N: There were tear streaks down Anathema's face as she wandered around with Odrus, and when she was noticed, she took a step back. She was still slightly afraid of him ever since he attacked Chrysalis, and although she was aware of what she did, she still needed the Eternal's help.

"I shouldn't have trusted Suebi," she silently spoke, and she began to tear up, "he handed him over to Prussia and now he's torturing him and using him for his own gains."

She sniffed as she wiped her face, then put on an angry expression to try to hide her emotions. "You're the only one I can tell, and I just hope you can pass this one to help him. But let me make myself clear," she grumbled, crossing her arms, "I still hate you and what you did, even if you fixed him, the last time he was alive and well was before you went all hell on him. Now he's just an empty shell."

M:   "Well, now he got a taste of what he put us through," Odrus grunted, "if you follow him around so much then I'm sure you saw what he did to my people, or what he did to Sofia. I tried playing the good cop, I did my best to see the good in him, but you can thank yourself for what happened between us."

He took a step closer to Anathema, squaring up to her with all his height, "You were supposed to be someone who brings a country to its knees, that takes careful planning and forward-thinking, two things you clearly do not have. Did you honestly not think that Chrysalis would be blamed for England's capture, I'm the only one here who can see you, I can't even hear you speak, so why the hell did you think we would just assume a ghost ratted out England, are you that fucking stupid?!"

The eternal calmed himself before he could get too riled up, taking a deep breath before saying, "I will tell Saxon about this, whether or not he does anything about it is not up to me, not like I would care at this point, he's getting what he deserves for what he did. But know this, you may hate me for what I did, but don't forget that even in death, your actions have consequences, and they must be paid all the same, understand."

N:   Anathema frowned and spat at his face, "I understand, and I already blame myself for dragging my brother into the crossfire."

The insurgent turned and began to walk away, but she couldn't help but smirk, looking one more time at Odrus. "I may not have been the best insurgent," she smiled, "but at least I died after my duty has been fulfilled. I may have not brought down the British family, but I was able to fracture it enough to be dysfunctional, and a broken family isn't a family at all.  I taught my brother two things to train him as an insurgent, one," she raised a finger, "how to exact the most pain to your victims, and two," she raised a second finger, "if you bring down one Brit, you bring them all down.  I'll leave you with that."

And with that, she disappeared, leaving Odrus with her message.

M:   Odrus just growled at her, too disgruntled to care about what she said, simply walking away to find Saxon without giving her words much thought. Before he looked for the entity, he went to one of his favorite sitting rooms to cool off and grab a drink, and by sheer coincidence, Saxon and Anglo were there,

"Well well, how about that," he chuckled, "I stop here for a drink and find the man I'm looking for anyway, how convenient."

He first opened a cabinet that had the alcohol and grabbed a bottle of wine, as well as three cups to offer the two a drink.

"How have you two been though, what with the preparations for the ball, I know you're despising the French coming but is there anyone you look forward to seeing."

N:   "Just to get one thing straight," Anglo said as he accepted his glass of wine, "we don't exactly entirely hate the French."

"You still sort of resent Kingdom of France," Saxon pointed out, causing the winged country to frown, "but it's true."

"It's just because he brings up a certain someone every time," Anglo grumbled through gritted teeth, "I swear, if he mentions him again at the ball, I will kill him."

The entity shrugged, "makes my job easier." He grabbed his glass but cautiously looked into the wine before glancing at Odrus. "I'm not the most loved person, and I don't particularly like kingdoms either, so I don't think I'm looking forward to seeing anyone in particular."

Saxon once again checked his glass before taking a sip, "But maybe, if everything goes to plan, I can have Wald brought here between now and then. From all the insurgents, he's probably the only one I can call a friend, which is a dangerous thing to do in my business. Saving him from Prussia is the least I can do."

M:   Odrus nodded to that, "Yeah, from what the Mandorians say, he sounds like a good man, and from what Prudoria said, such a strong one. To go through all he did and still be able to fight against Prussia, has to take an incredible amount of strength and willpower, I admire him the more I hear about him."

