kate attains adren.

[Honor's Compass] There's little fanfare this time when she seeks Maelstorm's Grand Elder out.

She comes to him in old jeans; worn yet fashionable paired with a thigh length fur-trimmed coat (fake, of course; white, of course) the hood lowered to allow her thick mane to fan over her shoulders in a becoming wave of pale perfection. She seeks him out, crosses toward one of the old hangers in the Caern with its rust and blood scents and its softly creaking roof; her boots crunching down over dried earth.

Turned and renewed with the blood of Garou come and gone.

They built this Caern, those long gone soldiers; with their lives. Sometimes the knowledge frightens her, to consider it her shared fate, one day. Still, tonight; quiet, clear with a cool hint in the air suggesting the seasons still battled.

"Rhya."

She greets him quietly; her hands in pockets; her eyes pale as frozen water. "I've come to challenge you for Adren."

[Balance Without Fault] It's not often that anyone in the Sept witnesses the Grand Elder honing the physical side of his nature. That's precisely what he's doing now, though: an ironwood staff in hand, stepping through near-ritual forms, strikes and stances with the smooth precision of long practice. It looks like wu shu, if Katherine would know the difference. Unsurprising that a Glass Walker, of all Garou, would know of human martial arts.

When the Silver Fang speaks, the Grand Elder turns. The staff spins to a silent, perfect standstill, held behind his hand, flush to his arm. Balanced as his name, the Garou whose human name none of them know considers his auspicemate for a moment. Then he holds out one hand, inviting her into the hangar.

When she steps in, Balance Without Fault paces out a few yards. He swings his staff down, the metalcapped head striking the soft ground with a small puff of dust. Slow, methodical, he moves in a slow circle around Katherine, inscribing a challenge ring into the ground without speaking a word.

The circle completed, he joins her within it.

"I accept your challenge," he says. And, "You attempted a challenge before this one, did you not? Why do you think you failed?"

[Honor's Compass] She is quiet, watching the Glass Walker's smooth movements before he notes her; before her voice disrupts. He draws a circle around her body and his own, and she smiles, briefly. She knows the answer before he speaks.

Takes a moment before answering.

"The Sept I challenged at was my father's, -rhya. I think I as much went to challenge as I went to confront the ghost of what I had built in my memory as my father's legacy. What I found," she pauses, her eyes wandering before returning to his face; the sheen of sweat she can see on his brow from his physical routine; the dust raised from drawing the circle.

"Was I was challenging myself, more than anyone. I became too focused on winning the day, I was so certain that if I won the rank he did not that somehow I would have proven everyone, his pack-mate that I challenged, myself, my father's memory, wrong.

That the Bellamontes could endure on.

I didn't consider what I was there to solve. I wanted quick answers, not solutions to what I was posed to correct. I believe I failed because, rhya, quite simply, I failed to perceive myself in going there to begin with."

[Balance Without Fault] "And then you failed the challenge as well."

So quickly the conversation descends to cutting questions -- on the border of cruel. Perhaps beyond. And Balance Without Fault is eerie in his composure here, in the challenge ring, not so much the master of the challenge as its very embodiment. Cold -- impartial -- without empathy.

"Does that prove that your father's line will fail? That the Bellamontes will not endure?"

[Honor's Compass] "Yes, I did."

There is open acceptance in Katherine's voice; it does not turn when the elder before her does, sliding behind the confines of his auspice, of their shared auspice. She knows the why, settles to endure the how of his testing.

She breathes out slowly, a hand emerges from a pocket briefly to push hair from her vision, slides back. "My family's name will endure, rhya, in the human sense of the word. My brother has a daughter; I have a niece. Somewhere, in the world, my sister is at large.

Should she breed, I may have another. Perhaps if I live long enough, I too might add to our dwindling numbers. But when I speak of the Bellamontes enduring I also mean our impact on the Nation. My father, Grey Claws, was a fine warrior. He was a noble leader, his name is still spoken at the Sept of Rising Steel with that glimmer of respect all of us wish to hear. Hope, to hear, some day from a young Cub, or Cliath."

She lifts her thin shoulders in an elegant shrug.

"That day, failing the challenge I thought, yes, my father's line, spiritually, will end. Our legacy will be forgotten, countless Garou, rhya, rise and fall for generations without ever really making an impact that will last.

Without their names being remembered as tokens of inspiration, or courage.

