To say the lost alliance bothers Illynx would be a bit of an overstatement; it irritates her, that the allies won by the Empress have done nothing to improve her already dismal opinion of them. When she’d first heard of the events, she couldn’t truly be bothered to speak at all on the matter – they were a mixed breed herd, and their leader, Apollo, had always been too soft of a man to associate with such fiends as her kin of the mountain. There had been a benefit of the doubt given, that these new comrades might aide them when it was needed, but the war that had been waged against the foal stealers was lost before it ever began.

The unicorns had expected their allies to come, as they had promised. Perhaps she had missed them during their charge into the Edge, but from her memory, all that came to mind were those wearing horns, far out numbering their “friends” from the Foothills and the slim number that did arrive no where near the promised number of soldiers.

Overall, she felt more contempt for them over the experience, but was not bothered that the Basin stood alone. An temporary truce was settled between their numbers and that of the Edge, which the mare was relatively sure would protect them well enough from any advances of the Throat. The close tied sisterhood of the two filthy herds drew rancor onto the tip of her tongue, made her heart writhe and bend into itself, for without one another, they were both quite weak to the attempts of sovereignty the unicorns placed upon them. Together, they were too strong, though their union was of use in times of peace; more often than not, one herd would not move without the other.

Illynx found comfort in this. Perhaps it was wrong to think so – but she had few other options on which to settle her worries, and either way, the most recent scuffles between the three had only been for the cause of the children that had been stolen away. The Gilded Blade figured as to why the horses of the misty wood had decided to do so, of course, but found little point to the consequences given to her kin for the acts of a few.

A few who had been unrelated to the children that they had targeted, and all that the kidnappings had managed to do was sour the affairs between all involved groups further and making their Doctor vanish into the wilderness in search of his kids. For all the Qian’s blabbering on about being peaceful and wise, Illynx found that the simple act of stealing children in exchange for murder was the dumbest thing she’d encountered in her political career – at least since Deimos was chosen above Psyche to rule.

She was half tempted to take one of the little fuckers from their mothers, to see how the Edge liked their children being subjugated to punishments drawn from acts committed by adults.

Pulled from her thoughts by the sickly nurturing tones of Zuriel, her brow rises in a high arch and she half snorts and half laughs in response to her vapid reply. "Take no offense, darling, for your words hold much logic," she croons, "but I will bend no knee to those who cannot keep their word. I assume you’ve heard of our little… invasion attempt, hm? The Foothills promised much more than they actually provided. Their contract was falsified from the beginning." Her smile is sharp and her patience is wearing thin with this subject. That she has to explain herself and the political bounds of her home so in depth with a woman who seemed to only know who to call Lady and who to call Lord makes her mildly irate (just who the hell does she think she is?), though she covers it in her usually glimmering and vain smirks and falsities. When it jangles into the mention of diplomacy, her answer is swift and without hesitation. "As far as the Edge – we currently hold a temporary truce. The Lord was to see about discussing it with the Dragonheart this season, but it would seem our…dearest neighbors have had internal struggles themselves."

Portray me as a fool now, bitch, she thinks to herself, now that you have proven you only know fragments of the truth. She leaves out mention of attempts being made to contact outcast bands and to further repair the damages done between their nefarious kind and that of the home stealers. The white mare is undeserving of such kindness, now that the woman has made it quite clear she is only digging for flaws in the guarded armor of the Lady, and Illynx finds that the longer the conversation continues, she gains both curiosity and distaste for the other.

Illynx could sense a snake when it was curling around her legs. She just hoped the snake didn’t know that she noticed, to provide her long enough to decide if the reptile should simply be killed or kept as an elegant accessory.

"I desire possession of a certain woman," she states, barely managing to contain her exasperation at the rudeness of Zuriel's gestures and body language, knowing that she must walk delicately after the… horrendous events at the herd meeting, "and if she treats the other groups with as much common sense as she did myself and our entryway, we won’t be the only ones trying to find her." She pauses, letting her golden eyes bore into Zuriel for a moment before she reinstates why it is that the woman is unsuitable. It was not entirely a jab at the myriad horned dame’s ego – while Illynx was not always the most patient or well planned, she did have the ability to think when it was worth her time, and when she did, it led to results. "A novice cannot find a bitch who is hiding from a thousand eyes, and remaining hidden."

The conversation is moving again, onto Emissaries and consulates. At this point, the woman grows weary of explaining this all in such detail, the tiny nuances that she is unsure why this wench has such a desire to know. It is only a matter of time until she figures out whatever it is that has a spy probing about in political matters, however, and so she will appease the egotistical white unicorn for the time being. After all, they are kindred spirits; both covetous, both beautiful and dangerous.

Her soft smile does not falter, though she chuckles softly as one does a child who endlessly throws questions at their elders and at the irony of how her next statement would correlate with Zuriel’s about their less-than-loved status among the other kingdoms of Helovia.

"Our last few promotions of Emissaries resulted only in those members vanishing," she says quickly, but pauses to catch the rest of the mare’s words with her lightly humored smile still lingering on her lips.

Ah, finally something you have a place discussing, she thinks, an endeavor worthy of a viper such as yourself. She had to admit that the idea of a spy among the enemy numbers was truly endearing, and her grin broadens and gains the same wolfish gleam as it had at the mention of finding Confutatis.

"Would you be this most amiable friend of our enemies?" she asks, a slight giggle breaking from her in sheer delight of the idea of knowing what was going on behind their walls.

[ OOC: Wth I'm sorry it's a novella Charks. :| *punches Illynx in eye* lol ]