Most mothers told cautionary tales to keep their children from harm – tales of people and creatures that would take everything from you and call it their own. Violet and Rain's mother told them tales of how to become those people. She had been ambitious and hell-bent on taking the Capretian government for herself. She hadn't been a revolutionary – her cause wasn't organized enough to be named anything recognizable. She was simply a woman who wanted more than she could have.

Violet had understood from a very young age that what their mother was doing was wrong. Violet was ambitious, but in a perfectly constructive, legal way. She was like her father who, though their mother had called him bland a boring, was a hard worker and strove to build things, not destroy them. So between the two of them, Violet and Rain were perfect symbols of their parents: Rain had the family ambition, but it mirrored their mother's perfectly.

"Look," She drew Violet's finger across a map. "There's a ridge just here. When they walk beneath, we can get them from above."

"That would be murder, Rai." Violet waved a hand through the projected image that Rain had made manifest in the air – a macabre scene of loosed bowstrings and rivers of the blood of innocents.

"They're sympathizers." Rain's eyes narrowed.

"They're still people, and they haven't done anything wrong."

"You're no fun."

"When you're like this, neither are you." Violet levelled a hard stare at her sister. Rain's ambition scared her, and not because Violet had always been protective. Rain, when she was in one of these moods, didn't listen to reason. She wouldn't listen to anybody or anything – she wouldn't even pay attention to anything short of physical combat. And her plans she only revealed to Violet because they were sisters, and because deep down she still thought that their mother's blood lay dormant in Violet's body.

"It's for the good of Sara."

"It's to fuel your own desire for blood and combat, and don't you lie and say otherwise."

"It's a genius plan, Vi. Think about it: if we eliminate all the sympathizers, who's the Ruler going to fight with. In one-on-one, Sara would win."

"No she wouldn't."

"Well," Rain considered. "Rhea, then. She could."

"That, I don't doubt. But we can't go around exterminating all the people we think are sympathizers, especially since most of them haven't done anything against us. And we wouldn't even be sure. And it's murder, and that's wrong."

"You could check."

"And how do you propose I do that?"

"You know how." Rain tapped Violet's forehead. "You comb their minds, and if they're sympathizers, we do what needs to be done."

Violet's mind went blank. She knew Rain – better than anyone ever had or probably ever would – but she hadn't been expecting this. Rain was single-minded and careless with her own safety, but she was always careful about Violet's. Suggesting that Violet comb the mind of every single person expected of having even the slightest sympathetic feelings for the Ruler meant that Violet would have to expend almost all of her energy day after day, and Rain knew as well as anyone how quickly energy could wear out. What Rain was suggesting could, and probably would, kill Violet within weeks if they weren't careful.

"I wouldn't ever, even if there was a way to make sure I would live through it." She pulled her fingers through Rain's hair while letting equally dextrous fingers of magic sift through the outer layer of her thoughts. "What's gotten into you?"

"It's a good plan." Rain was utterly confident about her scheme, but her mind whispered I just want it to be over.

"Rai…"

"Out of my head." Rain crossed the room and danced her fingers along the wall, leaving trails of aqua and silver behind her. "Please, Vi? You're strong and you're powerful and everyone who knows who or what you are will cooperate because they know what you have the potential to do."

"I overturned Caprety with you RaiRai, but only because it was rotten inside. I won't do anything to people who haven't done anything wrong."

"Vio, please?"

"No. And you're not going either."

"This isn't trivial Violet, and you can't keep me from it."

"I can and I will. You know what happened to mom, and it's the same thing that'll happen to you if you aren't careful."

"I'm not mom."

"You're beginning to resemble her an awful lot."

"Why do you say it like it's a bad thing?" Rain tipped her head to one side as if the new angle would help her understand something about Violet that she never had. "Mom was noble and worked hard for what she believed in. She died for her cause; she was like a martyr."

"Mom was overambitious, violent, cold, unreasonable and stupid." Violet snapped. "And she died because what she was doing was wrong, and because she couldn't even break the law competently."

"You always did hate her."

"Because I remember what she was like."

"I remember her too; you're not that much older than I am, Vi."

"I'm old enough to remember how cruel she was, even to her newborn daughter."

"She loved me."

"She was grooming you," Violet corrected. Tendrils of purple fire seeped from Violet's fisted hands as she angered. "because she wanted you to become exactly what she was. She wanted you to be cruel and stupid too, and she resented me – hated her own daughter – because I saw into her awful, awful mind and knew what she was planning for you. She wanted the blood of innocents, and she wanted you to want it too."

"She wanted a student."

"She wanted a slave." Violet yelled, and fingers of magic cracked the walls. "She wanted you to hate everything she hated, and that included me."

"I love you, Vio. You know that."

"Only because she died before she could make you her clone."

"Hey," Rain's voice held an unmistakable warning. "She couldn't have taken this," she gestured to the space between Violet and herself. "from us."

"She can and she would have, just like she took parts of you that you don't even know to miss."

"Like what, Vi?" Rain's voice was cold. "Am I stupid? Cruel? Vicious? Am I everything you hated about her and more?"

"You aren't," Violet said, and the cracks deepened as her voice smouldered. "But she was, and you still could be." She turned from her sister and walked away as the walls of the room collapsed behind her.