Autumn, as always, brought with it the frenetic push to get enough herbs stored for the winter, and with only one other fully trained healer available in Ebony he was in even more of a panic to get it done than he'd been the year before. He'd even ventured away from Ebony today in an effort to expand his stores, though not far. He was still nervous after the siege, half expecting vengeful Arcanum members to pop up. He was in the process of carefully plucking ripe juniper berries to add to the growing pile at his feet when the crack of a twig alerted him that he wasn't alone and he spun, hackles rising instinctively as he saw who it was. "Katja?" ""

The gods had guided her wandering paws to Baldur, to Laufey... and now to this place. She could see through the autumn-bared trees the reddish form of one of Raisa's sons, Kassander, and she considered him carefully as he rummaged around like a squirrel, completely unaware of her as she stalked him. It was interesting - once he had been the most ambitious of Raisa's children to the point of alienating his siblings, but the yearling who had returned to Ebony after Virgil had kidnapped him had been very different. So reserved, so fearful, so weak. So how had he come to be alpha of Ebony? Svetlana and Val had both been so keen to take Ebony when she had offered - it was no great surprise that Val had not stayed, she'd always felt that Ebony's traditions and laws were too stifling for the elder Xanilov daughter, but why had the pack gone to Kassander instead of the next eldest daughter as she had understood the pack laws? Had something untoward occurred to the second daughter of Raisa? Stepping forward, she stepped down very deliberately on a stick, the resulting crack spinning the startled boy to face her. "Kassander," she returned coolly. She took a step toward him, cocking her head to the side before speaking with her usual bluntness. "It seems you have risen to a higher station in life than expected. What circumstances have conspired to make the least of Raisa's son a king, sveinn?" ""

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The viking's silver eyes fixed on him with a cold stare, and it was all Kass could do to keep himself from hunkering down like a pup who'd gotten in trouble. It didn't help that Katja had been one of the few constant adult figures in their lives - she'd been there with Raisa when they'd been born and she'd been the only one to stick around both times Raisa had vanished, she'd taken over the pack when Raisa needed her to and she'd actually fought for them even though she'd failed, so he kind of felt like he owed her something... and he resented her for it. She'd done all that and then just handed Val the pack as soon as they were a year old and walked off, leaving them to struggle on alone without anyone and now she came back and... and what? Insinuated that he'd done something wrong to get Ebony because he somehow wasn't as worthwhile to her as Sigmarr had been? "Why does it matter to you? You walked away from it, remember?" He forced his head and tail up, forced himself to look into her eyes like an equal because that's what he was, wasn't he? Even though his ears threatened to tremor and his tail kept wanting to droop. "Val gave me the pack when she went to go try to find Sindri and Sigmarr. I was the only one who was still around to take the pack. Sigmarr and Sindri came back on their own but they didn't want the pack anymore than you did so what was I supposed to do?" He winced at how petulant his voice sounded, like a sulky child talking back to his teacher. That wasn't the way it was supposed to come out. ""

She was less than impressed with the boy's babbling and sad attempt at posturing, but her habitually calm and collect exterior was momentarily ruffled and she reared her head up slightly. Sigmarr and Sindri had returned to Ebony? It was no surprise that Valkerie had gone off to look for them herself, she was too action-oriented to stay quietly at home while her siblings were lost. After all, when they were merely children she had taken off alone to track down her mother. But Sindri and Sigmarr... Her expression returned to a preternatural calm as she studied the would-be King before her. "And you can protect them all, Kassander Xanilov?" Her face was hard, her eyes eyes ice. "You can protect your brother and your sisters from the evils that will seek their blood? You can lead Ebony and hold them all together? Do you not believe that the very oaths and reasons you have that lead you to heal will prevent you from doing what must be done as a leader? Are you not too soft hearted and gentle to end a threat before it can become one?" She made a faint noise of derision in her throat. "People do not so readily change, sveinn. You are as weak now as you were as a pup - what qualities do you have that would make you a leader? Simply wanting to lead, this does not make a leader." ""

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Kass trembled with barely suppressed anger at Katja's words. She didn't have any right to accuse him of being weak! She had no right to show up and ask all these questions. She had no ties to Ebony anymore, none at all, so why would she think she had any sort of say in it? Why should her opinion even matter? "I am not weak. I led Ebony to war against Arcanum," and put everyone in danger doing so, and nearly ruined it all when you hesitated on the plains a traitorous voice whispered in his head, "and we won so what right do you have to call me weak?" He drew himself up taller, taking advantage of the near half-foot extra height he had over her to glare down at the viking. Somehow though he couldn't escape the feeling of being just a mouse glaring at a hunting cat as the distinctly unintimidated woman stared back blandly. "The only time any of us saw you since you left was when you showed up to announce that you had a pack and had taken my adopted siblings prisoner and then you drop them in Ebony for Val to guard them like that would make it better. You are the one that almost dragged Ebony into a war with Pantheon, and you are the reason they're considered traitors for wanting to stay here. So why are you questioning me about what I'm going to do for Ebony?" He was being outrageously rude to her and he knew it, but a wild and frantic feeling of defensiveness fluttered in his chest. He was doing his best, ok? He didn't need her to tell him he sucked at leading, he already knew that. ""

The boy still had that same core of angry desperation that had fueled his ambition and had nearly destroyed his relationship with his family as a pup, Katja noted as he snarled at her. Coldly she stared at him. "Still you are striking out in fear and mistaking it for initiative, just as you have always done. Recklessness you think is passion, desperation you think bravery. What will you do when your fear paralyzes instead of driving you, hm? Who will get hurt then? Your brother? Your sisters? The Olympians you call siblings? What made you decide to go to war, Kassander, calculation or passion? Who has already suffered as a result of your fear?" She let that sink in a moment before tilting her head to the side. "There is a time for the heat of passion, and there is a time for cold calculation, son of Raisa, and you have yet to learn. Your compassion does you justice as a healer but it blinds you as a leader." She shook her head, narrowing her eyes at him. "You are unfit to lead, boy." ""

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