-53-
Isolde
"Hello Marcus," Isolde called sweetly, watching her former right hand's face go tomato red, nose twitching and eyes lit with a rage that would scare a lesser being. "I hear you've been naughty in my absence."
"Empress," Marcus called out, feigned nonchalance oozing from him where he hid behind the battlement and his dozens of archers like a coward. No matter, she would prevail regardless of how hard he fought to survive this time. He would not survive, nor would he escape. "I presume, as I've yet to hear from Cairo, that you had something to do with the sudden volcanic eruption underneath Alexandria? That has already made global news, Pharaoh will be furious."
Isolde didn't bother to fight the smirk that tugged at the corner of her mouth and she laughed, a full body, hearty thing. The endorphins from her laughter felt so good mixed with the adrenaline that pulsed through her, a byproduct of her battle-enduced excitement. It was a heady and power thing, knowing she'd win. Knowing she was now merged with Ra and together they made the strongest being on the planet.
Isolde was borderline euphoric.
This was the best she'd ever felt.
'Likewise,' Ra agreed within her. 'I've never felt so happy in all my existence. To think, we could've felt this way for four thousand years…'
'They will pay,' Isolde promised him.
'Indeed they will. We can call what they did to you as a self-fulfilling prophecy.'
"Oh. That?" Isolde decided to acknowledge what Marcus had accused her of, and the laughable threat of Emeric's disapproval. That was no longer something she concerned herself with. Not after learning about the serum. Not after giving herself time to think about things, and certainly not now that Anubis had returned, she'd mated with four wonderful men, and she'd finally merged with Ra. Emeric has suddenly fallen quite low on her priority list. "That wasn't me, actually…"
'How much more time do you think they need for evacuation?' Isolde asked Ra, 'I'm going to start asking questions – Marcus is a talker, he'll answer for a while.'
'I'd say keep him busy for at least five more minutes.'
Marcus had the audacity to roll his eyes from behind the walls where he thought himself safe. "I find that hard to beli–"
"Was there ever a time where you thought 'those Alexander's aren't so bad, perhaps I shouldn't betray them?' Or was this your plan all along, Marcus?" Isolde interrupted him, beginning the next stage of her attack, beginning to create small mirrors one by one in every small crevice of the city before moving onto the larger mirrors she'd be placing into the streets and on top of buildings.
There were advantages to having built an entire city by her own hands. She'd drawn the plans. She'd been there from start to finish; from the time they turned what had been a large cavern and a complex system of tunnels under the Grigna Mountains in Northern Italy, to the end when the entire city had been built stone by stone, brick by brick. It had taken almost three hundred years to complete construction, but the city was as structurally sound as an underground city could ever be and gorgeous to boot. A stunning blend of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian architecture.
Empathia was her masterpiece. For almost seven hundred years it had been her home, her safe haven.
A city shrouded in the safe embrace of darkness, a hideaway where she could shield her family from enduring the depths of her despair for so long as she hid behind those walls. Hid, but always waited for their next summons.
Amidst her masterpiece, her haven, was a people. Those people, who were like beacons of hope and life and vitality that she'd all but given up on experiencing for herself. They inspired her… and she'd shared in their triumphs, and their failures. They too shared in hers.
In these Shadowed Halls, Isolde broke bread and listened to stories of great people. Those forgotten by history, though never far from her heart. People who'd lived vastly different lives than she had and suffered, too, but did not allow their grief to swallow them.
They were mortal until she gave them power, and yet in their powerlessness, they were mighty. Mightier than she had ever been.
They'd warmed her frozen over heart insomuch as they could in all their years of genuinely caring for her, not just as an Empress or a Goddess, but simply as their friend, and over time they had become her meaning and her purpose.
A purpose born from millennia of toil, tears, and shared hardship without the biting sting of the mutual harm that was suffered between herself and her family.
Beside her children, the Shade had become her first true love, as they would be forevermore.
No matter how much she loved her family.
No matter how much she loved her soul bonds.
Isolde had a special love for her people – and she would never abandon that love. Not now that life had been breathed back into her soul. She would not falter, now. Nor would she allow some trumped up sycophantic psychopath with a grudge connive and scheme his way into harming them any longer.
No. More.
