Mary looked at the woman who had hurled her sight back from her. Looking at the old woman in front of her was something of a shock. The power that this woman held was beyond anything she had ever encountered, but you would never know it looking at her.

The room was whisper quiet as the Matriarch's gaze fell across the group in the pit, her eyes rested on each individual for a moment before sliding to the next person. Mary had felt the weight of an Elder Shape shifter's gaze, but being under this woman's sight was like being crushed.

After the Matriarch had looked and sized up each individual of the group, the silence was finally broken by the creaking, aged voice of the Matriarch, "Who among you is Alpha?"

Furaha stepped forward. She stood with her head held high and her shoulders were proudly rolled back. She looked up at the Matriarch and said, "I am, and I speak for the group."

A single snort from the Matriarch filled the room, "And I'm Joan of Arc." The Matriarch sneered down at the younger woman, "You are no more an Alpha, than my house cat is a tiger. Though I'm sure Giovanni would love if he were a six hundred pound killing machine. Step back, girl, you've embarrassed yourself enough."

Furaha looked like she had just been gut punched. Her chin dropped and her eyes looked empty. Her legs took her backwards, but more out of reflex than any conscious thought or command that she could have given them. Seeing her so thoroughly chastised by the leader of her people, Mary felt genuinely sorry for her.

Mary quickly stepped forward, trying to look far more confident than she felt, "I speak for the group and my people."

The Matriarch smiled, and there was a touch of cruelty at the edges of the older woman's lips, "Tell me child, how can one who has sworn fealty to another speak first in a group?"

Mary let the question hang in the air as she mentally fumbled for an appropriate response to the question.

"The answer is, you can't, girl." It was spoken with a terrible finality that might as well have been a gong signally the end. After a few moments the Matriarch continued, "It's too bad too, because I see the potential in you to be far greater than then you have allowed yourself to be." Mary felt heat rise in her cheeks as the words of the Matriarch hit her with the force of a parent, mentor, teacher, and role model all at once and she shrank back in embarrassment.

The Matriarch looked over the group, all of them feeling the weight of the Matriarch's gaze as her eyes fell on each of them in turn. "If you have no Alpha to speak for you, then I have no time to deal with you. You have passed my riddle and will therefore be allowed to live." She stood up slowly from her chair, leaning heavily on her cane as she did so, "Now remove yourself from this place and never come back." She turned to walk back to the doorway she came from.

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"Wait."

The word echoed softly in the closed room as the Matriarch turned back towards the group.

Acharya stepped forward, "I am alpha of my pack and I speak for my people. Those of your kind who have chosen to stand with us speak for themselves."

The Matriarch regarded the young man carefully, she didn't sit back down, but she didn't continue towards her exit either.

"How very bold, a male thinking he has the right to address me." A small smile played on her lips, "I like bold. But choose your next words very carefully, male, for your life may be forfeit upon the wrong ones said."

Acharya stood with a relaxed posture though his back was straight as he gazed at the Matriarch. He was Alpha of his pack. His pack had faced life and death upon his decisions. And once again his decisions would decide their fate.

Through his pack bond he felt the strength of Aiman, the wisdom of Tara, the gentle healing presence of Asclepius, the warm presence of Malikah and the pride of Mary, all the best qualities of his pack mates could be felt through the bond and he moved ahead.

"I speak for our home, the City under the Mountain, which was destroyed by vampire invaders. We seek your people's aid in our quest for justice and vengeance against the half demons responsible."

The Matriarch regarded the male calmly as she sat back down heavily in her chair. She looked less like an elderly woman, and more like a judge weighing evidence against the accused who stood before her.

"Justice and vengeance are polar opposites of each other. And yet you request both in the same sentence. We have known those who speak of Justice, a noble ideal, yet never delivered with any predictability. Even those who have delivered Justice become corrupted with age, power, and money, and seek to serve other master's while Justice is forgotten. My people have sought Justice many times, while only a fraction are served by that noble ideal."

"I have a small academic understanding of the hardships that you and your people have endured…"

"HAVE YOU?!"

The Matriarch shot out of her chair, standing on her two legs, her cane forgotten and her shawl thrown from her shoulders. The woman who now faced them upon the raised section of the room seemed to have shifted. No longer did they look upon an elderly woman. Her body and face were still the same, but free from under the heavy shawl, they saw her true physicality. Her shoulders were lean, but very muscular, her arms bulged with a barely contained rage inside the woman that pulsed along her biceps and forearms. Her legs were hidden from them by her long robe, but from her stance Acharya could see a grace that mirrored a young dancer's body. This woman may be old, but her body didn't bear the weight of those years as the Matriarch had disguised so well upon her entry.

Her body seethed as her voice dripped venom and malice, "I have killed men and women for less of an insult, male! Give me a reason to let your worthless werewolf ass live!"

Acharya answered with a voice that was icy calm, "Because we too have lost a home. We are asking you for aid in a situation where you received none."

"And where were the werewolves when Kabultiloa fell? Where were the werewolves when we needed aid, time and again as we were driven from home to home?" The Matriarch sneered down at the group, "But now that you need help you want us to sacrifice our lives for a cause that your people couldn't be bothered to help stop when it was happening to us?" Her eyes bored into Niah, "What did they offer you for your help in passing my riddle, girl?"

The long-necked woman stammered as she answered quietly, "They of… offered that no harm would come to me or mine, they guaranteed my safety."

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