Was it a terrible thing that for a time Aithne had forgotten about her once King? He had left right before the arrival of Praetor and Vesper, dashed off into the outer lands with some incredible urgency that had left her distinctly on edge. Aithne had not followed. Things had become incredibly complicated since that moment, heck even before that. The mantle of Empress was not one that she had taken lightly; she made sure to stay on top of everything that went on in her kingdom. It had been a tenuous time after her crowning but it seemed the world had moved on and the focus had shifted from the marshes and to the more docile of lands. Diveen. Once mighty and filled to the brim had fallen to an usurper but that was the way of the world. One falls, another gains, and it is a steady battle of power. Then Asteraia once more shifted paws, an ever changing land indeed, and finally Coza had stepped down to let his son rule. Times were most certainly changing.

The swamps had become almost too quiet of late. Aithne had begun to grow concerned at the missing figure of her Consul as time passed in intervals and soon that worry began to be replaced with fury. Fury that something might be keeping Raven. She was a friend, one of few for Aithne, and as such she was afforded a sort of concern that dug it's way deep into her thick bones. She had decided that morning that she would seek out Praetor to express with him her concerns and ask if he might watch over Iromar for a short time while she tried to seek out the root cause of her missing Consul. It wasn't that she didn't trust Praetor to do it but Aithne was always the type to want something done by doing it herself. Sitting back and waiting was not a thing easily done.

Such things were set in her mind as she trots across the marshland with ease, scattering a few hidden fowl without even a twitch of her ears. The only thing that draws her off course is the hacking growl that crackles across a clearing. Immediately her hackles lift, emerald eyes snapping in the direction of a very dazed and glazed looking Andras. Eyes widen in surprise, jaw opens, and she freezes in her tracks to watch him. He looks... horrid. Emaciated almost, definitely worse than the last time she had seen him, and he reeks. He reeks of death, the same death that seems to hover over him like a ominous cloud that has her fur standing on end at the affront to life.

He runs and she follows, hanging back with pricked ears until he collapses in his bone yard. It was the place that Kaius's corpse now rested, a reminder to herself as well that life was not kind. It struck her to see him laying there, legs moving and body remaining inert for a time, his piteous cry for his lost mate still reverberating in her ears.

Slowly she walks towards him, heart heavy and paws just as firm until she stands at his back. She does not help him - in fact, it could be said that Aithne was a coward in this moment. She did not want to touch him lest she infect herself. Then again if she could then wouldn't she already be sick and dead? He had been fighting this for a long time but it seemed as if Andras was finally about to lose. "Andras," she says, his name a solemn sigh on her lips, ears falling back halfway as she stares at him.

What hope did he have left? No medicines had been able to help him, time had not healed him, and it was clear that if he could make it out that he would be forever half-dead. No, there was no hope. "What do I do, Andras?" Her words are soft, not pleading but confused because she knows what she COULD do, what might even be considered right. Look at his suffering, how much easier would it be if she just.... slipped her teeth around his throat? "Do you want to be with your Lillith?"

Six - Empress of Iromar - fated for Praetor

aithne