"No, I can't say I did ever rethink things," Marcus confessed as a few trembling Shade ran along the battlements with lit torches, catching fire to each well of oil that was there for the archers to light their arrows. So Marcus thought to fight her off with fire, was that it? Interesting choice. "Even as a mortal it was clear how pathetic the Alexanders were. It seemed as if your family peeked when Emeric was parading around as 'Alexander the Great' and you've all been worthless since. I'm surprised none of the other Pantheon's have decided to take you out."
"Hm," Isolde grinned, wide and slow, but her eyes hardened at the insults, "did you think that, perhaps, that might have been because they knew better?"
She was moving onto the larger mirrors now.
And none of the traitor Hidden noticed the amount of shadows available to hide within were slowly vanishing as light flooded the city from the great false sun that burned above them, reflecting off the increasing amount of mirrors.
'It's funny that they haven't noticed how bright it's getting, despite the cloud cover the smoke is giving. They're all sweating profusely,' Ra mused while Marcus bared his teeth and ground them together,he looked seconds from screaming at her, a vein jutting out in the middle of his red face.
Isolde observed the traitor legion. The ones who stood atop the battlements and the ones below who were quickly getting into battle formation. They were definitely feeling the heat. Marcus had sweat beading off his temple and most of the Hidden's hair was starting to darken as their scalps collected moisture. It was beginning to grow uncomfortable.
The Shade liked things cold and dark. This was the opposite of that.
"The Greeks disagree," Marcus grinned up at her, like this news would rattle her, "Phanes disagrees."
Just a day ago it would have.
Ra burst out laughing and Isolde had a hard time keeping his elation to herself.
'Allow me to speak?' He asked, calming just as suddenly as he'd burst out with his laughter that it almost gave Isolde whiplash, but she granted him his request.
"Phanes," Ra chortled through her and she hadn't been prepared for the dual voice to come from her mouth, speaking words through her as if they were her own. "That charlatan places the majority of his Creation magic on the power of 'luck.' That is the Creator with whom you've placed your faith? He's gambling with your life and the lives of those you sway to your side as the price that shall be paid, you fool. You're nothing but a toy to him."
The angry red had drained from Marcus' face, replaced by a deathly pale, wide-eyed look that hinted at fear and Isolde couldn't help but bask in it as Marcus realized that she was no longer just Isolde.
"You— you've mer.."
"Merged?" Isolde's tone returned to that sweet taunting sound from when she'd greeted him. "Yes." In that moment, Marcus' eyes darted around and Isolde held a hand up. "What's the matter, dear? Can't find any shadows to disappear into?"
At that, everyone shifted and the panic began to rise when the realization hit.
There were no shadows to be found.
Six thousand creatures of darkness had all stood there as the fully merged and newly Earthbound Deity of the Sun, God of Gods, had trapped them in their light.
Kol
"We were told to find a man called 'Mustafa'," Kol faced the severely emaciated young woman Finn had introduced as 'Yasu' Isolde's child bond, jury was still out if he believed it, or if he trusted this bond, but Finn seemed to so that would be enough for the moment, "any idea where we can locate him?"
"I can't say. He may be dead," Yasu's face twisted as she said it and it was clear that she mourned this man. Then her entire countenance twisted with bitterness, sorrow, and fury. "Almost all loyalists of high rank are dead now. The presented choice was to die or convert to Marcus' side for the 'war to come.' I'm only alive because I'm 'useful as a hostage.' The others were more of a threat that I was. I'm… not trained for combat. Everyone knows that."
"I find it hard to believe that Isolde didn't train you to defend yourself…" Kol squinted at the slip of a woman who looked to be barely out of girlhood. Though, he reminded himself, Yasu was at least four or five hundred years old. Isolde had mentioned Yasu was found during the Sengoku period in Japan.
"Oh, no, she wanted to," Yasu assured them as Kol began to lead them out of the corridor that Finn had cleared, noting that there were no signs of life. Just like there hadn't been in his corridor. It wasn't difficult to believe what Yasu said, that most loyalists were dead or had been converted. He wondered if Nik and Elijah's searches had turned up any loyalist survivors. And he also wondered, now, about Dainn and company's loyalty. How were they still alive, and how had they not known? "I refused," Yasu continued, oblivious to Kol's ponderings, "I'm generally a pacifist. Mother doesn't give me grief over it, I think she likes the contrast."
