Northstar Vale It's just a lightyear and a day

The Duchess had a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders, her pups, and what was going on in the Empire with Takeshi, and Reiko not doing her job. So Vespera Yuudai and Collison had to take matters into their own hands and fix the problem that Reiko created. Honestly, if she didn't have her pups, she would have left the Empire because she just didn't want to deal with this again, maybe she could have started her own pack. But yet again, she couldn't keep running forever, she couldn't leave the Empire like this with the dictator like Takeshi, perhaps she should have done more with Greyback. The dark woman flared her nose and furrowed her brows as she once again stepped away from her pups to clear her head, she just couldn't have these negative and pessimistic thoughts while around her newborns. She didn't want them growing up like her.

As the Duchess continued on her path, the smell of fresh blood hit her nose like a foul stench, but what could it be? She craned her head up and picked up her pace to a gallop to investigate, was it dead prey? Was it a dead wolf? With Yuudai gone, more things could happen so she had to carry extra duties with her friend gone. The scent grew stronger as she bounded within the Vale to get a closer look at what it was, but what she saw was something that she wasn't expecting. 

Reiko's blood was spilled on the floor with cuts deep within her.

Vespera stopped in her tracks with her face growing both concerned and shocked, what happened? Did she fall in some thorns? But another twitch of her nose revealed that the rat himself was here. It didn't take a detective to know why she was in a state like this. The dark woman took a deep breath and approached slowly with a more concerned face than the last time the two women looked at each other, "Rei?... What happened?" Her voice was cautious since she expected the Empress to lash out against her based on their last encounter.