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Lysithea gave a soft hum, still clearly unhappy with the state her brother was in, but. Honestly there was nothing more that she could do. She couldn't reach out to him, couldn’t hold him. And not just because she knew that she would be pushed away, such an action would make him angry and embarrass him in front of his peers but.

She glanced to Axinite, who she knew had been worried half sick. Showing emotions, showing affections wasn’t weakness. It wasn’t good to let it get in the way of things, but compassion couldn’t bring disgrace. Not in her mind at least.

The comment about the Princess being alive for a reason made her sigh. “I’ll wait for the queen, but I’ll still go over and see it.”

Her own phrasing made her pause and sigh, shaking her head. One moment there’s anger about the people around her not having compassion and the next she’s calling a princess ‘it’.

It was…rather uncomfortable.

Lysithea stood up and walked away from Faustite, going over to the groaning princess and looking at her dispassionately. There was an awful lot of blood. And even if the Queen didn’t want her all the way healed…she doubted they’d go through all the trouble to bring her here and let her die either. “Lysithea Mending Horn.”

She didn’t know what to heal, so let her magic decide what it thought was worst. Perhaps she wouldn’t die before the Queen arrived, at least.

As far as Lopezite was considered, things could have gone phenomenally worse. Although, all things considered, he’d probably made it out far better than he could have imagined. Admittedly, he did feel a pang of guilt at the state of Faustite and Jet, and the others when he had a chance to glance at them, too.

His task had been to subdue the summon, and they’d succeeded in keeping everyone at bay.

Oh, and getting the Princess, too.

She was a mess, up close. A part of him felt bad, she looked terrible and he couldn’t imagine she felt any better.

But then, his sympathy carried more weight for the Negaverse. At least they were on the right side.

Maybe, he didn’t know what the plan was for the Princess, but she was here and that was enough for him. Jet had a plan, and if he didn’t, Laurelite did.

Lopezite was here just to make sure they didn’t need anything else from him; he stayed close in case they needed anything, but far enough away that he wasn’t crowding anyone.

Bloodstone caught Carnallite’s stare, and he leveled her with his own stare in return. She was alive at least. And Prehnite had been there to help her as planned.

The other General, who had also received a promotion since their special mission, received a small, grateful nod from Bloodstone. Without Prehnite, he wondered how much more damage Carnallite would have sustained. Or how much less damage she could have done, seeing as she had Prehnite’s dagger with her.

Axinite received a glance, but focused most of his attention on Jet’s face wound. The blood was wiped away as much as possible, and a temporary bandage was pressed to his face and held in place with a couple of wraps around his head.

He did back away for a moment when the Queen arrived. There wasn't much more he could do until Jet was laying down somewhere and he had proper medical supplies.

Jet was grateful for the support Aquamarine offered to him, but he was also trying very hard to stand on his own in front of Axinite, and soon the Queen. He was also thankful that Aquamarine had more of a voice than he did. If Jet could have shrunk into the floor to avoid being looked at with disappointment from Axinite, he would have.

He wanted to apologize. He wanted to explain why he hadn’t gone to Axinite with his plan first. But Jet also knew that Axinite was still taking what happened during the hilltop battle hard. He’d been too busy tending to his own generator to see what happened, but Cymophane knew how to get all of the gossip, apparently. It helped that he lived with Kamacite.

And he was glad they were alive. Everyone had made it back, and they might have been roughed up, but they were alive. And they had succeeded.

The Queen’s presence had him immediately trying to straighten up again, despite his broken ribs. Jet stubbornly tried to stand on his own without Aquamarine’s help, stubbornly blinked through the pain as he was still trying to determine the state of his one eye. Blood might have dripped onto the ground, but Ganymede was there in her white and red dress, covered in her own blood as well.