Kol eyed her as Finn stepped around him with her still in his arms as they entered the central chamber. It certainly hadn't been difficult to get Yasu to open up to them. One mention of being bound to Isolde was all it took. He wondered why she felt so comfortable throwing caution to the wind. Those thoughts were still on his mind when Finn lowered her into a rolling chair that was behind a massive desk lined with computers and ripped into his wrist, pressing it to her mouth.
"Not to burst the trusting bubble you've shrouded yourself in, big brother, but she could be lying about being a pacifist and you could be risking getting attacked once she returns to full strength with your blood in her system," Kol's lips pursed, tone as sarcastic as he could possibly make it as he eyed the two skeptically, "but far be it from me to question your life choices, I suppose."
"Shut up Kol," Finn sighed heavily, and he imagined that the elder brother was rolling his eyes at Kol's caution.
"What's he said, now?" Nik's voice preceded his presence as he was suddenly beside them, carefully lowering two corpse-like bodies, one male one female, with shallow beating hearts to the ground beside them. "I always miss the good parts. Who's this?"
"Yasu," Kol informed him, nodding his greeting, "she claims most loyalists are dead and she's only alive because she's a pacifist and a valuable hostage."
"Ah," Nik nodded, picking up on what Kol wasn't saying in a way that only the most paranoid of them would, "well, love, in this family we don't lie to each other," Kol's brow raised and he glanced over at the hybrid, who threw an innocent look right back "...anymore, so are you telling us the truth?"
"Niklaus." Finn warned, his tone taking on an edge that wouldn't have bothered any of them prior to the soul bond but… well, since the bond they'd begun to witness another side of their older brother that gave them pause.
Yasu released Finn's wrist and her lips curled into a snarl as life began to flood back into her with the introduction of potent vampire blood.
"I have no reason to lie," Yasu hissed through clenched teeth and rose to her feet as her muscles began to repair and add a little lean weight back to her skeletal body. Kol expected her to snap at them further, march up to Nik or himself and slap them for their audaciousness, but she did neither.
Instead, the three of them watched as she stepped around the desk and sank to her knees beside the two barely alive bodies that Nik had brought with him.
"Nailah?" Yasu's voice was gentle as she brushed some of the dark, matted, and unkempt hair away from the face of the woman. "Nai? Wake up, we have to move. Mother's returned, she's going to end Marcus."
The woman stirred, but didn't seem able to respond.
"Nailah?" Nik questioned, crouching down right beside Yasu and examining the corpse-like woman who lay prone on the stone floor. "Isolde's eldest friend, Nailah?"
Yasu looked up in surprise as she continued to smooth a hand over the woman's hair. "The first Shade, yes. She's practically my aunt, I'm glad to see she lives. If only just."
Nik looked over his shoulder and made eye contact with Kol and Finn, but before anyone could say anything, question it, or think about what this means because Nailah was supposed to have been working with Marcus, not a prisoner in Empathia, Elijah appeared with a large dark skinned man with long unkempt dreadlocks slung over his shoulder.
"This was the only living body in my corridor," Elijah informed them, laying the hulking man down just as gently as Nik had, right beside the other man beside Nailah. Elijah looked up at Yasu, who was clearly among the imprisoned despite being almost fully healed by Finn's blood now, and extended a hand. Ever the gent. Kol didn't bother to fight his eye roll, and neither did Nik. "Elijah Mikaelson."
"Yasu Iwasaki-Alexander," Yasu replied, shaking his hand and treating him more cordially than she had the rest of them. Nik tisked, clearly affronted just as Kol was.
It was always Elijah who somehow made a good first impression.
Elijah's brows nearly reached his hairline.
"Oh don't look like that Elijah, it creases your forehead and makes you look your age…" Kol quipped, unable to stop himself.
He was, unsurprisingly, completely ignored.
"A pleasure to meet you, despite the horrific circumstances," Elijah said to her, then glanced down at the unidentified other's they had gathered, "do you know these people?"
Yasu nodded, swallowing hard and frowning. "Nailah I already introduced," Elijah didn't have a chance to react to that as she moved onto the man that he'd dropped when he entered, "thank all the gods that you've found Mustafa… I thought surely he was dead. You'll need to heal him. Immediately. Nai, too. They'll both want to go to the Empress' side," Yasu informed them, eyes on Elijah, wide and imploring before gesturing to the male that Nik had brought. "This one is actually not Shade, he's a Berserker. He and his brother were taken to keep his father, who is a high ranking Shade, in line. When his father acted out and tried to rebel, this one's twin was killed and, well, that ended Dainn's revolution…"
"Dainn?" Finn asked, now closing the distance that Yasu had placed between them when she left her chair, crouching down beside her. She turned to look at him questioningly. "Dainn Halvarson?"