He took a few sips, he usually liked to ease his way into telling someone hard news, but since they were already on that topic, he had to do it now. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about, Anathema has been hanging around here still, apparently, not only was she the one who told Suebi about where England was, but she wants me to bail out her brother again. After we traded the two prisoners, Suebi handed Chrysalis over to Prussia for whatever reason, and now he's getting the same treatment as Wald."

He downed the rest of his wine and pored himself more, "I told her I would tell you about it, but whether or not you did anything about it wasn't my problem, that maybe next time she would think before she meddled in the living world."

N:   Anglo glanced over to Saxon, shocked by the news, while the entity didn't reveal any emotion. "First off, a question: how long have you known that Anathema was telling Suebi inside information, secondly, I already guessed that Chrysalis was with Prussia; Prudoria actually came up to me and told me about his dream with both Wald and Chrysalis suffering, so I already have my plan set.  I will help Chrysalis regardless of what he has done, even if he had gone back on our deal, he is still an insurgent, and as long as a country is hurting him, I have to help him."

"Sometimes I don't understand your relationship with your insurgents," Anglo muttered as he shook his head, "you let Anathema run amok, and Chrysalis followed her footsteps."

"I would still help them," the entity said sternly, putting his glass down and eyeing both of them, "I don't need the approval of a country or an Eternal to do what I want."

M:    Odrus shrugged, "I never said I disapproved of anything, I just said that it was none of my business. I don't know how long Anathema had been working with Suebi, nor do I know how they were doing it, but my best guess is that because Suebi was still bridging the gap between realms and not completely alive, he could talk to her. She said she never should have trusted him, so clearly he promised her something, probably revenge on England."

He polished off his second wine and set his cup down, then shifted into a silver-coated tabby cat and jumped onto a shelf that was at head height of Saxon.

"So out of genuine curiosity, what was the plan to rescue your friend and Crysalis," he asked, lying down nonchalantly, "Prudoria said it was extremely hard for him to escape, Prussia has to have made security impenetrable now that he's lost everything with Mandorian blood."

N:   Saxon smiled as he shook his head, "clearly, Prussia hasn't tried to contain the best prison escapee.  I know someone who has escaped prison so much in their life that it has become a game to them, and I even helped train them in the worst scenarios for any situation they're in. Trust me, freeing Chrysalis and Wald will be a piece of cake."

"How can you have so much confidence in this person," Anglo asked.

"Because, dear Anglo," the entity smirked, "this person is an insurgent, and they are someone I can trust to complete a job and has not failed me. Besides," his eyes almost became dreamy, "we're going to pull off something big, it will be spectacular."

"Sometimes I wonder if you love revolutions more than me," the winged country laughed, "but if you believe this will work, then so be it."

M:   Odrus hummed at this, "They sound like someone you don't want to make your enemy, though I suppose that doesn't really narrow anyone down when you're an eternal, er, countryhuman. Either way, let's hope that he is prepared to take on Prussia, he's clearly a very powerful magic user, even if he's not an eternal, I wouldn't put it past him to play dirty, like that curse on Mandoria that Rowen told me about."

Cat Odrus stood up and jumped onto Saxon's shoulders, laying down again like he was a fur scarf, "I would never admit it to the others, but I kind of did grow fond of Chrysalis during the few months he was here, when he wasn't being irritable he was nice to have a conversation with."

The eternal yawned and rested his head, his energy still not at full capacity so he was quite tired, soon falling asleep on the entity's shoulders.

N:   Saxon just watched as Odrus fell asleep, and before Anglo could even ask, he nodded. "I'm fine with him sleeping on my shoulders," the entity assured the other, "he needs the rest."

Anglo nodded and soon they finished off their drinks and went their separate ways.

M:   Odrus was quite content to sleep on Saxon's shoulders for however long was necessary, they did get some funny looks from anyone they passed by, as well as the occasional "aww".

