She didn't know what to do - she was held paralyzed, immobilized, the seconds melting into eternity as Raisa's gaze met hers. Raisa's voice, broken and harsh, crashed like ice over her and shock stiffened her body. Raisa... was apologizing to her? No... no, it was Katja who had failed to protect her, had lost her children, had antagonized and begun a blood feud with her lover, had stolen away her adopted children, had failed her. Again and again, she had failed this woman, yet Raisa apologized to her.
Raisa's little fox companion was speaking, his words at first just washing over her unheeded until he spoke of her vengeance and she turned on him with eyes blazing and fangs bared in a snarl. "NO." The single word was bitten out in tones steely and furious. "Beobachten sie ihre zunge! Raisa Xanilov begs forgiveness of no one."
As she turned her head back to Raisa the expression slipped away to contemplative. Silent. Watchful. In a swift motion she closed the distance between them and lowered herself to the ground and tilted her head and neck to the side, exposing her throat to the Xanilov. "It is I who failed. You trusted... I did not keep my oaths to you." Her voice was even and matter of fact, but her chest ached with the agony. The pride that would have led her to die before lowering herself before another was silent beneath the weight of her own failures. If anyone deserved to spill her blood it was Raisa. Her words were softly accepting as she spoke - "I will not stop you, my queen."
