The roar flared along her ears, caused her head to bow again, made her eyes seek the ground and not the sky, not the stars, not the beautiful heavens – because they hadn’t been enough, and as the chains of command pilfered away, disappeared, died, the world hadn’t picked them back up again. They had to dig in, to whittle away, to carve their empire out of the residual flames, out of the mountains, out of the walls they’d sculpted around their hearts (and it was such a shame to even have the threat of being removed from their summits that made her shudder; because she’d been thrown out of the cliffs and watery, misty Edge before, and couldn’t live through it again). So, she forced her cranium upwards again, to find the appropriate angle in which to stare, in which to nod, in which to bow before the deity and pledge her soul, her heart, into the world she loved the most again and again and again – smiling when Tiamat was granted a crown (and who would have known, in those days where she’d just been a girl from the sea, that she’d rise into a beautiful Queen?), grinning when Aisling was met with the same potency and power (a fairy, once a Thief, now an anointed being). Maybe, just maybe, they could find their way out of this rut, out of this hole, out of these broken, tattered remnants of greatness, and discover it again. They owed it to the Reaper. They owed it to the Time God. They owed it to the chasm of peaks, of glaciers, of caverns, that they’d made their palace long ago – it was time to step up, to fight back, to be more than just collected ash and scattered embers. “Congratulations to our new Queens!” She heralded from the grandest smile, winking at both, tying her bounty, her wares, her allegiance to the shell maiden and the fey enchanter, hoping she’d be enough for them too, and that they wouldn’t be suddenly without a world of their own any longer. A fallen, forsaken God wouldn’t persuade them. Realms would not come crashing down around them. They’d be strong. They’d persevere. It’s what they’d always done – and she pledged it, down into her marrow, down into the furthest reaches of her soul, of her virtue, of her tenacious binding, that she wouldn’t let this empire, this kingdom, down again.