With her children completely weaned, she was available to make a long journey again, and the news Brandr had brought her certainly warranted further investigation on her part. To that end she had traveled south, past the land bridge all the way to the borders of the pack he had spoken of. She paused for a moment there, considering if it wouldn't be better to just turn around and return. No - just being here left a scent trail that might pique the interest of the alpha. Better to get this over with and get something out of it herself. It was a risk, but... Giving her fur a quick shake to settle it over her shoulders she raised her muzzle and gaze a polite call for the alpha, her calm voice firm but not particularly demanding as she howled.

What was this? Malleus cocked his head as the howl of a foreigner drifted through the cathedral. It was rare for the Empire to get visitors. Given the Abraxas reputation, most chose to avoid their territory. He didn't recognize the howl but supposed it could still be some distant, wayward family member so he made haste in the direction of the border. The small woman who stood outside the border was most definitely not family. She was what he assumed to be an average height for a mortal and not particularly impressively built, but her face was pretty and she had a calm, collected air about her that suggested she was of some importance. This surprised him even more. Not because he thought the woman unworthy of whatever position she held, but because until now visitors from mortals packs were unheard of. They simply, in his opinion, stayed where they were and tried to avoid being noticed by the southern conquerors. "Greetings," he boomed. "You stand outside The Risen Empire. What business have you here?" His manner was very business-like and he exuded an easy, relaxed authority that could only come with the highest of confidences. This was his territory and he was king.

Her call was answered promptly, and Gwen took the moments as the massive male approached to study him quietly. He was tall - quite tall, in fact, as much so as Regulus but built on slightly heavier lines, and with his dark coloring he seemed that much more intimidating. Gwen simply watched him with a calm, polite expression - just because he was intimidating, didn't mean she had to allow herself to be intimidated, after all. As he came up to her, she had to tilt her head upward to meet his gaze, but she just smiled. He was younger than she, in his prime. He practically oozed with relaxed confidence - Gwenevere, who was far from her home territory and far from being a monarch, matched his confidence with her own borne from experience, age, and just plain not giving enough of a fuck anymore to be anything less than that. "Mostly I wanted to see if you were everything the rumors claim you are," she admitted with a smile. "Though my business here is more than simple curiosity. I am Gwenevere Adravendi, alpha secondary of Celestial. I've come to learn more about your family and the packs you've laid claim to, and to decide for myself how much of it is true. I am sure you know your family has left quite a mess of rumors and hearsay up in the north."

Upon hearing what had brought Celestial's secondary to his borders, Malleus' chest swelled with pride. Ah, so at last their efforts were bearing fruit! He found this promising, although it did strike him as odd that he was dealing with the secondary and not the alpha himself. A ghost of an amused smile cracked his serious expression. His pleasure was simply too great to conceal entirely. Pretty much any rumor she'd heard would please him save one: that they were plagued by some form of weakness. Anything else he was confident he could spin in their favor. "Word travels fast," he mused. After a beat he introduced himself, "My name is Malleus Abraxas and I, like my father before me, am the Emperor here. And I would be happy to put the rumors to rest." Or, maybe, if she was the talkative, social sort, fan the flames and spread them further.

The younger male seemed to preen at the idea of rumors being passed around about his family's exploits. Gwen had the fleeting thought that he reminded her of a saner, more charismatic Isardis. She wondered if that albino conqueror would have been even more successful if he'd had this young man's more attractive qualities. He told her he'd be happy to speak of any rumors, and she smiled. "I appreciate you taking the time," she said to him, then seemed to give it a moment of time to order her thoughts. Straight to the point, no reason to start with a softball, was there? "I suppose the best place to start is the biggest rumor - the story behind how your family acquired its first pack here. I have heard less than savory versions of it and frankly I am curious as to your side of it."

Malleus was happy to oblige. He was curious about what constituted as 'unsavory' in her mind. No doubt they had differing opinions. Both deer and wolves experienced the hunt yet if asked separately what they thought of the event two wildly differing accounts would no doubt be given. The same too could be said of the godlings and the mortals they sought dominion over. Sinking to his haunches, Malleus' let his gaze briefly rove the heavens as he sought to call forth his memories of the challenge. He hadn't been present for the fight itself, but he had witnessed the events leading up to it and been filled in afterwards. "The Abraxas force marched on Dragoste where my father issued a challenge: those that called it home could either join our ranks or be deposed and replaced. The alpha issued a challenge of his own: that only one would walk away from the fight and my father agreed. They went to the battlefield where my father was successful." That was rather short version of what happened, but it was the challenge in a nutshell."I can elaborate further if you like. It was quite the eventful evening and it's difficult to cram everything into a neat little summary." His tone so far had been candid. Malleus saw no reason to be deceptive about those events.

Gwenevere listened quietly, reserving judgement. Not that she had any reason to doubt Brandr, who seemed to be an earnest young man and had likely only told her the truth, but sometimes what one person thought was the truth was only one side of a very complicated issue, and she wasn't going to go into this carrying an obvious bias and put Celestial at risk for it. It was a large part of the reason she had elected to come here herself rather than waiting and seeing if Aurielle would prefer she did it herself. The young tended to see things very black and white, and despite how much Aurielle prided herself on her maturity she was still hardly more than a child. Yes, she thought as Malleus spoke on, she stood by her decision. She couldn't imagine Aurielle would have been willing to think past the 'big evil wolf doing evil things' even for the good of the pack. She had a lot of her father's biases and Gwen doubted either of them would ever admit it to themselves.