“Your Majesty,” Jet was able to say with more confidence than when he’d greeted Axinite. His voice was a little strained, and it hurt for him to stand at attention. “I want to give my highest commendation to those here. They performed admirably, and without them this mission would not have been a success. Two youma that go by Headache and Arles were also key to making this work. I can only take as much credit as is given to the others, Your Majesty.”

He meant it. And he hoped that the Queen would see that he meant it. He suspected Aquamarine would tell him to go ahead and take all the credit for the success, but Jet knew he wouldn’t have survived without the joint effort of everyone involved.

A silent 'thank you' cast to Carnallite for the return of his blade, the pair ended up holstered along his thighs, rather than sent away. The adrenaline that'd run high during the battle was slowly winding down, and it made his hands shake. little nerve that crackled with stuttered fire; even if his expression stayed. Placid frown as he sighed, relief. Returned Bloodstones nod with severity.

Took a few moments to use the end spiraled single shouldered cape to scrub at blood that was surely drying on his face. Pinched that off and winced for how he was sure it would look later. Bruises to the face were such a pain.

And then? There was the Queen. Spotlight pull of gravity, a power-well. All the noise that went quiet when she strode in; with the exception of Jet's pitched platitudes and clear joy for a win. Sincerity. The rest was background noise, and he hardly spared Axinite a glance. Didn't know the man, didn't care if he was here, wasn't. Practicality of having a healer and someone familiar to the others was well enough.

Prehnite almost felt something like whiplash, all the emotions he'd seen from her in a handspan of months dragged into weeks - and this? Oh. He thought her smile would split the seams of the underdark wide open. In all his years..he wasn't sure he'd ever seen her so genuinely happy.

He couldn't help but hide away a small sort of grin for it. Having aided in delivering a late Christmas present to the queen....no...a late Coronation Gift. That was what Ganymede was, what she should've always been. A crown jewel to limn the mantle in Laurelites impressive crystalline chamber.

A royals starseed, feast fit for a queen.

Standing at attention tugged at the torn skin of her back, but Carnallite withstood it just as she’d withstood the lightning from Valhalla’s bird.

Being in the presence of the Queen was supposed to be an honor. Carnallite accepted it as if it was an honor extended to her all the time. In reality, this marked only the second occasion. The Queen didn’t seem like a terribly distant figure so much as Carnallite had little reason to trouble her with the dull happenings of a Lieutenant.

Though she was tempted to take a page out of Bloodstone’s book and request a promotion then and there, Carnallite thought it better to bide her time. Especially now, when the Queen was so pleased by their captive.

Let her enjoy this. It was a moment worthy of a Queen’s full attention.

“Oh, the poor Princess,” Laurelite sighed, but her smile never wavered. She was gloating. “Has she broken already?”

Such a pity.

But then, Laurelite hardly cared where her mind was at. Ganymede’s comfort meant nothing to her. Her body was here, what more did they need? She was stubborn, but not invincible. If she wasn’t broken yet, she would be soon.

“Well. I don’t want her soiling my Throne Room, so let us make this quick. I think some of you need a trip to the infirmary.”

Lysithea’s healing was a boon she hadn’t anticipated, but some of those injuries seemed like they might require a bit more help.

“But I am one for ceremony. General Jet, your modesty is unnecessary. You chose this team to carry out your plan, take some credit for that, at least. You took a very dangerous role, yourself. Trust me when I say that now really isn’t the time to downplay your accomplishments.”

She had a way of looking at the group of them that made it feel as if she was looking at each one of them individually, as if she had a smile for all of them.

“I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of you. Of all of you. I want you to take a moment to let that sink in. Whatever plan they concocted, you’ve foiled. And more than that, it isn’t often that the Negaverse receives an offering like this.”

Her eyes again fell to Ganymede.

“I want to commemorate this. I was confident that you and your team would succeed, Jet. So I had these prepared.”

A box appeared suddenly in her hands; it was a sleek black metal, with golden filigree, and a teal rose embossed on the surface. Inside, neatly stacked, medals.