My elder brother is a good man, a loyal mate and I honestly believe he would die to protect those he loves, but he is not, and never was, the type to make an impact. He will leave descendants, but it will be up to me to keep our family name strong.

Perhaps that sounds ridiculous, -rhya but for my tribe, for what I know in my heart, it is a very real fear."

She falls quiet a moment, adds, softly.

"I think I shall do whatever is in my power to keep that from happening. But it should not come at the expense of neglecting what I was sent here to do and why Gaia made me what I am."

[Balance Without Fault] "And what is it that you were sent here to do? What has Gaia created you for?"

[Honor's Compass] "A Philodox is to judge, to weigh both sides of a dilemma, Balance Without Fault-rhya. We have one of our feet firmly planted in logic and the other in the shadow of the unknown. We are the ones who are expected to remember when all others do not why we have laws and why they are to be abided by.

But we are also here to be the advisers, the voices of consideration in times where there is none. We are the peacekeepers, the steady hands for our Septs, our packs and on occasion, others of our auspice."

A beat, Honor's Compass mulls over her thoughts a moment, placing them.

"I was sent here to help guide my pack. To council them when they had need, but also to become a better Philodox. Luna blessed me with my auspice, rhya, but it is through Gaia that I found my way here, and that I will continue to be shaped by. She has a destiny for me that I must fulfill and I shall know the day by which I have done so by her -- for that will be the day I die.

And, should I not die for five years, twenty-five years, rhya I will know there is more I am yet to do, to know, ways I must discover to shape myself a better Half Moon, a stronger Warrior for Gaia."

[Balance Without Fault] "To judge," Balance Without Fault repeats, meditative. "To counsel. To be living examples of the Law.

"Tell me, Honor's Compass. Have you ever broken the Law?"

[Honor's Compass] Katherine frowns, her silence evidence of her quick mind running, one can almost imagine, through each of the laws of their people, measuring, weighing her life's actions against it. "How exact shall I be, Rhya, for in general terms, no, I do not believe that I have broken the Litany in my life. But then, it is such a thing of argument and interpretation.

Were you to ask many, they would assure you that I, and all Silver Fangs by lieu of our bloodline alone are a walking breach of the tenth tenet: Do Not Suffer Thy People To Tend Thy Sickness." A brief, dry smile. "I believe I have had occasion to be ... over-bearing, on those beneath me, my Kin, for example. But never out of a lack of respect, at least not deliberately so. I would find it hard to place a Garou who has never struggled with their own nature in regards to obeying that tenet."

A beat, she quiets.

"I once entered into a fox frenzy, rhya, and ran from battle. In doing so, I did fail to battle the Wyrm where it lay. So, yes, there have been times when I believe I have trespassed against it. But never intentionally, never blatantly with a knowing disrespect for it."

[Balance Without Fault] "I agree," Balance Without Fault remarks, which surely must be a relief. "In all these years, I have never witnessed you outright break the Litany in this Sept."

Pause.

"But how can you judge those who have broken the Litany if you yourself have not?"

[Honor's Compass] "How can a judge in any human court room know the right decision to make when presented with a man who has taken another life; how does the jury know which witness speaks truth and which misleads when they were not present at the time the act was committed, Rhya?

I do not need to have experienced a misdeed to be able to label it so, this is why we were given our gift to see falsehood from truth, to perceive what is right and just from what is wrong, and against good sense, and reason. We ourselves observe our people, and learn from history and experience what it means to fairly judge someone on their actions."

[Balance Without Fault] "How do you define fair judgment, Honor's Compass? And have you ever judged anyone unfairly?"

[Honor's Compass] "As impartial and balanced as we are supposed to hold ourselves, Rhya, it is inevitable in any circumstance that one or another party may see our definition of fair as unfair. How are we to know, truly, without a mirror or outside opinion to hold against our decisions whether or not there truly is a catchall definition for fair judgment, whether we have in fact, judged another poorly.

Have I always been impartial in matters? No, I can stand here and say I am certainly not that honorable, no matter what the spirits say of late. I have slipped, and fumbled before. Judged a situation without extending the effort to know the people well enough."

She breathes out.

"Fair, Rhya, is being able to stand in a situation like this, before yourself, and say there was no other outcome to be had. There was no desire for the outcome but that there be one and that those involved walk away feeling as if no matter the decision they had been heard, and their side, their challenge, their ... whatever it might be, considered carefully."

