A girl rose her brow towards the spider warlord, the woman was similar to the golden woman, but her skin tanner and faded to an ashy pale gray over her limbs, a bit taller, but still average in height, very long and sharp silver nails and bright silver eyes, long silver hair in curls hanging to the small of her back, dressed in a knee length fluffy dress covered in silver lace and a silver belt snug around her waist with a large bow that hung to her knees, extremely thick silver petticoat, slightly fuller figured and sharp teeth as she looked at the warlords a little confused, a diadem around her head adorned with moonstone set in silver. There was something…strange about how she looked, despite having regular humanoid proportions, there was something…artificial to the way she looked, movements randomly jerking or twitching as she just stood there or features suddenly twisting into something different for a millisecond, for barely a blink it almost looked like her limbs were too long, her body distended or twisted into unnatural, broken angles…like a doll or a marionette.

            “Why me…why not one of my father’s knights?” she asked, voice tinted with that thick Australian accent, but her voice was slow, methodical and calculated like her father, clothing falling into trickling silvery sand towards the bottom of her dress, gray tinted legs wrapped in silver ribbons fastened to her silver ballet flats, almost as if she was wearing silver pointe shoes, long trailing earrings and jewelry pieces of shards of mirror, the edges still sharp and the shards needle like, nearly sharp enough that they should impose a threat upon herself, every time she stepped sounded like someone drumming their nails on glass, these clear, resonate tones of glass.

            “I know that you are far…far more capable than any of your father’s knights, he has been in Australia for far…far longer than I have” Heather said, huge spider legs off her back crackling as they wrapped around the throne and shifted her in the chair.

            “He’s been there sense anyone has” Kálmán said with a soft laugh.

            “And…Master Nel…you chose me?” a figure asked, neither masculine nor feminine, tall and broad shouldered, but rather thinly muscled and graceful, built like the most poised dancer, deep and rich toned skin with inky black hair shaved off the sides of their head with floral designs shaved into the short clipped hair, the hair down the center of their head in thick box braids adorned with braiding hair of black, blond, brown and green that hung down to the small of their back, just all held in a wide leather band at the crown of their skull with a spike of bone through it holding it together, glowing neon yellow eyes and very angular and elegant features: high cheekbones and highly arched brows, a strong Roman nose with a prominent bump to the bridge and fuller lips with a beauty mark above the upper right side, dressed in long robes of green fabric patterned with gold vines and vibrant flowers, edged in cream with a white sash wrapped around their waist overtop a floor touching evergreen skirt that faded to cream towards the knee down, a gold rope tied around their waist adorned with various charms, trinkets and various natural pieces, lots of beads of clay, wood and stone or even bone, feather and bundles of various fur and scale, arms wrapped in seemingly growing vines and softly blooming flowers or crawling bugs about the vines that wrapped around them, butterflies perched in their hair, various beetles crawled along their arms as other found purchase on their robes, right hand softly moving in graceful, long gestures as their left was wrapped around the haft of a tall staff of thin, twisted and wrapped baobab tree branches that were intermingled with growing vines and flowers, swarms of beetles and other tiny bugs moving about the haft with a very large raw chunk of clear crystal held fast at the top, the branches woven and twisted around the raw base of the crystal that seemed to ingrain itself into the branches and a large ovate shield fastened to their back shaped akin to a scarab beetle with the wings closed inwards, wooden and adorned with inlaid wire of gold and other metals and painted vibrantly with natural, rich pigments with set quartz stones for its eyes.  

            “I did” the warlord of gluttony added, a shark like smile of intense sharp teeth on display as he softly laughed, “Your mother is mother nature, there is nobody else I could choose to be my warden.” He added, a huge shark-fin on display between his shoulders, deep gills along his neck expanding and flattening as he breathed, long hair in a wash of tight braids around him and adorned with masses of jewelry.

            “Is there…something you wish for us to handle at the moment?” Viktoria asked, hefting her massive crossbow atop her shoulder, resting her left arm around it as the reindeer antler nestled into the back of her neck to support its weight.

            “If there was a beast of quarry that I wanted gone…knowing you, it would already be dead.” Kálmán said making Viktoria laugh softly as she nodded softly.

            “Very true, very true. I mean, I do have my own names back in Everwinter, so I understand why…you’d choose me, your highness.” She said before her dark green eyes flicked back to the man in purple, “And, Prince Anthony, it is always welcome to have myself in your presence. Being graced by the light of Nyx, god of winter, darkness, snow and ice is always enjoyable for someone like myself.” she added, the man in purple laughed softly as his feet lifted off the ground a little, a lavender toned flurry coiled around his legs as he floated over to beside his husband, letting his arms drape around the warlord prince’s shoulders as he rested his chin atop his head between his antlers.

            “And my yourself, the grand hunter.” Anthony said

            “Grand hunter?” Rynold asked, Viktoria laughed softly as she opened a pocket on her jacket and slid out a candy cane, snapping the crook off in her teeth, the broken end was suddenly alight in a soft white toned ember, white smoke coiling out of her nose as she held it in her right hand, crunching through the sugar as she let the pluming smoke through her nose and teeth.

            “I wouldn’t be the Guardian of the Forests of the Everwinter if I couldn’t hunt trifle prey.” Viktoria said as she shifted her crossbow, “With Advent here, I can take down anything with a single shot.” She added, fondly patting the stock of the crossbow with her left hand, lowering the burning candy cane in her right hand, “Got a problem with that, Rynold? I know that the two of us have always been on…harsher terms.” She added, Rynold’s kind and warm expression faded into something akin to not distaste, but something along the lines of annoyance or discomfort. “I mean, I got quite the ear-full from your mother when I got this one.” She added softly nodding over to the polar bear skin on her shoulder.

            “Polar bears are endangered.” Rynold rasped, she laughed

            “And this bitch was posing a problem for Everwinter, it’s my job to ensure the safety of those of my father’s city. Christmas elves are not the…most resilient elves nor are they the fondest of weaponry.”

            “You killed a polar bear” they added pointedly

            “It killed four tree harvesters. I did what I needed to do. The fuck was rabid.” She said with a shrug, completely unbothered and unfazed by it, “Just a single shot was needed…got it right through the eyes here” she added holding the smoking candy cane in her teeth as she lifted the head up a little showing a large marring scar through its left socket, she breathed out cold, heavily peppermint scented smoke rolling across Rynold’s face as Viktoria leaned over a little to be eye-level with the latter, who was tall in their own right, Viktoria is just beyond Amazonian in her height to that unnatural height of hers that made her elbows the height of some of the people around her, Rynold was only about as tall as her collar and was extremely tall. “And what are you gonna do about it?”