Prudoria was wandering around again with Aslan, hoping to find either Ireland or his half-brother to hang out with. He passed by the doors to a balcony and took a moment to grab some fresh air, stepping out and leaning on the railing, breathing in the crisp winter air.

"I really like it here, buddy," he said to Aslan, "sure BE is still being mean but everyone else is really nice, not to mention how much we've learned," his previous smile faded a bit and he sighed, "I don't want to hurt them, I want to tell them everything, but they would just hurt us."

Aslan rumbled in his throat and rubbed his head comfortingly against Prudoria, earning a rueful smile.

"Maybe someday we'll tell them, I'm just too scared to do it now," he muttered, "I can only pray that they don't try to kill me over it."

N:   Meanwhile, Royal was outside below the balcony, and was close enough to the wall to be out of view, and when she felt Prudoria nearby, she didn't bother signaling that she was there and continued writing a letter she was working on.

Although the younger country was further away, she was able to hear every single word, and she increasingly grew suspicious of him, so she stopped writing and made sure that her wings were deadly still.  The hybrid focused intently on every word, but when Prudoria muttered his last sentence, alarm bells rang in her mind as she tried to not move from her shock.

"Well, well, well, seems that BE was right about him," she could hear Wren commenting, but she ignored it for now.  Prudoria hasn't done anything wrong, yet, and there is no evidence to prove what she overheard, so she silently crept back into the compound to inform the empire of what she discovered.

M:   Prudoria didn't know that Royal was there, he was never taught to recognize wing vibrations so he wouldn't have felt her even if her wings weren't still. Even so, he got his mood down thinking about his situation, and feeling cold anyway, went back inside to get something warm to drink.

When he entered the dining room, he noticed that Esha and Alaric were gone, but England and Johann were playing with the cubs while Edel watched, Sleipner wasn't there though.

"Hey guys," he announced his presence, "how are the babies, I heard that the purple one wasn't doing very well from Esha."

N:   "Yeah, Mira isn't doing too well," Johann sighed as he glanced over to the purple cub huddled with its parents, "but otherwise Quinn and Byron are doing great, isn't that right England?"

The country nodded as he played around with Byron, and whenever he stood up, the young cub would run through his legs, so he began a game where he would run away and Byron would try to run between his legs.

"Hey, Pruds, why don't you come over and check out the cubs yourself," the Mandorian smiled as he beckoned the country over.

M:  "Are you sure, I don't really want to intrude," Prudoria said, eyeing Edel nervously, "I'm already an outsider with everyone else and I don't want to get roasted."

Aslan head-butted the country forward, so Prudoria reluctantly drew closer while the manticore hung back. He cautiously sat next to Johann, trying to keep a respectful distance away from Mama and his sharp teeth, although Edel didn't really seem fazed by the Prussian's presence.

Quinn eagerly jumped up to Prudoria, sniffing him and rubbing against him to gather his scent, to which Prudoria laughed.

"They sure are adorable," he commented, "why do you suppose the girl isn't feeling well, did something happen when she was born?"

N:   England and Johann glanced at each other, "There were some ... complications during her birth."

"And she wasn't breathing when she first came out," England further explained, "but luckily she was brought back."

The Mandorian glanced over to Mira, and sadly sighed before looking back at Quinn as he ran around Prudoria.

"He looks fond of you," the Mandorian commented, "you know what, I can't wait to introduce you to Mandy and Derogan. You're a nice person, Pruds."

M:   "Yeah, I can't wait to meet them too, they sound like a lot of fun," Prudoria grinned while petting Quinn, "I am a little worried about how they would see me being part Prussian, but if they are like you then I have my hopes."

He glanced over to Mira, his smile turning down at the motionless cub, she looked so pitiful and barely even alive, it didn't sit right with him that someone should be suffering so early in life, he knew how that felt. The young country set Quinn down and scooted over to his sister, still keeping Edel in his peripheral vision as he gently picked her up.