[Balance Without Fault] "Let's get specific, Katherine." For the first time, her human name: and with it, a step forward, a physical analog to the new hardening in the Grand Elder's tone. "Let's shed these broad strokes and philosophical party-lines.

"Tell me one situation, one specific example, where you did do your duty to your own satisfaction. Where you looked back on what you had done -- judgment or counsel -- and realized you had not lived up to your own potential."

[Balance Without Fault] [sorry -- did NOT do your duty to your own satisfaction!]

[Honor's Compass] There is color that rises, briefly, in the Silver Fang's face.

Certainly it indicates she finds the question troubling, and potentially embarrassing, yet she rises, as does her chin as she meets the elder Garou's eyes and says, with a sort of unflinching honesty. "The night before our former Ahroun Elder, Bones to Dust perished, she came to speak to me, to gain my advice on a troubling situation she found herself in with an Oak Tree spirit.

It was being tempted into darkness by a minion of the Wyrm and Marrick was requested to return to speak to it and to somehow sway it from that path alone, without any other companions. I advised her to at least return with the wisdom of a Theurge, not to go back alone, unprepared.

I felt confident that she heard me, that my Council was sound. But later, after news spread that Bones to Dust had died in a battle, there came word that the Oak Tree Spirit, angered or perhaps simply too weary to fight the Wyrm's offers to it had let itself become tainted. Contaminated.

I have often felt that I owed Marrick more than what I gave her, and that I owed her the duty of doing more than feeling sorrow over what became of that spirit. I think that I failed her, Rhya. I gave her offhand advice, which may have proved helpful, but I did not follow through on it. I let the Wyrm win."

[Balance Without Fault] A few nights before, when Katherine came to Balance Without Fault and told him she had had enough of being the Master of the Challenge, had had enough of the pettiness and the thanklessness and all of that crap, there had been empathy and compassion in the Grand Elder's eyes. There is none there now. There's nothing there,

but judgment.

"And why didn't you follow through on this matter? Why -- knowing Bones to Dust was dead, knowing she may not have completed her mission before that death -- did you not go yourself to this oak of hers?"

[Honor's Compass] "I do not believe, in all honesty, Rhya, there is a reason I could give that would not just be an excuse. I had troublesome Kinfolk to deal with, I had duties as Half Moon elder occupying my time -- not, apparently, my duty to Marrick -- I had pack to aid with their own problems."

She does not smile, or offer a shallow turn of her face, a toss of her hair. She is, she seems, quite abashed.

"I did not follow through on it, because I let myself forget and in forgetting, I let Bones to Dust down. I cannot make amends for it."

[Balance Without Fault] A slight, slight reaction: a tip of Balance Without Fault's chin upward, half a nod at best. Then the Grand Elder paces past Kate, the staff swinging silently behind his back, gripped in both hands, level to the ground.

How long has she been here? A matter of moments, perhaps. Surely not more than half an hour. Others have begun to gather, though -- rumors spreading. She glimpses the shadow of the Ragabash Guardian. Balance Without Fault's packmate. Spirits in the eaves, on the wind. Watching, all watching.

Balance turns:

"We are judges, counselors, and leaders. The Garou Nation looks to its Philodoxes to lead in times of peace. You lead your Auspice. You seek the rank of Adren, which is a high rank in this Sept. A rank of leadership. You were born to the Silver Fangs, whose claim to kingship has stood largely uncontested until very, very recent times.

"You were born a leader, and you seek the rights and duties of ever greater leadership. And if I recall, for a time you were the Alpha of your pack, which ran under a different totem then.

"If I recall, you deposed your own brother, Edward Bellamonte, Silver Jester, for that position."

One hand comes forward, palm up, a gesture of invitation. Behind his back, the staff remains level.

"I want to hear your thoughts on this piece of history."

[Honor's Compass] This takes Katherine some time to answer. It is not because she can sense eyes, watching her now. It is not because she is still ashamed of the story she just recounted for her auspice elder. It is, quite simply, because there is a great deal to this piece of history Balance Without Fault wishes to hear of, and she is not sure quite where best to begin to tell it.

For a brief moment, Katherine yearns for the comfort of Sinclair's presence; the steadiness of her eyes, her familiar face. For a moment she sees her Alpha in her mind's eye as he has been since Asha's death; tired, shadowed by his own grief. She nips, in thought, at her lip and then retrieves her hands from her pockets, clasps them behind her back as she has done a dozen times or more in the midst of moderating a challenge during their Moots.

