Alysanne ignored the instructions to start with her wing, the rest felt more important to her. Her green eyes filled with a glossy shine as tears and her weakness boiled over and she was unable to contain it any longer. “I don’t know what’s happening to me, Iona.” She whispered in despair, knowing that if there was anyone she could share these private thoughts with, it was her sister. “I’m angry so often. It’s…” And here Alysanne cast a look around to make sure that they were without company, without ears that might catch the traitorous words that were going to spill from her. “Tembovu. I don’t trust him, and certainly not as a king.”

This was the first time she was saying it out loud to anyone aside from Tembovu himself and she hoped her sister would have a more favourable reaction. “He burned Mauja. The skin…” She couldn’t bring herself to describe the terrible sights, sounds, and smells of that night. “He was so lucky that Evangeline, Tandavi, and I were all in the area. Naerys saw it too...” She never would have wished the horror that was magma-burned flesh upon anyone, especially her young daughter who saw it burning the body of one of her friends.  

The fear that had been the drive for her anger now was laid bare before her sister and she ducked her head slightly as the tears began to well over and fall. But she would not try to hide them from Iona - they had been through so much together and so much apart and she wouldn’t waste a moment trying to dodge tears.

“He’s dangerous, he could burn down this entire forest if he wanted to, burn all of us with it, and there’s nothing I can do to stop him. He acts like a benevolent king but he’s not.” She wanted so desperately for someone to believe her, to tell her that this wasn’t all in her head. Tembovu acted as though she were the crazy one when they had gotten into an argument and she feared that he was right. But surely the sickening twist of her stomach whenever she looked at him meant something. It was a warning. The peaceful herd she had fallen in love with was fracturing all around her and it felt like no one else seemed to notice or care. “I’m afraid that when you followed me here we traded demons for monsters, Iona. And I don’t know how to fix it.”

And then, finally, Alysanne explained about her wing - shifting it slightly as though expecting it to be better but the sprain still caused a wince to crease her dark face. “We fought, I got into a spar with him and pulled the muscles in my wing. Before I knew what a monster he was. It was a mistake - I thought I was ready to learn how to defend our home but I’m not. I can't do anything.” She had seized up in fear partway through the spar, as soon as she had drawn the first bit of blood from him.