Are we clear?" A small part of her hated having to impose her rule, and their traditions, upon her well-meaning sister. But she feared losing grip on them if she did not remain firm. It was a difficult line to traverse, and Akantha was having difficulty accepting it.