Only this time, she is answering the questions to another.

"To tell this story rightly, Rhya, I must first explain how my family has been for a great many years. I must explain that Silver Fangs, especially those of a historically traditional family line such as my own have a very particular idea of how leadership and loyalty go. My brother was the first born child, he was, and is, our Heir. He inherited a great many things from this position, including the responsibility for being the first child to bring a wealth of respect and prestige to us.

He went to the best schools, was groomed in proper Court etiquette as I was myself, in the glamor of European cities. We dined with Royalty, and were introduced to Queens and Kings before we even knew what we were to become."

A beat; Katherine falls quiet for a moment, re-living, perhaps, those days and nights in Paris, in Belgium. Curtsying before the Queen of a House, being labeled a little doll by a King. "But he did not want to become a Garou, in many ways had he never changed he might have gone a completely different route. But change he did, and I only a year or so after him. My Uncle, a harsh, unforgiving Kinfolk had long had control of our family business; and our lives. He tried to bend my brother to his will, but Edward refused and left for college.

I am ... I was, less willing to fight when my Uncle suggested to me that my role was to follow Edward no matter what, to become his Beta, as well as sister. If he would not be a willing leader, my Uncle educated that I should shape him into the role and at the time, Rhya, I thought he had a point. I felt sure that Edward could not refuse his born role forever.

After we made our pack, and came here to Chicago, both myself and my pack-mate Wyrmbreaker began to feel a sense of stifling neglect from Edward. He had always had a tendency toward indulgence, and wandering off for days at a time but here, the pressure was more.

We were not in college, or barely ranked Cliaths. We were here to make Maelstrom stronger. To make something of ourselves."

There's a slight suggestion of a smile here, at the edge of Katherine's mouth, recalling herself; her pack-mates. "Silver Jester began to get worse, not better. He was letting our pack drift apart, letting concerns drive wedges in our bond. Had he addressed the issues, had Lukas not been so set that I needed to step into my brother's shoes--" Hesitation, a flicker of some emotion in the pale eyes.

"Had my own ambition not also been in play, Rhya, I might never have deposed Edward. But the pack was in disarray, we had no clear idea of leadership, only the idea of who our Alpha had been. So, I challenged my brother, beat him and took control of the pack.

Speaking of it now, I think it was too soon for such a step for myself, personally. But the decision to remove Edward from Alphaship I would do again. To be a leader, Rhya, a true leader, you sometimes have to do the worst you can, before you can do the very best."

[Balance Without Fault] Katherine speaks. At length, and from the heart. With unflinching honesty -- no matter who was watching, who might hear.

In essence, she behaves the Silver Fang Philodox: honest, honorable. A compass by which others seek honor; a meridian by which others measure their own worth.

Yet after all that has been taken in, digested, filed away without so much as a ripple -- there is only another question.

"You admit that the urging of Edward's Beta and your own ambition led you to seize power from your brother. You admit that you were perhaps not ready for this leadership -- which I suspect is a reference to the fact that you soon thereafter lost that leadership, vanished from our city for a time, and threw your pack back into disarray for a time before White Eyes took control, and after her death, Wyrmbreaker.

"Yet you stand here and tell me that you do not regret deposing Edward. Clarify that for me. How is it that less-than-pure motives and less-than-sterling results can equal a just act in your mind?"

[Honor's Compass] "My brother would have eventually left us, Rhya, as he in fact, did, for some time. We feared it was Harano, that being demoted in the pack's ranking stripped some core element from him. He would have made grave errors, given time. I am harsh."

A beat.

"I am harsh to speak so of someone I love, and do admire, but my own actions, however badly laid out they were, however they turned out in the long run, they were necessary, Rhya. I stepped down when I realized my error, when I knew that I was not ready to lead the pack. I came back, and I bowed to my pack-mate.

In war, in our very structure, we are creatures, Rhya, who challenge. Who pit ourselves against great and grave odds. We do not always see the foolish steps that lead us to stumble in doing so. I can stand here and say I was cruel, and underhanded because it was the role I had to play.

Not every act we commit as advisers, or leaders, can be done without making a sacrifice along the way. Mine was that of my honor, for a period. I believe I have made amends for my bad judgment, then. I have stood with my pack long, and without flinching, since."

[Balance Without Fault] "You have," the Grand Elder observes, "indeed stood faithfully and unswervingly behind your Alpha since.