"She's so cold, it's like she isn't even alive," he said, trying to feel for her breath, "she is, but barely, no one deserves to feel like this so young."

He patted Edel to tell him that his baby is suffering, but the dragon just shifted a bit and let out a huff. "He's rejected her, she's the runt so he doesn't feel parental towards her," Prudoria deduced, "poor baby, I know how she feels."

Not willing to let the cub die, Prudoria placed two fingers on her forehead and muttered something, and after a minute or two, Mira was moving a little bit and even squealed quietly.

"I gave her a boost, but she'll need more than that," he said, "you guys are going to have to play parents if her real one won't accept her."

N:   England just watched as Prudoria cast his spell, and without answering his question, ignored Byron and knelt in front of Mira. Glancing over to Edel to see if he was ok with what he will do, he carefully picked up the cub and, because of her small size, cradled her in his arms. Even when she kept on squealing, the country made quiet hushing sounds, rocking her gently as he slowly walked around the hall, and eventually the cub went quiet.

"I think he answered your question," Johann pointed out as he smiled at the Englishman, then he turned back to the Prussian, "Don't worry about Mira, we'll take care of her."

M:   Prudoria smiled ruefully, the thought of Mira being rejected made him reflect on his own life, as short as it had been, he knew how it felt not to be loved by a parent. Sleipnir came in right then, carrying a large boar for his family, but dropped it when he saw England carrying his daughter. He slowly clopped over and sniffed the cub, rubbing his nose to her head when she squeaked in response.

"Well, at least the father still recognizes his child," Prudoria commented, "but that's not enough for a newborn, especially since he is out hunting most of the time."

When Sleipnir was sure that his child was ok, he grabbed the boar and brought it over to the rest of his family, but roughly pulled on Edel's horns and nickered in frustration. Edel didn't react much, he looked to his mate, rumbled quietly, and closed his eyes again, which concerned Prudoria.

"Hmm, actually, I'm starting to wonder if the problem isn't parental, but physical," he said, placing a hand on Edel's scales, "if the birth was so hard on the baby, how do we know that Edel wasn't affected in a way we can't see."

N:   "Well, don't look at me," Johann said as he walked up to Edel, "I literally have no idea about this type of stuff." The Mandorian faced England and asked, "Do you know anything that could help?"

The country shrugged, "Nothing here. Maybe ask Esha; she's part dragon, and if there is anything magical related, she could help too."

M:   Prudoria nodded, he gave Edel a few parting pats and hopped up to find Esha, hoping she would know what to do. When they returned five minutes later, Esha had a book with a dragon on the cover, as well as a bag slung over her shoulder.

"Prudoria told me that our dragon isn't doing well," she stated, "I should have figured this would happen, dragons who give live birth often have complications after the fact."

She knelt next to Edel and got to work, examining him from head to tail while flipping through her book, then checking over Mira and her brothers after the fact. She pulled up a viewing screen and wrote a sigil on it, causing it to go completely black, but when she moved it in front of the dragon, it showed an x-ray with detailed information pointing at different parts of the body.

"Wow, that's really cool," Prudoria whistled, "how did you learn that?"

"I fractured my wing a few thousand years ago and had to magically reset the bones," the eternal explained, "hard to do that if you can't see what you're trying to fix. Back on topic though, it looks like Edel has a bit of nutrient deficiency, with any birth you can become anemic if you don't replace what the baby took with them, the fact that Edel had three just made it worse."

She dismissed the monitor and fished through her bag, pulling out several jars and bottles of stuff but frowned, "Looks like I'm out of salamander skin, I'm gonna have to get more from the storage at the settlement, just keep Edel and Mira comfortable and warm until I get back, I would expect her to be suffering from the same thing since she's the runt and didn't get as much as her brothers did."

N:   "Don't worry about Mira," Johann stated as he pointed over to England, still holding Mira in his arms, "she's covered, and I can help Edel out when Sleipnir isn't around."

M:   "Alright, I shouldn't be more than ten to fifteen minutes," Esha reassured them, "you take care of them too, Sleip, they all need you right now."

