The aftermath of the raid wasn't hard to miss, especially with everyone still recovering from it. Oleander had been safe in Aphra's home, hidden there when she heard the sounds of war. It had been frightening to say the least and she had no idea that her mother had been killed during the battle. But Aphra seemed to be okay, albeit a bit shaken up; everything seemed to be slowly, very slowly, going back to normal.

What wasn't normal however was the lack of Sojourn, the Kingpin. Oleander had really only met and interacted with the Kingpin once, but she knew that Sojourn was probably busy with super-leadery stuff. But her being absent completely was strange. And so, trying to be brave and impress Aphra, Oleander went off towards Sojourn's home to try and find her. Unfortunately for her Solsken was already here, but Oleander didn't give up just yet. "Sojourn!" She called, completely oblivious to the mental breakdown that the woman was having at the moment. She idly tried to claw at the ice-wall, as if trying to uncover Sojourn.[glow=white,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

Sojourn lashed out at Solsken first, with Arvid pushing Oleander aside as an attempt to protect her from Sojourn's frenzy. Unfortunately for the scientist, he wasn't able to push her far enough to avoid Sojourn's jaws clamping around her side, pain erupting through the young dragonet's body. Oleander shrieked with pain, her blood mixing in with the slime on her body as Sojourn threw her aside. The girl was still alive, but in terrible pain. Oleander sobbed from where she landed, feeling something snap - one of her wings. She trembled where she lay, crying silently and unaware of what Sojourn was doing to herself.[glow=white,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

TRIGGER WARNING: this post mentions gore and suicide in the second paragraph

As careless as Aphra seemed to be towards her children, there was still that primal feeling of protection that she felt for them. Her ears pricked at the shriek she heard, identifying it quickly as one of the dragonets - although clueless as to which one. Still, it was enough to alarm Aphra and the she-cat came bursting out of her home, claws unsheathed. Gaze flickering around camp, Aphra located Oleander on the ground after Sojourn threw her - and it wasn't hard to assume who had lashed out at her daughter, considering the mad Queen's snarls. Aphra ran over to Oleander's side, worry in her gaze for a moment, but upon realizing that the wound Sojourn inflicted wasn't too serious (not life-threatening at the very least) she turned to face the Kingpin.

"You crazy bitch!" Aphra snarled, though immediately shut up as Sojourn started to dig into the wound she sustained from the rescue raid, followed by the woman reaching to her throat and ripped it in a swift movement. Aphra stood there in shock for a brief moment, mouth agape. The Warlord could only stare at the fallen Queen, with what Sojourn just did to herself coming as quite the shock. Aphra was faintly aware of Oleander crawling close to her, and the mother gently covered her daughter's face with her tail. Oleander didn't need to see this. None of the kids did.[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

"Gods have mercy on us all."

Enough was enough. When would it end? Surely he couldn't have been the only one to expect this ending, he knew that Sojourn was their Kingpin, expected to leas them and in turn they would follow and trust her judgement, but he hadn't. He had not trusted her ability to handle the stress of managing the remnants of the Coalition since the first breakdown he witnessed, where she threatened his safety over statues. An opinion that was not her own. Was she a horrible person in her own right? Debatable, he didn't find that he thought she was, just unstable. Very unstable. If she was capable of threatening her own over something seemingly miniscule, surely she had the capability of causing harm over something like this, where a normal, sane being would have understandably had a breakdown.

He had been too late, as per usual lately, watching with widened eyes as everything unraveled before him, both slowly and too fast to process. Arvid had managed to survive the raid, and yet was still brutally murdered in the end by Sojourn. Sojourn. Part of him insisted that Arvid should have known better, but Angel was still well aware that the Kingpin had needed attention medically and she was refusing it. Logically, it had made sense to try and make her come to her senses over her health, but Sojourn was not simply a mourning woman having a hysterical fit. She was completely unhinged.

One ending became two, just more blood for the Coalition to remember, he supposed. Two very different legacies that he knew would mean nothing in the end now. Would they survive by the end of the season? Would they put her statue in the Hall of Kings? Beside her mother, her father? Ones she destroyed?

The injured. Focus on the injured. The dead were helpless. "Oleander, we need to go." Angel offered a paw with a gentle tone laced with urgency, wary of touching her wing specifically without any ways of supporting it. The quicker to the Guru, the better. Solsken was still in there, he knew that, but he could walk, and a facial injury would only shake him up at worst he believed, the pup was tough in his own right and Oleander was still so young. Shock would be a heavy threat.

— Reggan