"Even when he struck out against your own Tribesman, a Cliath you, as Tribal Alpha, bore responsibility toward. Even when Wyrmbreaker struck down this Cliath and killed him, you did not resume control of the pack. Not for a year, not for a month, not even for a day.

"Why?"

[Honor's Compass] Mention of Fons van der Noot brings the faintest mar to the Half Moon's brow. It is the height however, of evidence to Katherine's feelings about the Galliard one way or another. She does not even allow a sense to seep into her voice; despite the well known fact that Honor's Compass had carried two bodies back to Belgium and faced the wrath of a King.

She had not left unscathed, either.
Rumor told she bore a silver scar on her belly from the trip.

"My Alpha was provoked, Rhya, by my tribes-mate. Fons van der Noot did not possess, as you yourself recall, the best track record when it came to honor and an honest tongue. He led himself, in large part, to his own untimely end. I did not blame Lukas for what happened, I was his tribal Alpha, and it was only proper that I take responsibility for his actions.

I myself dealt the punishment rite on my Alpha, and bore my Cousin back to his family. It was a dark time, but there was never an instant when I believed my Alpha to be incapable of leading our pack. Had he run from his actions, had he not accepted his own loss of control then perhaps I could say differently.

But he never gave me a moment's doubt."

[Balance Without Fault] "Was it not also your responsibility to protect your tribesman? To counsel him, to teach him, to lead him -- and to nip bad behavior in the bud to prevent exactly this sort of fatal disagreement?

"What happened there, Honor's Compass?"

[Honor's Compass] "A fatal compatibility, I am afraid.

I did try to meet Fons van der Noot on some middle ground, Rhya. I expressed the wish that he understand our tribe were not the ruling force in Chicago, but part of a bigger picture. He did not ... agree, nor see eye to eye with my ambition to bring our tribe into the current day and to help us cement further our connection to the other tribes here assembled beneath Maelstrom. He instead took the route of spreading slander, where he could have been fostering good relations.

He threw his breeding in the faces of other Garou, and manipulated the Kinfolk around him until they were so confused they did not know one lie from another. Perhaps I did not try hard enough to communicate with him, Rhya. I will attest that he did do honorably by my own sister, Gabriella. He looked out for her well being after I cut her from our tribe for her repeated transgressions.

The man had honor in him, Rhya, but his pride would not allow it to shine through. In all honesty though, I believe by the time he arrived here, his upbringing, his belief to his own entitlement, had quite eradicated any hope I had to mend his ways."

[Honor's Compass] [ahem, 'a fatal incompatibility', rather.]

[Balance Without Fault] "So you tried to counsel him. And you failed. Or at least -- he did not listen."

Another pause; and then Balance paces a few steps to Katherine's left, eyes leaving her for the first time in some time. Head bowed, thoughtful. When he looks at her again:

"The past is the past. There is nothing we can do now to change it. But let me ask you, Katherine: if you could relive it. If Fons Van Der Noot were alive again, refusing to heed your counsel, merrily spreading slander and undermining not only your Alpha but your own Alphaship over your Tribe -- what then?

"What would you do differently? How, with the added wisdom of the past year or so, would you now handle the situation?"

[Honor's Compass] Katherine watches him, with the intent of the artful, hopeful pupil that sits quite alert and still in class, waiting for the moment when they are next called upon to make a picture of their knowledge. To try and impress their desire to be as wise as the one whom did the teaching. When Balance Without Fault asks what she would have done differently, the honey-blond eyebrows draw up and together in consideration a moment.

"In truth, Rhya, he was the Nephew of a King of my tribe. Had he been so unwilling to be ruled as I am certain his Uncle must have done while he lived in his Court, I would have laid out a very simple choice: either he challenge my leadership, and if losing, submit to my Alphaship, or he should be sent home. I would not have indulged trying to educate and counsel beyond the realms of practicality, Rhya.

Had he succeeded in beating me for Alphaship, I should then have seen what a sort of leader he was."

[Balance Without Fault] Her only acknowledgment: that same faint tip of Balance's chin up, and then the Grand Elder turning away in silence, staff held parallel to the ground behind his back again, like the beam of a scale.

How long has she been here -- speaking, reasoning, always defending? How long has she been questioned, probed for weakness, for failure, scrutinized, studied? Longer than an hour by now, surely. Two, perhaps. Five. The stars wheel overhead -- glimpsed through murky windows, gaps in the ceiling. Perhaps the east is beginning to grow bright. Outside the ring, some of the onlookers have fallen asleep. Some have slept and woken again, watching now in silent interest.

