This is it [Change in Leadership]

Archon had said his bit and was more or less done. He would end things here on neutral terms. Surely he could use them later or find another way to use them to appease the Fallen God. Maybe they would simply fall from his memory, left for whatever other Abraxas wished to mess with them.

Then Caelestis burst in. Briefly, Archon's expression betrayed his unwillingness to hurt Cael, but he reeled it in. He didn't want to hurt her. Why couldn't she just become a believer already? His eyes set on hers, listening, not reacting. He fell into a carefully calculated response, just like he was used to doing. Caelestis may have seen his true self before, but she wasn't getting past his shell in front of anyone else.

He was about to respond before another wolf came in. Had he met her before? Did she even live here? Archon almost cracked as smile as she tried to scold him, but he held it in. He took a deep breath in to hold his composure, even though his mind was racing with the exhilarating feeling watching the mortals fall apart.

"You're right, I am here to screw things up for you. Although it's hard to mess anything up in a pack that barely exists in the first place. You wouldn't try for me, you say, but can you even pretend you were trying before?"

Now Sparrow's brother came in. The corners of Archon's maw tugged upwards no matter how hard he tried to suppress them. This male seemed to have the most sense among them, even though he was probably suffering the worst! Archon took several deep breaths to calm himself. This. This was what he had wanted to observe: the raw mortal beings. He could have gotten intoxicated off of the feeling, but he knew he needed to stay rational.

He took another deep breath.

Archon couldn't help but feel a need to push them further. If he had known it was this simple, he would have seen if someone could have died earlier.

"You can act all righteous, but you're relying on more or less of a stranger to take over for your you now. You didn't want to act under me- that's fine- but every time Sparrow waited anxiously for a meeting, every time she was so sure everyone would show up and support her, where were you? When she asked me to help her kill a meal for a meeting to celebrate the yearlings, saying how nice it would be to celebrate together, only to have the kill get cold before everyone bothered to gather. Did you all miss the disappointment in her eyes, or were you all too busy spiting me to notice how much you were hurting her?"

Archon let out a breathy laugh, breathing a little heavier than normal to prevent himself from having a full on laughing fit at all the indignant mortals trying to glare him to death.

"I guess as long as she smiled for you, you all were happy, despite how much she must have been hurting," Archon said, his laughter fading in an instant. "Well, she's dead now, so I guess you all can't apologize for that. We'll see how you do with this one."

Maybe when it was just Shaye, Archon and Abaven would have left on neutral terms, but after seeing this, Archon understood some of the Fallen God's wrath and he had half the mind to show these wolves true suffering.

He cast one more glance at Shaye. This was her pack for now. Archon would be sure to see how she did.

With that, he was done. He just needed to gather Kerrigan, Nura, and Dea and go tell Malleus of his new proposition.

-exit Archon-