the more people you love
the weaker you are

The crowds disperse, but her betrayers do not wander far. Romina clutches her shaking fingers around the dagger of her anger, lingering behind where eyes will not easily find her. Lifting her ears to catch snippets of words, the dance of tongues behind gilded teeth that she will rip from each of their skulls in penance for what they had done to her. The childlike countenance that exists so purely within herself has been shoved aside for the shadows that linger like poisonous sludge around it. Overwhelming it, drowning it in the waters of her fury, her hurt. She listens, trying to cool the manic edge to her hysteria, trying to think past the emotion that physically manifests through the fire of her antlers. Romina feels akin to a bomb left untended, veritably shaking with the weight of her own tangled emotions.

Finally she cannot conceal herself any longer, the rage mounting until she is ready to tear something - somebody - apart if she does not move and take action. Long, delicate legs find steady ground that does not exist in the environment of her turbulent mind, and she manifests the sharpest, most dangerous smile she can to strike like war paint across her beautiful face.

As she approaches them, she wishes for magic. For power. The power to bring them both to their knees, groveling for her forgiveness.

"So this is where you've been, Ru'in? Dragged along by our...cousin?" There's something dangerous flirting along the edges of her frozen eyes, but as she flicks her tail delicately, she waits for the right moment. Head on confrontation will do nothing - she is too small, too young to pose any sort of threat. Even the thought of Ru'in turning on her, protecting Kiada, makes her want to vomit or throw herself from the cliff of the Edge.

A simpering face appears on her own visage, gazing at Kiada's ruined coat with a soft coo of regret curdling in her throat. "What a shame, couldn't fight them off? What a horrible gash. That's okay, my brother is quite the protector, I can see why you would be enchanted by his abilities, even if I thought you wanted to fight those battles yourself. Does your brother feel the same way? Is he just as enchanted by my twin?" And there it is, the spark of malevolence in her eyes as her grin becomes wider, showing more and more teeth even as she never truly loses her pleasant expression. It's like a warped mirror - she truly does look happy to see them, and her words at face value hold no real malice, but the cut of her eyes like raw-cut citrine gems and the narrow edges of her smile suggest something far different.

Without breaking her stare she slammed her hoof into the branch nearest to her, snapping it in two with a pleasant smile. "It's so great being together again, wouldn't you say Ru'in?" her voice slices like a knife through butter as she cuts her gaze towards him. Anger is far easier to hold onto than the banshee wailing of hurt inside her breast. "I thought you'd disappeared without a goodbye just like Kiada here!" Romina schools her face into one of a kicked puppy, a pout that pulls at her lips just so while still sticking pins as many times as she can into the filly who had once been her best friend. Who hadn't even fucking said goodbye to Romina before flouncing off to be with her family. Disappointment of disappointment, eh? It had sounded as if Rexanna was just as unfaithful as her daughter. But Romina held her tongue on that for now, burying it in a chest of every piece of information and chosen word she could use against the pair of them.

Instead she cuts her words away and smiles pleasantly, innocent as you please. "Lets clear the branches then, shall we?" I will never forgive. I will never forget what you have done here. I will make you feel what you have made me feel tenfold.

---

I MEAN, YOU ASKED FOR DRAMA, AND SHE KINDA WENT OFF THE RAILS SO CLIMB ABOARD

Romina