Balance Without Fault turns back.

"Counsel, judgment, leadership. We have discussed the duty of wise counsel. We have discussed the duty of leadership. Let's discuss judgment.

"In your time as Elder of your Auspice, you have had the good fortune to not be often called to sit in judgment of your Septmates. Most of them choose to settle their disputes in personal challenge. Both times I clearly remember Garou seeking the judgment of their elders, it was your own Alpha, and you recused yourself to avoid appearance of partiality.

"Let's talk in hypotheticals, then. Suppose two Garou became embroiled in a bitter dispute. One is an upstanding member of the Sept, known for her great honor and her many acts of heroism. The other is ... disreputable, known chiefly for his many acts of dishonor, cowardice, brutality and shame. Amongst these acts is this: once, many moons ago, he was involved in a challenge by combat, and narrowly lost. He showed his throat to the victor. The victor spared him; when the victor turned his back to limp back to his pack, this Garou rose from the ground and killed him. For this he was heavily punished, his name forever besmirched.

"Now, these two Garou are again settling their dispute by combat. The first Garou, the female, wins. The male submits, showing his throat. The female tears it out. She is not frenzied. She is not out of her wits. When he rages back, she does it again.

"Later, when asked why, she says: Because the leopard can't change his spots. I know his nature. I knew he would only bide his time and strike at me from the shadows. If I did not kill him, he would have killed me.

"How do you judge her?"

[Honor's Compass] "Obviously, when judging a dispute we are not typically fortunate enough not to know some of the particulars shading or highlighting the background of those involved, especially when it is between two members of our own Sept. But, this being said, we also judge on the particular set of circumstances presented to us.

In this instance, the male Garou, tarnished background in combat or not, did adhere to the rules of a challenge; he offered an honorable defeat by offering his throat to the victor. She tore it out, not an uncommon gesture of strength, but also not entirely honorable in and of itself. To show mercy is also an honorable, perhaps more so, gesture.

She was not in frenzy, she was not provoked.

She tore his throat out, knowing that having already raged back once, this would mean his final death. She did not stop, or draw her teeth. What then, makes her actions different to that of the male she calls out as being incapable of change? She has become him, by lieu of her very actions. I would judge her as such, Rhya.

I would punish her as he was before her for the same dishonorable action. She should wear his punishment as her own, for in taking his life, she has stripped him of the opportunity to display the honor he lacked the first time he was beaten in challenge."

[Balance Without Fault] "Suppose his punishment had been to submit to a deathblow: to rage back from it if he could. He did; but then, he was an Ahroun. The female is a Theurge, and her rage is not so strong.

"Would that influence your decision?"

[Honor's Compass] Katherine has often been accused of cruelty; not always purposely inflicted, but sometimes due to a lack of comprehension of how others might view the world, her opinion. Privileged she has always been but perhaps the Silver Fang's saving grace has also been her capacity to see outside her box.

To view the world on a larger scope than that through which she was raised.

"No, Rhya. I have seen Ahrouns, mighty, strong warriors not come back from death, them with the Rage of a thousand furious Suns behind them. I have likewise seen Ragabash with barely a breath of it to their name fight back to resurface to life. It is a test, in and of itself; some will pass it, some will not.

Had she been anything but rational, completely and utterly, perhaps a reduction in sentence. But knowingly, willingly taking another's life purely for their past actions is as good as sentencing us all for our past transgressions without a jury, or any consideration of change.

Her own refusal to grant him the change, is her own life being taken. If she returns, is up to Gaia's grace."

[Balance Without Fault] "Katherine Bellamonte, what is the difference between mercy and weakness?"

[Honor's Compass] "Weakness, Rhya, involves entertaining the caprices of an individual when you know, without reason to doubt, they will repeat their behavior, over and again. Mercy, is to see that despite the weakness they exhibit, there is reason to doubt it is all they ever shall."

[Balance Without Fault] "Truth's Meridian, what is the difference between leadership and tyranny?"

[Honor's Compass] "To lead is to encourage and strengthen the resolve of those who follow after you, it is to inspire as much as to invoke the desire for change, for betterment in themselves and others. To be a tyrant, Rhya, is to take those strengths and inspirations of those who are, for whatever reason, beneath or behind you, and quash them, to hold them prisoner to their own desires and hopes.