"Yes…" Yasu confirmed, though it sounded more like a question and she looked around as if eye contact with him and his brothers would grant her the details she was searching for.
"I'm always right," Nik raised his hands looking between them all like the cat who got the cream, "perhaps you lot will learn to hear me when I say I don't trust someone."
"Dainn Halvarson is a good man and a loyalist," Yasu defended even without understanding the context of their conversation, "if he's done something wrong then it was to protect his remaining son and even the Empress would not hold that against him," she placed a hand on the man who's lungs rattled with fluid each breath he took. "This is Ivar Dainnson."
"At very least he was hiding something from Isolde–"
"He's Dainn's son and that makes him family, Niklaus," Elijah raised his voice and cut Nik off, who scoffed as Elijah continued, "give him your blood. Kol, return Nailah to health. I'll heal Mustafa and we'll be on our way before the fighting gets started."
"That's assuming it hasn't already," Kol grumbled, moving around the gathering so he could fit himself between Finn and Nik to get to the woman. "Are we certain we can trust Nailah? The last we saw of her she was deceiving Isolde."
"Must be a changeling, because this woman hasn't been out of these dungeons in decades," Nik told him, grabbing Ivar by the shirt and wrenching him up, despite the man's groan.
"But she used Shade shadow manipulation," Kol pointed out.
"I'm sorry, I'm lost – family?" Yasu prompted as each of them ripped into their own wrists to bring life back to these half-dead Shade.
"Dainn was our father's uncle, so that makes Ivar a cousin of ours," Finn explained, offering a hand. She took it and he helped her to her feet, escorting her away from them to give them some space. "Distant, but still family."
"Mikaelson," Yasu mumbled, looking back at Elijah, then to Kol's amusement he watched her head swivel back to Finn with wide eyed shock, "by the Gods… the Mikaelson Original Vampires?!"
"The very same," Nik sounded quite proud of himself as he confirmed this, removing his wrist from Ivar's mouth and letting the man fall over unceremoniously.
Yasu's lip twitch, followed by her left eye, then a loud snort ripped from her and peels of unhinged laughter pervaded the spacious room as she looked between them all until tears beaded in the corners of her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something more than once, but ended up slumping into the office chair that Finn had previously deposited her in and Kol's irritation was rising.
"Keep that up and you'll come to understand why we have a reputation, Isolde's child bond or not," Nik threatened and Yasu had the audacity to wave him off. Kol almost laughed at the incensed look that contorted the hybrid's face.
"I be—" Yasu's laughter started to taper off and she tried to speak between big, gasping breaths, "I bet Uncle Emeric hates it so much. He's mentioned how vexing he found the vampire progenitors for years… this is almost poetic. This is the best news I've ever heard. How long has it been?"
Just like that, Kol felt his annoyance evaporate.
"Only a couple of months," Elijah said in a more subdued tone, and Kol was surprised to realize that it had indeed been only a handful of weeks since the Mikaelson ball and their mother's misbegotten plan to eradicate them.
"Two months and you're besieging her city," Yasu said, watching life return to the three on the floor and seeming to relax now that her laughter had subsided, "that's moving pretty quickly for a quint of ancients, even as soul bonds."
"You can blame your Uncle Anubis for matching us from the underworld when we were between death and resurrection," Kol told her as Nailah raised up, taking several deep breaths and clutching her head.
"Anubis?" The newly healed Nailah asked with a thickly accented English, entering the conversation with a sharp cough. Her vocal cords might need another few seconds to restore themselves. "What has happened?"
"I would also like to know this," Mustafa the hulking giant, bigger than Dainn by far, interjected. His voice was deep, the deepest that Kol had ever heard and it rumbled like a thunderstorm. This man was recovering fastest, and he pushed himself up until he could get onto his knees, gritting his teeth against the fatigue as he wretched himself to his feet with a great hiss.
"I am not Shade but I'm curious as well," Ivar said, also heaving himself up but stopping once he made it to an upright seated position, looking around at them all. "I heard something about my father and the group of you being my distant cousins?"
"I want to explain, but we can't remain where we are," Elijah urged, holding a hand out to Nailah to help her to her feet, "it won't be much longer before battle wages above us. The Empress wants everyone evacuated. We came for the prisoners, there are others evacuating the citizens."