As Malleus wound down, Gwen narrowed her blue eyes in obvious contemplation, leaving a silence to hang between them, a silence she was comfortable with but many others perhaps wouldn't be. Finally she blinked her eyes back to Malleus' gaze. "The alpha of Dragoste requested the pack challenge end in the death of one of the participants?" There wasn't disbelief in her tone, but rather the desire to absolutely clear on the details. If that was true, she couldn't fault Malleus' father for his actions. Mercy, in that case, would certainly have simply left an enemy at their back who had a very personal reason to want the Abraxas wiped out. On the other hand... "It seems rather unfortunate to risk reprisals from his family," she observed aloud, tilting her head slightly as she watched him. She wasn't particularly familiar with the late alpha to begin with, so perhaps he hadn't had family he was close to, but experience told her that was a fairly rare occurrence in a pack species. She gave a gentle shrug and moved on regardless of his answer.

"I understand several of your family engaged in a raid on Dragoste while the alpha was occupied with the challenge and took captives and maimed others. Is this true?" It had seemed like overkill when Brandr had told her of this - why raid the pack when it would be the new alpha's to do with as he pleased once he won the fight anyway? He could very well have chosen to keep the entire pack captive if he'd chosen, so why would he have loosed his wolves on the unsuspecting pack while he'd been fighting for the right to the pack already? If she had to guess she'd think it had been intended as a brutal scare tactic, hoping to garner a reputation that would have the other packs keeping their heads down to avoid notice.

They sat in silence while Gwenevere considered his summary. Had he felt the need to be deceptive the quiet stretch might have bothered him, but since what he'd said was the truth as he saw it, the silence came and went with little more than a notice on his part. "The alpha of Dragoste requested the pack challenge end in the death of one of the participants?" Malleus' response was a grave nod. Her following statement roused a verbal response from him. "All who were present heard both my father's challenge and the Dragoste alpha's counter, so none, not even his family, can claim his death was unjustified as he himself put death on the table." He considered the possibility that the man's family might seek revenge. "As for revenge, if they choose to pursue it and can't be dissuaded from it then I will be happy to arrange a reunion," he said as mildly as if he'd offered to bring them flowers. Malleus frowned thoughtfully as he considered the march on Dragoste. "I wouldn't call it a raid," he mused. Although he wasn't sure what he'd call it, either. "We did go into Dragoste. As this was our first foray in these lands, my father wanted to make an impression so that those who witnessed our might would spread our name far. Considering the nature of our mission it should come as no surprise that fighting broke out. As for captives, after he won my father released the Dragoste wolves who remained." Keeping them would have hampered the spread of the Abraxas name.

She nodded mildly as he gave his viewpoint on what had happened. "All of the captives were released unharmed?" It was possible that the terrified and confused wolves who escaped the initial raid would have inflated the dangers from the emotional trauma they suffered, but somehow she thought it more likely that the truth lay between what the Abaven refugees said and what Malleus claimed. She knew better than to assume that his current pleasant facade was more than just that, a disguise, but at the same time it was difficult to conflate the charges laid against the Abraxas with the urbane young alpha that spoke to her now. She was unsatisfied with her own reaction to the situation, and took a moment to focus her thoughts. "What can you tell me of your history with Abaven?" Her expression was carefully schooled to stillness and simple interest, but the question was one of the more important she'd asked. Abaven was... had been... Celestial's ally since before either had been created. Knowing harm had come to them at the paws of the Abraxas could not have gone over well with Regulus... though she did not understand how he could have stood by and allowed it to happen, either, let alone tell none of the rest of the pack, so she could not claim Celestial was free of guilt in that situation either.

"All of the captives were released unharmed?" She asked difficult questions. Questions he could only answer with hedges considering how chaotic that day had been. They had him wondering just how truthful he should be. Should he lie in the hopes of spreading fear of the Abraxas further? Or, now that they'd made their presence known, did he present a more diplomatic front? "Considering the fighting before their release I assume many did not leave unscathed." After hearing Gwen's last question Malleus was silent for several moments as he studied her. His expression was veiled but there was a thoughtful glint in his eye. So far this exchange had been rather one sided and she had gained much while he gained little. That should change. "You've asked many questions while giving nothing in return. I'm beginning to think this is an interrogation." How to remedy that... It had been a mistake to go on this long without asking questions in return. "How about we make this an exchange? Surely you can agree there's the potential for more to be gained here than putting rumors to rest?"

It seemed she had pushed too far too fast with her questions, for Malleus seemed to grow wary and fell silent. Or perhaps less wary and more... sly. There was a look on his face that spoke of calculation to a wolf who'd grown up around leadership. Gwen kept her half-smile and look of polite interest, though inside the safety of her own mind she cursed her clumsy efforts. "What precisely did you have in mind?" she ventured to question cautiously. If it was simply a case of answer-for-answer... There wasn't a great deal about Celestial that he couldn't easily figure out from a scout sent to sniff out their borders. They weren't the most secretive of packs, and the repelled raid some time ago had likely generated a lot of gossip, so she wasn't concerned that he'd have any questions for her that she couldn't comfortably answer, or simply deflect. But the younger alpha was clearly no simple brawler. He was intelligent, and calculating, and she couldn't underestimate what he'd conclude even from the most vague of answers.