"How feel?" he asked in a deep musty tone. He had a slight smirk on his flaky lips.

"What?" Airya breathed out, confused by his question.

"Losing someone love?" he asked, still standing in the doorway.

"It hurts," Airya whispered.

Hethei, who had been flying around, perched himself on the thrown staff that was across the room.

His smirk widened to almost a grin, "How does feel knowing it me?"

Airya felt her face go blank. Her mind went silent.

"Confusion, first." He nodded, taking a short step toward her.

"They..." she looked at her mom's old aged body and the deep cut in her hand, "She... did this to herself," she stammered.

"We, Solocs, used to live peace. After gods died, we live peace. Peace 200 years. No weapons. No malice. No blood at hand of other. Peace. Till you. Your kind. Yellow Eyes. Barging OUR world. Bring fear, weapons, take lives. Our lives. One of Solocs!"

Airya's heart stuttered in shock.

"Never told? Stab through with long staff of grey. Never felt loss not after our gods. Never had death in Ausrine till you. Us all run. Fear unknown. Fear not able to wake our Soloc. Fear having lay him in ground. Your people came, killed Soloc, took our village. Took our temple. Wiped its name clean. Heirok, our village, no more. Your people erased name like want to erase us. Force us away to build new home. Force us to leave our home we built by bloody hands. Force us leave sacred temple for our gods not Yellow Eyes!"

Airya winced and cowered as he took another step closer. Anger was seething off of him. Hethei screeched.

"Not only take gifts we built our gods, you took gifts made from our gods. After death of gods, we made tools from our gods’ bodies. We not know power given to tools till stolen. We made aging spear. Made from Strigiformes' bones and talons," he pointed to the spear that Hethei sat on, "Yellow Eyes journeyed, found our gifts, stole. When one pricked, realized what could do.”

He took another step, “Other tool made lost. Never found. Till you. I saw fall. I saw power. You found. Feathered Rock. It gave gift. A gift belong to Solocs, not you!" he pointed to her, "The Desphere. One not taken. One hid by Solocs. Thought power too. Maybe power make Yellow Eyes go away. Stilgar led Solocs when I not. Trusted friend believed same. We should have Ausrine. Thought like me. Break our beloved item the Desphere to restore life for Solocs. He did. Broke sphere. It kill all not protected by temple. But took lives of many Solocs." He looked to the ground hurting in all his rage. A tiny sliver of what may have been a tear escaped one of his beady eyes, falling down his wide face. It disappeared before it hit the ground, "Took Stilgar."

Hethei flew to her and landed beside her, hissing as Stilk stepped closer still.

"Many years wait rid Yellow Eyes to live in peace. I not let Solocs die for nothing. Years listening your parents’ whispers. All had to do whisper in King Delak's ears that he coward. That if stay Airya turn coward too. Delak live in guilt forever." He smiled taking one more step, now just inches away from her.

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Goosebumps climbed her flesh and her heart turned cold. He had pushed her dad over the edge? He had taken her dad away from her? The Solocs had taken everyone away from her? All out of hatred for an incident she hadn't even known had occurred. Her parents never told her when they had come, they had killed a Soloc.

"Queen Eos easy," he looked to her dead body and gave a half smirk before shaking his head, "She frustrating, liar, hypocrite. Said she cared, did not. Only told herself to ease mind. Used dreams for Ausrine as cushion to sit day and night, but once Yellow Eyes have no more and King no more, dreams broke too. No longer ease mind. No longer live with self."

"How dare you!" Anger pulsated through Airya's veins. She looked down at her mom and then stood. Hethei jumped up onto her shoulder. She faced Stilk without an ounce of fear, only wrath. He was much shorter than her now, but his definitive brow and large black pupils laced with yellow stared up at her like a monster who held so much more control over her life than she ever had. The monster who took away her people and her parents.

"You always take! You kill! You make fake peace! Throw grey staffs into lake. Letting me stay MY temple. Asking our ways, but staying in our homes! We belong here. We belong. Allowed to live in peace alone like old times. We belong worship Strigiformes. Our gods birthed us, gave us our home. Molok belong to our Solocs. You took all, but can't have no more!" He grasped his big hands around the necklace that Airya had never seen him without. She then realized that he now had two. She remembered the identical one around Stilgar's neck. He must have taken his. Another gift from their gods, "You have power to go! Leave! Leave Solocs in peace!"

Leave? Be a coward and run away like her dad? That would make her turn into exactly who her dad didn't want her to be. Leave and listen to the monster before her who wanted to take their home? Leave and abandon her home and her mom’s and dad’s vision of making this place a better place and a better world? Her pulse was throbbing in her wrists and neck. She felt bitter and angry, and cold. A hatred so thick layered over her that she swore she would never be able to wash it away. "No."

Stilk looked taken back and took one step back, still holding onto his gift from his Gods, "Why?"

"No." Airya stepped forward, yellow eyes piercing, "Did you ever think that we may belong here too, if not more than you? Did you ever think that if your people wanted this place, you could have talked about it or fought for it instead of scheming mischievously to kill after forming trust?! Did you ever think that there may be a reason that our people were the only ones to discover the power that your tools held after 200 years? Did you ever think that maybe my being the only one born in the temple and the only one granted a gift from your gods that pulses through my blood may mean something? That maybe I’m more worthy than you? That maybe our people are more worthy than the Solocs?"

"We built temple! We built village! We born this land! Our home! Our gods!" Stilk yelled at her looking frightened.

"Your gods are gone now," Airya whispered, a snake coiling in her gut. She reached out, her blood boiling for someplace, anyplace, to calm her nerves. Anyplace she could go to wash away her pain and cry, but she couldn't leave. She wouldn't leave. She would never let this man win. "I'm the new god," she bellowed, wanting to watch Stilk recoil in the fear and the pain he had caused her, "I am the Queen of Molok!" A hole in the world opened behind him, and Hethei jumped off her shoulder, swooping toward him, causing Stilk to stumble off balance closer to the portal. Stilk's eyes widened in complete shock and horror when he realized what the owl had in his claws. The two sets of swalak tied together with the beaks on each end. He reached for, but after Hethei swooped toward him again, he began falling backward as if in slow motion. The beaks landed on the stone next to Airya's feet, "I am your Queen!" She lifted her foot and stomped down. All four beak pieces shattered and cut into her heels. She watched a tear fall from Stilk's eyes as he fell back into the hole. Then vanished.

His tear fell to the stone ground. Left in Ausrine.