Blacktail Deer Plateau of star & sea

it was the way of rusalka, all of this was. it had been the way since the beginning, and would be after erzulie died.
it was aningan who had brought them a lasting peace, and it was only due to the deference the harlot had for his rank, and softness for the boy himself, that quelled her ire momentarily.
raleska and the bear broke into their midst; erzulie cast a careful eye over the girl but said nothing. if raleska would not handle by force what demanded fang, then the betas would.
huā's remark had been damning; the suffering of ying was clear. her sisters had deferred to her until the last; it seemed they would allow her to become sacrifice for their own ill-deeds.
it provoked a mirthless smirk in erzulie that she kept carefully veiled, though rosalyn might see the slight ebb of tension in her body. 
the alternative to what the pair had done today was that rusalka would suddenly be bereft amid the season of children when the sisterly trio decided it was warm enough to abandon the pack that had given them succor.
better to leave now, to carve an existence from the icy waters alone, as rusalka had done. as they had all done.
a gentle lift of her lip toward reyes. erzulie would not punish her son, for in her eyes he had only obeyed the edict of their kind. pride shimmered in her heart, but for now the boy must heed aningan, must show the pallid tower that his authority here was understood. furthermore, aningan must believe that rosalyn and erzulie would bind their children to the hierarchy set. 
ying departed then; the harlot watched her go with a sense of satisfaction blossoming cold in her heart. whatever they had sought to build had been destroyed here this day, so she desired. a shame, for of them all, ying had been her favorite. 
she stepped forward then, her body's angles conducive to aningan's status, but she had only defended rusalka. was that not why she had been elevated?
in her own mind she had branded mei worthy of dispatch and torment; if she were to see the girl again, her shrieks here upon the plateau would pale in comparison to what erzulie intended to wreak. 
for now, silence, waiting upon the word of their sovereign.