Manea stayed at Alastor's side until the medicine she had given him had fully taken effect and he was heavily asleep in a drug induced calmness. She always despised having to temper him like this, but when the alternative was watching him fracture into the splintered fragments of himself this was certainly preferable. She laid with him, stroking her paw over his forehead, until he was fully unconscious. Only when she was able to stand and shift away from him without him reacting did she feel like it was safe for her to walk away and leave him alone. She had told him that they would figure all of this out in the morning, but she didn't intend to wait that long. The longer she laid there thinking about how things had transpired the more angry she became and the more she couldn't remain laying still.

She stood in the doorway to their bedchamber for a moment watching her husband sleep before she stepped out into the main chamber of their quiet den. Stepping out into the cool night air, she briefly stepped down the path to where Kavik kept his den, catching him just before he was heading to bed himself. She asked a favor of him, requesting that he keep an eye on the entrance of her den and to call for her if Alastor left, and after promising him a reward for his help later she turned and went across the mountain range to the pack's medical den with the assumption that she hoped would be right that Relm would still be there to recover from the miscarriage. She figured that was likely where Irilyth would have cared for the pink-marked woman and considering how soon it was after when it seemed everything had taken place she didn't think that Relm would have gone back to her own quarters just yet.

Nearing the den, she immediately caught both Irilyth and Relm's scents coming heavily from the cave and she found that her assumptions were correct. She stepped past the entrance and Irilyth's golden form was instantly up and moving toward her, standing in her path. She looked down at the lead healer with a hard, stern look, silencing any of the protests that her lover might have had to her presence there. "Wait outside," she said firmly and when Irilyth began to protest again, Manea responded with a quiet growl, her violet lips pulling back over pearly teeth. "Outside. Now. I'll deal with you afterward." That seemed to finally get the point across to the smaller woman who stepped past her to leave the den. Manea let a slow breath out through her teeth, closing her eyes for a moment before she lifted her gaze to where Relm was laying. She didn't like having to talk to Irilyth like that, but they weren't leaving her much choice.

Stepping further into the den toward Relm, her expression was carefully flat and unreadable, keeping her own feelings about what had transpired to herself for now. She settled with apparent calmness onto her haunches near the other woman, her tail curling neatly over her paws. "Alastor told me what happened," she said simply and coldly, sparing Relm any explanation in that regard. "Where are the remains?" She wasn't here for her own benefit or for Relm's. She was only here on Alastor's behalf and if being able to properly grieve for his lost children would help him have closure then she would make sure he had that chance.

"Manea Mendacium"

It was an exhausting day expectedly, but even then Relm wasn't finding it easy to sleep. She could respect Irilyth for standing up for her, and even though she was adamant about keeping Alastor out and away from her if only for the night, that wasn't what she wanted. As open as she was for him, and she'd almost never deny him anything, this was one or the only thing. A barrier she threw down to keep them just that last strand apart. This is how she saw it in her mind. It hurt regardless, more than anyone may have known, she didn't give anyone the opportunity to experience. Maybe just Irilyth, but that may have been something known to the healer already.

She still kept her head down in the dark den even while she wasn't sleeping. Sometimes her thoughts were racing, but she also was just caught in this space of not feeling anything at all. Shutting herself down, she wasn't sure what the morning would bring. With her and Alastor that was.

When someone approached then den and Irilyth stood to meet them they probably had the same idea. Alastor. She may not have been completely ready for him like she had been after everything had been done, but she would have been more accepting of his presence now. She was surprised when it wasn't him but Manea. Or, at least a little surprised, she couldn't be completely caught off guard by it. Her head rose from her paws when Manea faced off with Irilyth and soon would come to join her, easy to say Relm was just the same as she always had been. Looking away from her, avoiding eye contact. That didn't mean she wasn't listening. She stayed silent just for that moment as Manea spoke, only glancing for a second before answering her, "Irilyth... took care of it. It was just blood..." Having a burial for babies that couldn't even be pointed out wasn't something that crossed her mind in the slightest. She wasn't necessarily considering that now. But if that's what Manea was after, or Alastor, then surely Irilyth could give them that still. Though when given that opportunity, or idea, Relm would have wanted to share that with Alastor, at least not knowing the condition that he was in back at home.