She jumped up and jogged out of the room, silently hoping that the storage didn't run out of what she needed. Prudoria did his best to help, putting more wood onto the fire and bringing in a few thick blankets, as well as requesting the kitchen staff to put hot water into a waterskin for Mira.

Sleipnir tried to help Edel eat something, tearing the boar into small pieces to give to his family, and while Byron and Quinn happily fattened themselves, Edel could barely chew anything.

"We might have to start stewing Edel's food, it doesn't look like he has the strength to eat solid food," Prudoria suggested, staring at the ripped-up pig, "and hope that BE doesn't come in and see blood all over his floor."

N:   Johann looked around at the mess and shrugged, "Oh well, he better just accept it."

"Now, what is that rancid smell," a voice spoke, and soon the doors to the dining hall entered, and in came in Royal. The hybrid looked around the room, seemingly unsurprised to see the mutilated boar, but she did a double take when she saw Prudoria. "Ahem," she cleared her throat, "would someone care to explain to me all," she waved at all the mess, "this?"

When the Mandorian explained everything, the Brit hummed, "I'll get the kitchen whip up something for our resident dragon, and in the meantime, clean up this mess and," she pointed at the both of them, "no funny business."

M:   "What funny business, nothing about Edel being sick is funny," Prudoria said questioningly, but Royal was already gone, "geeze, what's her problem."

"That's just Royal being Royal," Askad dismissed as he slithered in, "Esha told me what was going on as we passed by each other, I figured I'd come to see if I could help out."

"Well, we got it covered so far, we're just waiting for Esha to come back," the Prussian shrugged, "and I guess wait for Sleipnir and the cubs to finish eating so we can clean up."

"Oh that won't be a problem," the naga said, "when we found out that Edel was pregnant and Sleipnir had to start hunting for him, BE made Esha cast a cleaning spell in here, it senses when a kill has been picked clean and makes everything vanish without a trace. It might need a redo though because it's supposed to help with the smell but isn't."

N:   "Ja, it smells like something died in here ... umm ... well something did but that's beside the point," Johann responded.

M:   Askad just shrugged, then went about renewing the spell, Prudoria figured he would see if the hot water pad was ready in the meantime. He saw Royal in there and her comment came back to mind, so asked about it.

"Hey Royal, what did you mean by no funny business out there, we're trying to help Edel and Mira feel better, I don't get what's funny about that. Did BE give you a rough time again and you're just grumpy or something?"

N:   Royal only glanced at the Prussian before staring back at the door, waiting for the cooks to prepare Edel's stew. "I'll be surprised if BE doesn't annoy me once in a while," she answered as she crossed her arms, "but yes, there isn't funny about this, but seeing the blood everywhere was a bit weird. I know Johann wouldn't find this funny either, but seeing and hearing that he's a magnet to trouble, I just don't want any trouble to occur while we're here."

After a couple of minutes of silence, one of the cooks finally came in, rolling in a very large bowl of stew in a trolley towards the hybrid. Royal gave her thanks before dismissing them, then she turned to Prudoria. "I only said what I said so that nothing unplanned occurred," she briefly dismissed as she pushed the trolley away towards the dining hall.

M:   Prudoria nodded in understanding, "ok, that makes sense, I've heard the stories too so it's understandable, I just hope it isn't jinxing anything."

He went inside the kitchen and grabbed the warm waterskin, as well as a bottle of warmed milk that someone took the liberty of making, then caught up with Royal to go back to the dining room.

"Sleipnir brought home a boar for Edel and the cubs, that's where the blood came from," he clarified, "Askad said that Esha put a cleaning spell on the dining room so the mess should be gone when they're finished, but he had to redo it since it didn't hide the smell like it was supposed to."

When they came back, everything was still normal, no funny business occurred when they left. Prudoria handed the waterskin and the milk to England, "one of the cooks made her a warm bottle as well, she sure is lucky to be getting all this special treatment, even luckier that you get to be her mama."

