They came.

Somewhere, she knew they would. Somewhere, deep within the confines of her upset, gloomy mind, she knew they would come, and with them, they would bring their issues, their hangups and dirty laundry that they just couldn't keep to themselves - not even on her mother's deathbed.

A hot flush of anger washed over her as she heard the bitter tones of justice rippled across the expanse of space and time. He may not have been the first to arrive, the first to speak, but his words were the first to register in the mare's troubled mind. Amaris had always guarded her tongue - and this occasion was no different, though it took everything for her to grind her teeth as she tore her teary, golden gaze away from the corpse of her mother to look at the leopard brute, her gaze holding back nothing that she was feeling - Amaris could hide her emotions, she could train her façade to reveal nothing more than a look of stony indifference, but she chose not to - he didn't, so why should she?

He sputtered incoherently then, a question that was only half a question shouted into the realm. The golden trimmed mare watched him, watched the rate of his ribs expanding and collapsing, watched the way his eyes looked between her and her mother's corpse, she just watched and - she felt sorry for him.

Tears still trickled over her eyelids and down her face, but they were slowing, sobs weren't shaking her entire bodice as often. She allowed her attention to drift to Volterra then, gave him a polite nod and murmured quietly in her low, harmonic tones, "yes. This was the DragonHeart." There wasn't much else to say - idly she recognised that the once-colt was now definitely a stallion, and that he had another dragon - another queen bonded to him to boot. A hint, a shadow, a memory of a smile almost curved her lips as she looked at the young new queen, a fleeting thought of rightness touched her mind as she recognised that new life would always be present to replace that which left - but then more came and her thoughts were shattered once more, she was forced to return to this reality, this nightmare, this tragedy.

He was talking again, the spotted one who she had witnessed being crowned King the last time she had attended these grounds. He spoke to her mother, probably the first conversation that wasn't laced with insults and incoherently jibberish she had witnessed between Mauja and Mirage since the first war of the Edge. Her heart would have broken with his words, but hers was already shattered, already in a million pieces scattered across this realm and whichever one contained her soul-dragons. They came and went, ever-changing hues as souls from beyond came to farewell the fallen queen they had come to know through Amaris as their vessel.

Another came, and she knew this one too. Aaron, she recalled, an old guard from her youth within the confines of the Edge. Her gaze, weary in its reach now, peered at him dully, as fatigue suddenly replaced the anger, the hurt, the sadness - but these were only to be revitalised with his foolish words. But the dragonmare was not swift enough to gather her tongue to speak yet - as another arrived. He was a beastly brute, almost as tall as her father and with a seemingly similar disposition. Ears lifted from their downcast state to hear him speak - and she recognised a shift in the power of those present. This one was King - she was almost certain - she wondered if he had replaced the other King who was crowned, and was ruling alongside Mauja - or perhaps, even, she could not think fast enough - had he replaced Mauja?

Perhaps her mind was too disjointed to think coherently, or maybe the chaos of all the thoughts were what brought her to the correct conclusion - either way, her ears fell back to her skull and the dragonmare took on an appearance that was more snake-like in nature than anything else, for a moment.

"Stop-" she snapped, sharply, commanding attention with a snap of her long, serpentine tail, which crackled as the whip that would wound around it sparked angrily. "Just stop," she almost pleaded now, as she looked to each who had shown up. The mare took several moments to compose herself once more - she would do as she promised, she would, she had to, she could not fail, not even in this first step (- nor could she stop and actually process what Mauja had said before, who had died, there was names there she should know, she should care about, but she couldn't, she wouldn't, not yet, now now -). A deep breath went shakily through her, as she then broke the silence once more.

"She would have agreed with you," Amaris said first, shooting her piercing, fiery eyes towards Mauja. "About justice. She never-" a pause, a hiccough, and the mare carried on "-never wanted to inspire such hate and cause so much harm. Yet she knew what she had done - she just didn't know what to do about it either." It was the truth, as raw and blunt as the dragonmare could make it.

"She wanted to make amends - to heal the lands and souls she had helped break - but how could she? Would you have listened to her? Helped her?" It was a pointed question, and the mare let her gaze sit silently upon Mauja for as long as it took her eyes to fill with tears again. Then she blinked them away, and did her best to address the rest who gathered.

"I.. Thank you. For coming." Her words were short and emotive, her lungs stuttering again as she bent to touch on her mother's forehead one last time. "With your permission, sirs of the Edge," she addressed those who clearly resided within the lands her mother had returned to in her last moments. "I would prefer her remains are burned, so that no beast may feast upon her flesh."

[ PS: Post order is only a suggestion, to keep things moving C: ]

Daniel Schiersner @ flickr & larfsalot @ deviantart