poison.

[Wyrmbreaker] The Council -- well; the Grand Elder and the Rotagar -- have since disbanded. Dirge of the Covenant has been taken for burial. Lukas and Katherine remains behind for the meantime.

The former keeps clearing his throat. He's not used to the unnatural constriction there yet; the uncomfortable feel of something always being caught in it.

"Before we talk about Genevre," he says, hoarsely, "is there anything you want to say or ask about Fons van der Noot?"

[Katherine Bellamonte] Truth's Meridian has a new title, as from this night on.

She is no longer merely a respected Cliath with the world at her feet but a newly made Fostern. She is, now, as a matter of a fact -- her Alpha's equal. Her brother's equal. They have not celebrated this fact yet, the dust from the administration of the punishment rite has not even fully settled; some fine particles remain on her skin, clinging to the Ahroun's eyelashes, his throat.

Honor's Compass, she has been called.

Katherine studies Lukas intently for a beat, publicly and before the Council of Elders she has said nothing but the barest truth's. That she retained her trust in him, that they had known one another long enough to glimpse the tiny nuances of body language, of words unspoken.

Another Silver Fang would have his hide pinned to their mantle.

But, she has never been merely another Silver Fang.

She is Katarina, lady of the Courts; ancestor of Queens.

Right now, however, she looks quite worn out and her voice is humorously almost as dry and hoarse as his. "I did not like him, that was never a secret to anyone but I am …" Here she pauses, lips pursing. "Sorry, I think, that we will never know if he could have improved.

My only wish, Lukas, is that he had possessed the wit to understand that while our tribe has claims to the throne, we do not rule as we once did."

[Wyrmbreaker] Lukas, superficially, looks as he always does. Or often, at least. He's often this bloody. He's not even nearly so worn as he was a few nights ago, when he emerged from Bellamonte Park utterly drained of everything, crawled into his den with his mate, slept forever.

There's something wrong about that. The first time a Garou kills one of his own, that should leave some scar, some mark, some vestige as visible as the ravages of a rageback from the brink of death. At least.

"I had plans," he rasps. "Hopes. Ideas to redirect his rage. Well; I said it all already. But that's my greatest disappointment in myself, and him, and this whole sorry business."

He has to pause for a moment -- his voice has twisted unexpectedly into the upper octaves. Lukas winces, coughs a few times, then starts again.

"It was a terrible thing I did, and I owe your tribe contrition. You'll have it at the moot, publically, as the elder of your tribe."

[Katherine Bellamonte] "Good," she says about the public offering of contrition, as if that were all that were needed for him to say about it. The Half Moon breathes out, slowly, and wipes her palms absently against her thighs. She had worn her dedicated clothing to her challenge, and so was surprisingly casual in a dark blue zippered jacket and jeans. It did little to extinguish her breeding, or to disguise her natural beauty but rather softened her edges, made her appear far more approachable.

Perhaps that is a good thing, given what must come next.

"Genevre," she grimaces, and looks aside. "I will have to decide what to do with, she has gone so far however that I do not know if the King will even allow her return to Chicago. She may well be forced to remain there."

[Wyrmbreaker] "She should remain there." The subject is like a match to tinder: Lukas's fury roars to life. "She's a twofaced snake. She seduced Theron, then ran to Fons. Then she came back to me sobbing for forgiveness, and I honestly believed her an innocent pawn in Fons's machinations.

"You saw what she did at the Council hearing. She lied through her teeth to bury her own cousin. And she heard as well as anyone that she was never to be in his presence again. Then tonight I find her sitting there with Fons. Weeping. Had a letter for him, she said, that apparently she couldn't mail to him. How much do you want to bet that she called him there and fed him the same crock of please-forgive-me-I-was-wrong bullshit?"

He's not even pausing to clear his throat now. Jaw tense, face hard, Wyrmbreaker squeaks and yelps his way through his incriminations.

"And that's not even the half of it. The whole time I was dragging them to my car, all she cared about was herself. She was cold. Her briefcase was in the cafe. When her cousin was dying on my teeth, I told Sinclair to hold her back thinking she'd at least try to pull us apart.

"You know what she did? Stood there. Whined about her coat. While her cousin died on account of something she instigated. That's all she cares about: herself. And her own pleasures and amusements. She thinks nothing about playing Garou against one another.

"Get rid of her Katherine. That woman is poison."

[Katherine Bellamonte] "A letter?" Katherine is quick as a snake upon it, her eyes glowing fiercely in reaction to the Ahroun's wash of anger. It is still her moon in the sky this night and she itches with it. "Do you have it with you or does she have it still?" A beat, she shakes her head slightly in negation.

"Never mind, it will not change things, no matter if it is from the King himself; the recipient is dead. Lukas, there is a chance, that --" Katherine hesitates, it is unlike her to appear ruffled. "The King's temper is uncertain at the best of times and I am not certain if our distant blood connection shall prevent him from taking his vengeance out upon me. If I do not return -- if I am," put to death, "Delayed, it will be most likely because of tribal politics.

Genevre will stand before her father's Court and admit her wrong-doing in this. She will face her sovereign."

[Wyrmbreaker] [hold reply on letter until it gets worked out with DI.]

Tonight should have been a night for celebration. Another of the Unbroken has attained Fostern rank.

Instead: this.

Lukas grimaces, the hot red wash of his rage receding with Katherine's unspoken caveat. "You shouldn't have to face the King alone for something I did," he says.

[Katherine Bellamonte] There is the smallest of smiles around the young woman's lips; something wry, something resigned. "Better me than you I suspect, old friend. Were you to roll up at his Court with his Nephew tossed over a shoulder like a trussed up pig you would find yourself pinned beneath a mass of enraged Silver Fangs."

There's a longer beat of silence; and the unspoken gesture; a brief caress of her thoughts, her feelings projected across the totem-link to him: her regret, her fear, her love for the pack, her dedication, her sacrifices. All the things she is, and may be pass between them before she nods briefly, and then says again, aloud.

"The Kinswoman has lost the trust of her Warder, and worse than this has shown that her safety, paramount as it must be to her father, is comprised. That is my failing, and I shall own to it before him, but I will also tell his Majesty that because of her actions and those of her Cousin's, neither would have been permitted to remain in the city while I am elder.

She will be banished.
But, I must still speak with her, I would be unjust not to hear her out."

[Wyrmbreaker] "At this point," he snarls, "I wouldn't count nailing her in a crate and shipping her back to Paris on a Guatemalan freighter injustice."

He coughs again. The last of his ire dies; leaves behind only awareness, memory, the raw red wound of murder. Manslaughter. In the end the guilt feels the same.

"For what it's worth," he adds, "congratulations on Fostern, Yuf."

[Katherine Bellamonte] There's a frown, the measure of her response to his snarls about Genevre and then when he congratulates her on her new ranking; a smile blossoms and dimples the corners of her lips -- the glow returns and she all but beams at him suddenly; the long, long night forgotten.

"Thank you, Wyrmbreaker-yuf."

A beat, she rubs at her throat. "I could use a drink, how about you?"