The shock of Raja Ebonhart's arrival had taken everybody by surprise. Most notably Jace, and to a lesser extent Cyrus. His magic lynx was not only sent to find Jace, but also Raja to tell her of the situation at hand. Now the shock of her arrival had worn away some, it was Eliwood who spoke first.

"Pardon my rudeness milady." He began cautiously. "However none of us know who you are."

Raja's crimson eyes fixed upon Eliwood for a moment, then swept the throne room before focusing upon her sons. "That young lord, is where you are mistaken. There are at my count, three of those among you who know who I am."

Eliwood looked around the large room, at everyone gathered as if wondering who among them knew this stranger. "Who would those three be?" He asked after a moment.

"She's talking about Cyrus and I." Jace spoke up. "She is our mother."

Eliwood gapped at Jace in freshly renewed shock. The tactician had in their conversations, never mentioned his mother. The Phearan lord turned his attention to Lyn, perhaps wondering wether or not she knew about Jace's relation to this formidable looking newcomer. Lyn however, did not seemed as shocked to this revelation as he did.

"Your son's aside." Lyn spoke addressing the Plegian woman. "Who would be the thrid gathered among us who would know you?"

Raja now fixed her gaze upon Lyn, and a smile graced her lips a moment later. "You are Lyndis. The swordmaiden who has claimed my youngest son's heart correct?"

Lyn's cheeks lightly flushed. While everyone knew that her and Jace loved one another, it was rather off putting to have something like this sprung upon one in such a way. "Indeed I am Lady Ebonhart." Lyn spoke after composing herself once again.

Raja bowed slightly to the swordswoman, her right hand placed over her heart. A Sacean virtue of respect, one that was returned by Lyn. "Now in the category of questions unanswered. The third among us who knows me, is the apprentice of the Mage General of Etrua."

As she spoke, Raja gestured to the young purple haired mage in question. Erk stepped forward, and bowed to her. "Lady Ebonhart, it is an honor to see you again."

"Likewise Erk. How go your studies?" Raja asked, her attention now focusing on the young mage.

"They go well milady, yet I believe we are all wondering how you know where the Black Fang are located."

"Ah yes. Yes forgive me for becoming distracted. I know of this situation in its entirety, as I have a spy within the ranks of the Black Fang, the same as Lord Uther. He has told me everything regarding this whole situation."

Leila, the Ostian spy who had infiltrated the Black Fangs ranks under orders for Lord Uther frowned. Had there been another spy within the Black Fang, she would have known. Surely she would have known.

It was Hector who spoke next. "Well if the Black Fang are located on Valor, then that's where we have to go."

A laugh suddenly rang out along the throne room, followed by Zephyr's voice. "If you want to go, that's fine with me. It's none of my concern where you wish to die, however my brothers will be coming home with me."

Raja's blade was suddenly in her hand. She had unsheathed it and brought it up behind her back in one motion. The sound of metal on metal met everyone's ears, when Raja blocked Zephyr's strike. She tutted and shook her head in a dismissive manner.

"You shouldn't have announced your presence so soon Zephyr." Raja said softly, having not turned around to face her eldest child. "I thought I taught you better than this. Of course, your father would have attempted to erase anything I taught you, in order to instill his ideas into your brain."

Behind her, Zephyr scowled. "You've no idea what I've been through when you left mother." Zephyr spat the last word like a curse, his grip upon his blade tightening. He retracted his blade, and made to run her through. Yet Raja was a much more experienced combatant, her sword arm was a blur, as she turned to face her eldest son. She parried Zephyr's long blade with very little effort, yet made no attempt to make counter strike.

"I am well aware of what has happened in Plegia." Raja countered. "Dear Tharja has been sending me monthly reports."

This news only seemed to have further infuriated Zephyr. His repressed emotions had surfaced once more. His normally impassive crimson eyes flashed with murder. "You knew!?" He snarled, as he began to shimmer with magical energy.

Everyone drew their weapons as one, yet Raja held out an arm. "Do nothing!"

"You knew, yet you did nothing!?" The throne room began to shake violently. A runed seal began to form in front of Zephyr, whose eyes flashed once again with murderous intent.

"Do you like this spell mother?" Zephyr spat the word like a curse once again. "I've only just created it. It will bring my enemy to the brink of death, allowing me to finish them off at my leisure. It doesn't even have a name yet."

Raja looked at the seal forming in front of Zephyr, and shook her head ruefully. "It has a name. The spell is called Eclipse." At that, the same seal formed in front of Raja, who looked her son in the eyes. A moment later, Zephyr roared in pain as dark runes shot from the seal, shattering Zephyr's, and throwing her eldest son to the stone floor several feet away.

Coughing and sputtering, Zephyr planted his sword in the stone floor. He very slowly rose to his feet, blood leaking from a corner of his mouth, and from a deep cut above his left eye. The Eclipse seal formed in front of him once again, as in his defiance and hatred, he believed that this fight was not over. "I will … Kill you…"

"Enough." Raja said simply, and Zephyr's magic seal dissolved the moment Raja's golden blade came into contact with it. "Enough my son, it's over now."

And then through all of the anger, through all of the hatred he felt towards her. The question he had been burning to ask for the last two decades, had finally come to the surface. "Why? Why? Why did you not take me with you?"

Raja sheathed her blade, before she did something that she had not done for the last twenty years. Something that shocked her three sons to their cores. She embraced him. "I am so very sorry Zephyr. On the night I left, I could not find you in your bed. In my panic, thinking that your father knew what I planned to do, I left to find Cyrus and Jace not knowing where you were. In my haste to save my youngest children, I neglected my eldest child."

Zephyr stood there in shock for a moment. His weakened grip upon his blade tightened, before he let it fall. "Mother…"

"Will he fight with us?" Eliwood asked Jace in a whisper that carried throughout the throne room, as Raja worked her fingers through her eldest child's raven hair.

"For this once." Zephyr began, lightly brushing his mother's arms away as he attempted to stand on his own. "I am not against you.