"What others? I should be aiding them…" Mustafa growled, stumbling forward and just barely managing to catch himself against the desk."
"Mustafa, they say the Empress called for evacuation," Nailah reasoned with him, voice dark and commanding even as she leaned heavily against Elijah. What shocked Kol, however, was the sheer power that wafted off of the first created Shade when she said; "you shall not disobey."
It was like a whip had cracked through the room and Mustafa, who'd seemed like he was going to be particularly headstrong and difficult to deal with, stopped struggling immediately and inclined his head in deference saying nothing to contradict this.
"There is none more loyal than Nailah," Yasu whispered very low, so low that only vampires would be able to hear it, "other than Samael, of course."
Then who was it that had come to Mystic Falls with the other Hidden? Who was the Nailah impersonator?
Kol pondered this question as a deep rumble came from above, signaling that Isolde had finally gotten started and they needed to get out of there quickly.
Isolde
'We could roast them alive,' Ra supplied his suggestion as the frightened traitors below scurried about, searching for someplace to hide and growing more panicked by the moment, 'turn up the heat until they begin to smoke from the burns and let them die in agony while the burns bake them for hours.'
'I like it, it's got potential, but I'd rather this be over in under a half hour. We do have other tasks.' Isolde reminded him, creating an iron cage that sprang up out of the ground and caught Marcus where he'd been trying to rush off toward the palace. There were quite a few little tunnels within her home he could use to escape but she didn't want him going anywhere this time.
"ISOLDE!" Marcus' anguished and rage-filled cry called over the noisy bustle of his legion.
Isolde ignored him.
Those were the screams of a desperate weasel who knew the end was upon him.
'A half hour or less, keeps the city from being destroyed, and makes their deaths painful,' Ra listed off Isolde's criteria, sighing. 'We can still roast them, just make it hotter so it kills them quicker.'
'Eh, we did lava in Alexandra. Seems too much like a repeat… though I do appreciate the suffering they'd endure while burning alive. It's the least they deserve after subjugating my people for decades during my absence.' Isolde thought, crossing her arms and pursing her lips, until the proverbial light bulb went off and she grinned. 'How about a hunt?'
'Sadistic and terrifying,' she could feel Ra's approval warming her body. 'I like it.'
Without waiting for more, Isolde set her intentions, pooled Ra's power, and created tens of thousands of giant Black Mamba's that immediately dispersed upon creation. Slithering through the city in search of the traitor legion.
The Black Mamba is Africa's most lethal snake. Aggressive when cornered it can kill a human with one bite and it tends to inject far more venom than needed into its victim. They're also considered the world's fastest, traveling at speeds up to twelve miles an hour… a fearsome snake indeed. And Isolde had created them about a hundred times bigger, faster, and more deadly. They should be able to swallow the enemies whole.
…and judging by the screams that were coming from the market district, some of the Mamba's had caught up with a few enemies.
'There's a group trying to slip away into the palace,' Ra warned her, and Isolde's head snapped to the southernmost part of the city with a scowl.
"Oh no you don't, you bastards," Isolde growled, extending her hand and creating a split in the alabaster stone at the entrance of her palace, watching with vicious glee as the stone slab fell atop the seven Hidden who sought to escape through her home. "I've been meaning to redo the entryway for the last century, anyway. Alabaster is outdated."
That was a lie, and Ra knew it, but he didn't call her on it.
'Suppose I should go speak with Marcus, then.' Isolde sighed, lowering herself into the city proper, landing beside the stunning onyx hand-carved fountain in the center of the city. One of her favorite commissioned pieces from DaVinci. She admired the piece, glad to see it still stood, and turned to close the distance between the fountain and where Marcus was ramming his shoulder against his cage, a futile attempt of escape. 'Flying is wonderful, I wish I'd had this ability all along…'
'You'll have it from now on, if that's any consultation.'
It was.
"Release me, Isolde, you don't know the powers you toy with," Marcus looked like a man possessed, his hair sticking up in different directions and his eyes bloodshot, "the enemies you have created–"
"What enemies would those be, Mark?" Isolde asked, coming to a stop just out of his reach and folding her arms over her chest. "The Greeks? The Creators? Apophis?"