It is repression, without the hope of change."

[Balance Without Fault] "Honor's Compass, what is the difference between law and justice?"

[Honor's Compass] "Law is a passed action, or body of thought, Rhya. It has been proven as a rightful course to adhere to, something by which standard can be set. Justice, is the application to a law, it is the desire to bring about a result that agrees with a set law, or ruling, but it is changeable, where law is not.

Justice is available for contradiction, law, Ryha, is not."

[Balance Without Fault] "When law and justice run counter to one another, which do you uphold?"

[Honor's Compass] Katherine is thoughtful a moment.

"Justice is a wild gun, it might be as it says, justified, but it cannot be relied upon to be lawful. So, I believe that I upload law, before I tend to justice."

[Balance Without Fault] Her words fall into silence. Balance Without Fault nods once or twice, then lowers his head in thought. And he's silent a long time -- long enough for spectators to stir, for a sense of anticipation to rise.

There is, in fact, light in the east now. Daybreak only an hour or two off -- the equinox so close that Honor's Compass can all but taste the coming of spring.

When the Grand Elder raises his head, he speaks:

"Katherine, I've known you a long time now. I've seen your worth firsthand -- seen your wisdom and your honor, heard of your glory. I've thought you ready for Adren for a while now. It came as a surprise to me to learn that you had failed your first challenge.

"Tonight, I sought to uncover some weakness that may have explained this phenomenon. I tested you from every angle. I probed for the hubris that is so often a hallmark of your tribe. I saw no evidence of it, nothing but pride that is deserved and humility that is hard-earned. I looked for blindness to your own faults; shifting of blame to others. I saw only a keen, candid awareness of your past failures, and a fearless, honorable willingness to shoulder the burden and move on. I've looked for stubbornness, an inability to change, to admit wrongdoing, to alter course for the better, but time and again you have shown me you know exactly how you would rectify things if given the chance.

"I've even looked for weakness -- a faltering of strength when it matters. And for a moment, I thought I'd found it. When you spoke of Fons van der Noot, when you spoke of how he refused to obey your counsel but not of the fact that you should have forced his submission, as was your right -- I thought perhaps this was at last the killing flaw. The point on which your strength broke.

"And perhaps, once, that was your weakness. But if so, it is no longer. When I questioned you further -- even if this was your weakness, even if in the past you were afraid to step up, to step into the mantle of leadership you seek, you no longer fear it. You knew exactly what to do if faced again with an underling who would not be ruled.

"So my final question to you is this, Honor's Compass. In your own estimation -- and in specifics, not in the vague terms you opened this challenge with -- why did you fail your last challenge? What did you do wrong? Given the opportunity to replay your challenge, how would you do right?"

A beat.

"One more thing: don't tell me what Nobility's Burden-yuf did to set things right. That is a weak answer, and would be interpreted as a form of cowardice. Tell me what you should have done. Tell me what you would do today."

[Honor's Compass] She listens without argument.

In truth, there would be few Garou who would not, at this point, be silent and watchful. Who would not listen as opposed to argue some point, or interrupt to further prove their worthiness to a title. This is not Katherine's way; her sense of worth has always been silent; assumed. She is aware of what she can be, it is merely a question of facing it, and accepting that she cannot be always right.

All the time.

When Balance Without Fault poses his final question, she considers it, looks to her feet, housed in fine leather boots, sees the scuff marks, the dirt soiling them. A tickle of consternation at the mess fusses at the backmost point of her thoughts; she presses it away further for later.

"Nobility's Burden asked of me to deliver to him three united packs, Rhya, three packs ready for a raid, and willing to work together. What I delivered to him were three packs; one without a clear Alpha, one with a leader none of his pack trusted and one full of anger, and potential violence with estimations on what they could yet claim through the Litany. I advised an unhappy Beta to leave his pack, yet allowed him to present himself a lone wolf.

I did not solve the problems I was meant to. I tried to adhere short term antidotes to things that needed firm solutions. Given another chance, I would send the Beta back to his pack, to challenge his Alpha and present him with the reasons for his abandoning his pack on the eve of a battle. I would give the three Omegas thinking themselves a pack the ultimatum, find your Alpha amongst yourselves or join a pack with an established one."

A beat.

"As for the Bone Gnawers; I believe of the three packs they were the closest to rights, with simply the need to have hammered into them, by whatever means, that might does not equal right. The Litany is not here to service their greed."

