Unamused laugh. "A kinder past for a crueler present."

"Not a trade I'd make, if I ever had the choice."

Eridani quietly hugs Wyld.

Hug!

"It's why we're here now," she says quietly. "So we can do better than the past."

Slow, considering nod.

Pat pat.

Lean! "You're very good," she tells Eridani. 

"I'm trying."

Kiss!

Eee kiss!

The tiger stretches. "I can't say I know why you're here now, though. Someone who is and is not a Lunar, in a time and place where she shouldn't be, with a familiar scent and an unfamiliar face... Creation contains strange things indeed."

"That's not really anything new, though, is it? Times are always strange somehow."

Amused rumble. "Some are stranger than others."

"Fair enough."

"So, do you know the Empress like personally, or...?"

"I knew her only distantly, and I doubt she would remember me as an individual - but I knew her mothers well, and I suspect she would recognize me as one of Elathea Brightspear's guards."

"What was Brightspear like?"

...Mrrr.

"She changed over the decades and then centuries. I didn't know her well when my Lady married her, or during their courtship - my Lady brought her to her domain, of course, and gave her this or that tour, but there are very, very many of us, and I was not yet someone of any note. From what I have heard... Intelligent, witty, ambitious. She and my Lady rediscovered or invented several new workings, melding sorcery and wyld-shaping."

"She grew possessive over time, though, and she grew angry - as all within the Solar Deliberative were. And after the birth of their children, she withdrew from her family and began arguing with my Lady more. This first exploded in a fight she had with my Lady, in which she nearly killed her wife. The eldest of the honored daughters, the Lady Micqui, took her sisters and fled through paths known only to Sidereals. This angered Brightspear, as it would anger any tyrant, but no matter how she searched, the Lady Micqui stayed ahead of her, and Heaven had already turned its back upon the Solar Deliberative - and though the Lady Luna had been directly ordered not to interfere, she had never been one for orders, it is said, and she claimed my Lady Gleam as her favorite, and so Brightspear's endeavors often came to ignoble ends."

The tiger pauses for a long, solemn moment, glancing down.

"That's sad."

"Not as sad as it would become, unfortunately."

"What else happened?"

A pause, then, softly: "It was never confirmed to me, but... I believe the honored daughters aided in and perhaps significantly drove the Usurpation, or at least its success. The Lady Layla at least was central to the government formed immediately after, though she was eventually pushed out of power."

"In the decades before this - Brightspear had been gradually building a massive sorcerous work, and was to complete it shortly before the Usurpation. It seemed to me that there were fears she would activate it in response to the Usurpation, possibly destabilizing Creation itself. Given her anger, and given that I'm fairly sure that work became the Realm Defense Grid... It's far too plausible."

"I do not know the full sequence of events, but I believe the honored daughters tried to kill Brightspear ahead of the Usurpation, and she survived and retaliated. The Ladies Micqui and Samira were killed in that conflict, though the Lady Layla had not been present."

"Brightspear came to the edges of my Lady Gleam's realm, then, and begged to be killed. My Lady imprisoned her instead."

"That's terrible."

She loves Luc', but - it's not too hard at least, to separate Elathea from her own girlfriend now. 

"Then I hope Gleam returned every offense with interest."

Tail flick. "She did."

"And Elathea Brightspear did not offer even a moment's resistance, unless Lady Gleam needed it to vent her anger properly. She repented, as much as any can, and in time the Lady Gleam grew afraid of her own rage, and then regretful of her actions, and then mournful of the relationship she'd lost. And her anger began to spill around her, to more than just Lady Elathea."

"She joined her wife in this temple complex over a century before the Great Plague. Her exile was voluntary - but in truth, Lady Elathea's had been as well. We could not have held her if she wished to escape."

Sigh. Sad story for everyone.