"Relm"

A slight twitch pulled at Manea's lip as Relm avoided her gaze, looking away from her save for a slight glance in her direction before she gave her an answer. It wasn't exactly a new occurrence from the awkward woman, but that didn't mean that it settled any better with her than it ever had. Relm told her what she had already previously suspected—that there were no bodies to burry. Considering the fact that there had been no obvious signs for Relm's pregnancy, at least not that Alastor had mentioned to her, she couldn't imagine that she had been that far along. Still, she could at least know for certain now that there was no grave or possibility of one to show to Alastor and she would have to tell him as much. He had wanted to know how many there were, if they were boys or girls, and all of the things he had come to expect from the litters he had sired with her, but there was none of that here. Only loss and more questions than answers. She simply gave a short nod in response and was already thinking ahead to how she would tell him and how she could help him grieve in place of a more traditional grave. She hoped that information would give him some sort of peace, but it was so hard to guess with him—especially when he was in the state he had fallen into.

Her gaze lingered on Relm's face for a moment as the General continued to keep her focus directed away from her, grating at Manea's already thin nerves. A soft hint of a growl escaped her as she reached out and grabbed at Relm's cheek, her claws lightly catching her skin as she jerked her head up to face her. "Look at me when I'm talking to you," she snarled with frustration. "You're not a fucking weak, meek bitch. Stop acting like it." She released her with a strained sigh, rubbing her paw over her face before giving a shake of her head and glancing up at the ceiling of the cave. It would have been so easy in that moment to simply be done with it, kick her out of the pack while she was estranged from Alastor, and tell her to never see him again. She had the authority to do so and she wasn't even certain that Alastor would argue with her decision right now if she did. However, it didn't feel like her place to do so. Alastor had brought her here. Alastor was the one she had wronged. He should be the one to make that call, but when would he be mentally well enough again to make that choice? Would he just be blinded by his affection for her again after the dust settled?

"Do you have any concept of what what you've done by sending him away like that?" she questioned, bringing her gaze back down to Relm again with incredulous disbelief. "You told the man that has formed his entire state of being around being a father to leave instead of being there for the loss of his children. I walked into my home to Alastor cut up and bloodied from fighting the world and downing a bottle of hard liquor, completely shattered and broken over the fact that you refused to let him be here to mourn them. You've now forced me to have to find a suitable punishment for Irilyth for going against Alastor's authority and keeping him away at your request. I had to medicate and drug my own husband so that he could get any kind of rest after he shattered a fucking bottle and cut up his own paw!" The anger in her tone built as she went on, starting at a slow simmer and growing to a rolling boil. "But it's not you that has to deal with that, is it? No, you can just send him away and allow me to pick up the pieces."

"Manea Mendacium"

She was taken off guard when Manea grabbed her face to get her to look up at her, but it wasn't in her to flinch or pull away, or act like she was scared. Something Manea may not have known about her. It wasn't really a thought if she feared something as far as death, but this wasn't the case now. She didn't though, to an extent and reasoning she hadn't even shared with Alastor. But she wasn't scared if Manea hurt her, maimed her, the marks Alastor left on her body alone showed for that. She did come to look at Manea, if only for those couple moments. Her expression, her eyes, dull and near lifeless. As if she didn't have anything left to feel if only for the night.

As Manea went back to speaking, her gaze drifted back down towards the floor of the den again. The words hurt her, again more than she would show in the moment. She had known at least to some point that she hurt Alastor getting him to leave, but she had to. Hearing Manea going back over what she hadn't seen or known, she felt a stabbing straight through her heart. Still she kept that calm, dead exterior but it was building up underneath. Save for a few twitches in her cheek she was as flat as anyone could be, "I don't..." She paused, completely held that part in because to Manea, and even if she were Alastor, it wasn't something she wanted to show. But she didn't have that luxury, as fucked as the situation was still a luxury. Alastor staying with her during their short fall out had been that tipping point for her almost. It was almost everything she had wanted. It was easier to keep those emotions aside and keep living that second life beside him before then. But now she was broken because of it. What transpired tonight hadn't helped.

