She stood gazing up at the emerald leaves in the tallest branches of the Vallenwood trees when one of her guards interrupted her admiration of them by announcing a young messenger. She smiled at him and was a bit surprized at his sad, half-hearted smile in return.

"Forgive me, Majesty, for bringing you such news," he said to Rhiadora with a solemn bow.

She nodded to him and he disappeared into the forest. She glanced at the envelope and tilted her head curiously, easily recognizing the handwriting of Da'shal Sha'falas. The young queen quickly read the short message and blinked in shock, speechless.

"What is it?" The guards asked, seeing her reaction.

"... Moab Sha'qelas.." She quietly stammered. "Archer of our Navy... Has been murdered."

"What?!" The guards exclaimed angrily. "By whom?"

"A Ka'vanth," Rhiadora answered. Her heart raced and she was flooded with different emotions. Sorrow.. Concern.. Anger.. But there was no time for that now. She took a deep breath to steady herself and pushed aside the feelings. She needed to focus. There were too many questions. There was too much to do. "I need answers," she said sternly to her guards. "Come."

She quickly turned and headed out to ask the cousins of the Kingdom more about the event, her robes billowing behind her, followed by a group of angry Sha'falas and Kyorl guards.

The emergency meeting was adjourned and the Shalonesti Senate shuffled out of the room. Queen Rhiadora Shalonost sat alone in the Circle of Stars, staring at the death message that she recieved earlier that day. She read it again and again, hoping that maybe the next time she read it the words would be different. There were no real answers to the questions swirling in her mind, but at least their response to the horrible murder was decided. But what after that? What was next? What would the Ka'vanth do? What did all this mean for Shalonesti? The burden felt heavy on the young woman's shoulders.

Rhiadora sighed deeply with a frown and crumpled up the death message into a tight wad. She tossed it across the room and watched as her black panther's ears twitched and yellow eyes focused intently on the wad. The large cat crouched momentarily, wiggled her bum, and sprung after the new "toy", pouncing on it with a soft thud of padded paws. Rhiadora couldn't help but chuckle as the cat rolled onto her back, tightly clutching the wad in her mouth and with her front paws. She kicked at it with her strong back claws and it wasn't long before there was nothing left but shredded bits.

"If only it could be that easy," the elf said, watching the cat's game. "But alas, Ebony, its not." The panther, looking quite proud of herself, padded over and curled herself around the queen's feet to take a well deserved nap. After all, it took a lot of kitty energy to show that wadded parchment who was boss. The panther purred and dozed off to sleep and Rhiadora dipped her elegant quill into a well of ink and took a deep breath.

"So it begins," she said as she set her quill to the parchment, a long night of writing various missives ahead of her.