"Yes," he nodded, both of his hands wrapping around the metal bars as he pressed his face between them, like some kind of creepier version of Jack Nicholson sticking his face through that door he'd broken in The Shining. "They're going to destroy the Egyptian Pantheon. Don't you see?" He was looking more frantic with each word that ripped out of his mouth. "We had to take what you built to save it! Your inaction over the millennia, paired with your family's boot pressing onto the necks of the other pantheons has led to a festering hatred of you all. They want to see you dead."
'Ra?' Isolde asked, watching her former right hand descend into a blubbering, wild-eyed, beseeching mess right before her eyes.
'He's overstating things to gain sympathy, or regain a semblance of trust, but there is truth to it. The Greeks, mostly, have taken issue with your pantheon. The Hindu agree with them, as do half of the Celts, Cernunnos particularly. He's still upset with Theon. The Shinto are still firmly on your side, as are the Native American spirits under Tawa and the Norse. Many of the smaller pantheons remain skeptical of the Greeks and will not bend to them, even if they don't stand with you.'
'Well,' Isolde thought, trying to wrap her head around potential outcomes… 'It seems Emeric was preparing for war with good reason, then? Did he suspect he was being double crossed?"'
'Your brother always suspects he's being double crossed,' Ra told her and she conceded the point as he carried on; 'he just didn't realize the people he trusted most were the enemy all along. I do feel obligated to tell you, in the interest of transparency between us, that he planned to use the serum against you if he had to,' Ra told her, and she had to fight the visceral rage that tightened her muscles from her feet to her face at that information.
Though she'd already suspected as much, there was no way she'd easily allow their family to war against the other pantheons and Emeric had always thought he knew best. With a weapon like the serum at his fingertips it would've been too much of a temptation to use it, or use the threat of it, to keep his family in line.
He could always take their individual power, make them mortal, and then turn them into berserkers or changelings so he'd have dominion over them.
Much like Klaus with his daggers, but far worse.
Instead of rising to the bait like Marcus had intended, Isolde remained calm as she responded.
"You've attempted to take what is not yours because you are ambitious and self serving, no matter how you attempt to dress things up to make yourself into an unsung hero, toiling for the sake of the people. Do not think you can charm me with your embellished sob story now, Marcus. You allied with our enemies, and you've used the Shade to amass wealth to fund the war you and Gaius intended to start."
The screams of the Legion were louder, now, and they echoed across the barren city.
"Emeric called for war first, Isolde!" Marcus growled, banging his hands against the bars and baring his teeth. He was so out of control, so desperate, that saliva dripped from his mouth like a rabid dog. "He held a war council in the fifties and didn't bother to invite you to it, but I was there. He wants complete control over everything. Gaius, Aris, and I had no choice!"
'Truth,' Ra told her and Isolde's heart sank. 'The twins didn't agree, but Vera did go ahead and sanction the research for the serum despite her stance on Emeric's war. Theon doesn't know about it.'
To herself, she wondered.
Emeric, how can you live five thousand years and have changed so much yet so little in all that time?
And to hear that Vera had gone along with the creation of a new bio weapon that targeted the connection to the one thing that every living being had the right to be connected to?
Isolde was disgusted and heart broken. Were they truly so far gone?
She knew the answer already.
"Perhaps, but that doesn't excuse that you've been planning this from the start."
"That is the past, Sol, this is the present and you're not hearing me." Marcus accused, face dropping as he finally deflated. Isolde watched as the wild in his eyes receded into resignation and his hands fell away from the bars. "You don't wish to hear me."
"Oh I hear you, Marcus. I hear the half truths and the manipulative bullshit that's falling from that mouth," Isolde hissed, finally allowing her own face to contort with her rage so he could see just how angry she was underneath her feigned calm, "and I no longer trust everything you say. You are a traitor."
Marcus opened his mouth to retort and she created a gag for his mouth. He looked at her with hate filled eyes but she was done entertaining him. She'd received the answers she'd been looking for.
"You tricked us with fake soul bonds so that we would give you the keys to our kingdoms without question," Isolde said, allowing Ra's endless inferno of rage to gradually consume her and flames flickered to life around her body and in her eyes. "You colluded with the enemies of House Alexander," thousands of Black Mamba sped toward her, the last screams of dying Hidden slowly quieting, "you became a monster in the lives of the Shade, torturing them to further your own goals. For this, and whatever else I am sure to discover posthumously, I sentence you to die."
She melted the cage out of existence and watched as the Black Mamba swarmed.
I hope you liked it!