It was then the completely busted down into tears, almost like a switch going off in her head. She could have said that there were no more tears to give tonight before Manea came here, but she was wrong. It was more evident how she avoided Manea than she had been with just her gaze away from her before. A usual show from anyone wanting to hide those strong emotions especially when they were being let out. Embarrassed, ashamed, certainly no way Manea had seen her before. "I will never have what I want with him. I'll always be stuck right here. I'll always be behind you and your family." Something she had long come to terms with, something she at least believed in and had no qualms with that Alastor's family would be above her. Things would be different to her if he and Manea didn't have kids. She spoke between hard breaths but only when she knew she could get the words out clearly. As the time passed it was easier to restore herself but there was still more emotion in her than when Manea had first come to the den. "I still stand by what I've told you, but it won't be enough. I need to keep us as detached as I possibly can. I don't know how much more of it I can take." She'd look back up to Manea with those damp eyes and cheeks before asking, "Please leave Irilyth out of this. I'll take her punishment."

"Relm"

Manea sighed softly and looked away from Relm with a slight shake of her head as Relm broke down into tears, looking off toward the entrance of the den while she waited for the woman to collect herself. She had tried for so long to try and find some kind of common ground between herself and Relm for Alastor's sake. She had tried to make some sort of relationship or friendship between the two of them, something that could prevent this animosity from building between them—even if it was only one sided. Perhaps that was more than she really needed to do considering Alastor clearly had no intentions of doing that for her with either of her lovers, but she had tried regardless. Those attempts had all felt fruitless in the end. Even still, if she hadn't just finished putting the fractured pieces of her husband back together she likely could have found some empathy for the woman who had just suffered a miscarriage, but now even that was difficult to find. There were only a few things in this world that she genuinely cared about and now Relm had injured one of them with her actions. Her sympathy and her patience were thin if not nonexistent.

Eventually Relm did find a few more words for her which brought Manea's gaze back down to her again, but what she said made Manea's hackles bristle, looking at the other woman incredulously. She scoffed, shaking her head again. "What you want with him..." she muttered, her paws flexing and claws digging into the fur under her feet to prevent herself from acting on the simmering anger that she was doing her best to keep in check. There was simply something in the way she lamented about her position in Alastor's life, almost as if she was trying to pull pity to herself for being stuck in second place behind her and their family, that rubbed Manea the wrong way and made her blood boil. "You should do yourself a favor and remind yourself of that more often," she growled, a snarl twitching at her lips. "I've allowed this fuckery purely because Alastor wanted to keep you around, but I've happily kept him from things that hurt him before and I'm certainly not afraid to do it again."

Manea rose to her paws, deciding that she was done here and that she ought to leave before she truly did something she might come to regret, but then Relm spoke again, saying how she needed to stay detached and mentioning how she wasn't sure how much more she could take. Manea glanced back at her with confusion, replying, "Then why are you staying? If you want to be detached, if this is hurting you so badly, then just leave! You have created this hell for yourself and you will have no sympathy from me if you continue to drown yourself in torture of your own design." Her last plea to leave Irilyth out of this and to give her the punishment instead made Manea sigh and look down and away from Relm as she was quiet for a moment. "I don't want to punish Irilyth. I understand that she was simply protecting her patient, but at the end of the day she broke rank and disobeyed a direct order from her superior. It doesn't matter if I don't punish Irilyth or not. Alastor will see to it that she is punished. You've ensured that two of the wolves that I love dearly are hurting or soon will."

She looked back to Relm one more time with a hard, cold look in her aqua gaze. She had no idea how Alastor would feel come the morning once he woke from his drug induced sleep, but there was only one thing she could really do to punish Relm and she was going to take it regardless. Whether or not Relm felt this was a punishment or not didn't matter to her—at least she didn't feel like she came here and did nothing. "You are being demoted from General. Starting immediately you will now be Master Fighter." She turned then and began to walk away before Relm could say anything else. As she passed through the entrance of the medical den she spotted Irilyth waiting for her outside of the den and she motioned for the smaller woman to follow, leaving Relm alone.

"Manea Mendacium"