[Balance Without Fault] As Katherine speaks, she can see Balance scrutinizing her, listening to her, considering every word, every syllable from her mouth. When she finishes, there's no pause for deliberation -- no deep breath before the plunge.

"Honor's Compass," he says, "I did not agree with everything you said. I did not agree with every judgment you made. But that is the very point: no two Philodoxes ever agree perfectly. If they did, there would be no reason for both of them to exist in service of Gaia. This was never a test of right and wrong answers, and I think you grasped that from the start.

"What this was was a test of who you are, and who you want to be. What sort of Philodox you are. What sort of Adren you seek to be. What matters is that every decision you made tonight was made with great deliberation, deep forethought and plainly evident wisdom. What matters is that when you spoke with conscience, clarity, courage and conviction.

"It is my belief that you have proven yourself worthy of the rank you seek. When you leave circle, you will leave an Adren. You will gain all the rights and privileges of that rank -- and all its duties and pitfalls. Your guidance and counsel will be sought as never before. You will be called upon to judge your brethren more and more, and these judgments will take a toll on your spirit. You will be looked to as a leader and as an example, and there is little room for failure.

"The humans often say the higher you climb, the lonelier the view. They say justice is blind, law is a balance, and truth is a double-edged sword. They are correct. But this is also true: that rank is not an option, and duty is not a choice. You are already what you are. You have simply proven it tonight.

"Go forth. Claim the name that is already yours:

"Truth's Meridian, Honor's Compass-yuf, Adren Philodox of the Unbroken, Alpha of the Silver Fangs, Alpha of the Philodoxes."

[Honor's Compass] Honor's Compass stands a little stranger when that verdict is read out; when she hears Balance Without Fault call her yuf. She has to find her voice, it emerges a little rough.

"Thank you, rhya." She still cannot call him anything but Rhya, it would seem.

[Sinclair] There is a moment, a flicker of longing, when Katherine wishes for Sinclair's presence, once always challenging her and now the first face she imagines when some part of her searches for spiritual comfort. It seems as though tonight, or maybe all nights since Asha's last, Sinclair somehow knows. Because even as the words have to do the worst you can before you can do the very best are leaving the Silver Fang's pearl-pink lips,

the Glass Walker who loves her is, suddenly, there.

A soft pop, a bubble bursting, and Balance Without Fault's tribemate appears, motionless and watching some ten, twelve feet away from the challenge circle. She is in lupus, bright-eyed and dark-furred but for a few rushes of white. Sitting on her haunches, the Galliard does as her moon bids her and watches. Listens. Remembers.

Near the end of the challenge, when it becomes clear that Balance Without Fault's questions are climbing towards a summit, she rises to all fours. Her tail swishes once as Katherine gives answer after answer, draws lines between term after term. By the time the Grand Elder makes his decree, Sinclair's tail is wagging rapidly back and forth, her ears cocked forward.

The second the challenge circle is broken, the last Fostern of the Unbroken starts barking, loudly and joyfully, bounding forward and dashing circles around Katherine. Once, twice, three times around before she shoots off a moment and lifts her muzzle, howling with wordless, animal joy. If there were an interpretation of such a thing, forcing it into human words, it would be seconding Balance Without Fault. Welcoming Katherine, earner of her names and bearer of her new rank. Pride, most of all in her sister. But Sinclair is, from a tribe so close to humans, more wolf than girl on her gentlest of nights.

Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 5, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)[WP]

[Wyrmbreaker] Wyrmbreaker wasn't there at the beginning, nor the middle, nor close to the end -- but he's there for those final, three, four questions. Mercy and weakness. Leadership and tyranny. Law and justice.

Why did you fail.
How can you do better.

When the verdict is given, the Shadow Lord doesn't rush forward in open and utter joy. His joy is a quieter thing, held closer to the chest -- precious right now, here in the painful aftermath of a loss. He waits until Sinclair has finished bounding all over Katherine; waits until Katherine is leaving the broken challenge-ring, herself, before coming forward and meeting her.

And, meeting her, Lukas throws his arms around his sister in a hug so tight and powerful that the slighter, fairer philodox almost disappears into the larger, darker ahroun.

"I knew you'd do it," he says, and kisses her cheek fiercely. "I'm so happy for you, Kate."

Then he's letting her go -- enough to breathe, anyway, his arm still heavy over her shoulders -- laughing as Sinclair comes streaking back toward them, more wolf than girl.