Foggy Bottom Way [m] el mar

Valiria felt Aquillius join the struggle and was glad for his help, though she wasn’t entirely certain they shared the same purpose. She would not kill the woman, unless it became necessary. She wanted only to subdue her.

The woman’s violence was making it clear the do no harm part would be a challenge. As far as Valiria was concerned, she was doing herself the harm by resisting so aggressively. She felt her teeth tear flesh as the woman tried to wrench herself free.

She moved with her, twisting and lifting her forearms to try and wrap them around the woman’s shoulders. Liri was large and this woman small. She would use her weight to crush her opponent to the ground.

Blood roared in his ears, nostrils wedged wide to take in the smell of iron right beneath his nose.

Silvertongue’s wildly snapping teeth would catch his shoulder, briefly, but the elation would completely cover the pain of the bloodletting. Yes, rip his skin and release the foul magic of your compatriot, witch. His single eye burned with the vengeance of a thousand. So interconnected was this witch, ripping off her head wouldn’t be enough.

Then, Father spoke. He shot him an incredulous look over the bucking form of the woman, pinned to the ground by both Valiria and himself. But, as always, he released.

But, for the first time in his life, Aquillius did not listen to his father. Instead of coming to his side, he padded around to the back end of the woman. Salmon curved to clean blood from his whiskers as he wrapped himself in shadow. It was like killing a beast, he thought.

Chew through the tendon, ensure they were hamstringed, then go for the throat. His breath shuddered. Only a little more, and he would finally be free.

cornelius circled at the corner of the writhing shadows.

germanicus watched the cold glassblue eyes crease with pain but refract in hatred, and for a sickening moment he felt that he believed aquillius' shout. it condemned her as witch and had he not understood the effect of adrenaline upon a wartorn body, he might have accepted the thought in melting bitterness.

as it was, he saw valiria's arms tense in skilled hold.

but aquillius had diverged upon a mission of his own, and something unnatural burnt the remaining pupil.

a thin cry rent the air and germanicus growled forward, teeth flashing toward first son and then daughter. 

"let go."

he kept himself even at great cost, though his eyes were now wildling with guilt and anger, worry for aquillius, for it had been his own father which fed him the stories of the witch, and now — and now. "i will not see her die!" he roared at last, meaning to drive them off even if her own teeth cut into the flesh of his own forearms now, anything to see them away from this scene he had painted so long ago.

interminable. the end — she hoped. far less dignity in the shout of her enemy, demanding the eager teeth of his children spare her. no! but when he blurred her eyes, so did a sharp stab of dizzying agony ricochet through silvertongue. and then nothing, the leg rendered useless. silvertongue hurled a snap for germanicus all the same, though through the insistent buzz of hatred and war came instinct, instinct pleading with a fixed mind to live, to live against all wants and all odds. she could face no other after this; there could be only this, and the sharpfang knew its truth and its mercies and its anguish. she twisted again and again; she would force what they would not give, and if germanicus came close, bloodlet from wrist he would jerk away while her adder's bite satisfied a moment's vivid loathing.

Everything about this situation felt wrong to Cornelius—the relentless Silvertongue, the wild look in Aquillis's remaining eye, and how Germanicus failed to control the altercation. He licked his lips nervously, not knowing what to anticipate next.

He watched from the sidelines and paced nervously, unsure of how he could help here, and waited for his chance to interveneif needed.

The woman fought, and so did Valiria. She felt teeth and claws as she pushed, heard snarls and hisses, and further commands of her father. His words cut her deep, whether that had been his intent or not. It was this that loosed her grip enough that the snake was able to twist free of her teeth, though Valiria did not let up her weight.

"Nor I you!" Liri snapped at Germanicus, tears of anger and frustration stinging her eyes. She knew emotion to be her enemy in the fight, and it was no different now. She was losing grip, her movements more chaotic and thus less effective. The rattler would slip free and it would be her fault when it sank its venomous bite deep into her father.

How could he do this to her?

The black smoke of the witch curdled between his teeth, the rotten tang of her blood on his tongue. He sipped from her iron fountain, staining his teeth, his muzzle. He thought if he were to rip into his own leg, his bones would stain black. But the witch was going to die.

Soon. Soon it would be over.

Then, a betrayal.

Aquillius Redsand’s single pupil narrowed into a dot at the swing of his father’s teeth, confusion on his face as his mind rapidly tried to connect between “father” and “threat”. His jaw slacked, his ears went back, and the witch slipped from between his teeth.

Cornelius prowled like the coward he was just past their father, willing to listen to lies, unwilling to help. The witch bucked and twisted against Valiria’s hold. Blood bubbled in his nostrils as he stared at the punctures his teeth had left. Momentarily, the fog lifted.

…am I a bad person?

Then, the fog came back down, thicker this time, slamming over him like smog.

Of course not.

He slammed his weight against the back end of the witch, feeling her static invading his fur in sharp prickles. Needles to his skin, each one ignored.

Valiria screamed at Germanicus. Aquillius, bitter black-blood hatred in his eyes for the witch, just stared, not all there.

vision narrowing. aquillius would kill this woman. valiria would be injured. cornelius had ended his scuffling.

imperator once more.

and as imperator germanicus took a long step forward. silvertongue's teeth bit heavily into his wrist but he brought his other down across the back of her neck, stunning the woman into a swift darkness.

when her tense body had loosed beneath valiria, he looked to aquillius. "release her."

the three would then see their father look down upon the downed woman, the small paragon of all the sorrows combined he had ever put into the world.

he could not go back to kvarsheim. he could not go back to the valley. his mind worked in self-preservation. swiftcurrent would come back for silvertongue and his action would deepen what pain there was for riverclan.

"move. now," he ordered them, a centurion to soldiers on a battlefield sodden with an abrupt rain. deeper into the desert for now.

and when they had moved away from her, germanicus would tear his gaze aside in effort, and follow.

and not until he was far from this place would he fall to his haunches and find himself stricken with the horror, the final horror, that he had done.

the pain was immense and burned away all lasting notion of sanity. silvertongue saw germanicus as through the shadows of trees. darkened. gold. starlight, until he was crowfeather and himself both, shuddering between jagged images until she could take it no longer and struck. blood filled her mouth, and she drank it in greedy gasps from where she was pinned to the churned earth. and then blackness, at once, at once, merciful in its sudden nature.

***

she would awake to them gone, rain pattering down; her eyes would close again.

***

a second time, to fury, to agony, to the helplessness of one hind-leg. it would not move. she would not move. a scream of anger downed silvertongue into the bleak bog of senseless once more.