N:   "Well, of course she is," England smirked as he held the bottle to Mira, "she's a beautiful girl and needs all the help she could get to grow up into a wonderful woman."

"Are you just taking the opportunity to finally take care of a baby girl for once," Royal commented lighthearted, getting an eye roll from the Englishman, to which she added, "It doesn't seem that long ago that you were also taking care of young Ire."

"What do you mean by young," Johann asked, raising a brow, "he can't be that young?"

"To your standards, no he isn't, and he has a couple decades to go to reach his first century," the hybrid answered while she gave Edel his stew, "but to us, he is the youngest in our generation. From oldest to youngest, it goes: BE, Wilfred, me, Wales, and then Ireland."

The Mandorian tilted his head in confusion, "You're older than Wales too?"

The Brit chuckled, "Yes, I am, by a couple of decades too," and she laughed a bit more at Johann's reaction, "BE is almost half a decade older than Wales, and he's also almost a century older than Ire, and we sometimes joke about the large age between them. Us countryhumans basically treat decades like years but," she glanced over to Askad, "I bet Eternals see hundreds of thousands of years as a couple of years."

N:   "Pretty much, depends on who you ask though," Askad agreed, "I think out of the six of us, not including Mandoria and Sofia, Sabeth and Neflen tie with the youngest at 23 million, give or take. Esha and Odrus are the oldest, the latter being 270 million and the former being about 194."

"I love how you say that so normally," Prudoria scoffed, "like how there aren't people here who haven't reached triple digits yet, or double if we go by my actual age, which I don't."

N:   "Yeah, it's kinda funny how you spout out huge ages like it's nothing," Royal nodded, "it's like you got one of our ages and just added 'million' for the fun of it."

Johann raised his hand, "It's all fun and all saying how old you are, but just bear in mind that someone here, namely myself, would probably not reach 100 and all these numbers are sort of hard to comprehend."

The Brit shrugged, "Well let's talk about younger times. Being an emerged country I never had, what you would call, an ordinary childhood. After Wil and I were 'born', we were essentially children with the mentality of a 12-year-old, and survival instincts that no child should have. It was both the most wonderful and terrifying couple first years of my life, and I couldn't fly either."

She looked over to Prudoria and added, "I guess you also missed out on your childhood too."

M:   Prudoria shrugged, "I guess so, I don't remember ever being smaller, I don't remember ever being born actually, one day I woke up and was alive, just like that."

"You fascinate me the more you talk about your past," Askad said, "I kind of wish you opened up about it more, maybe we could help you figure out the parts you aren't sure about."

Prudoria's face became saddened, he sat down and hugged himself, "Well, if you really want to know, then ask Johann what his experience was with Prussia, it was pretty much the same, the only difference was I had a room, not a cell."

N:   "Nein, nope, not happening," Johann responded a bit too quickly, "there is no way in hell I'm going to relive that. Ever."

"Alright, alright. No one is forcing you," Royal spoke, raising her hands as she watched the Mandorian walk over to Prudoria to comfort him, "only open up if you feel ready, but otherwise never be forced to."

She looked around until her eyes laid on England. "You," she pointed at the country, getting his attention, "say something to change the mood."

"Uhh," the country hesitated, standing awkwardly at the group, "umm, I don't know, you put me in the spot here."

M:   "No no, let me do it," Askad interrupted, feeling horrible that he opened a wound for both boys, he slithered over and placed a hand on Prudoria's shoulder, "I'm sorry I brought that up, for both of you, I can't imagine the horrors you've experienced and I should have known better than to bring them up."

Prudoria was on the verge of tears, his body was physically shaking from remembering his time with Prussia, "it hurts so much, just the look in his eyes was enough to crush your soul and drain all hope from you, and the worst part of it all was how much he said he loved me. After every beating, every rape, every time he came to visit me, he always said 'I love you, my Kleiner Rabe', it made me think that's what love was, pain and misery, and even now I'm still afraid when Mandoria and Rowen say those words, fully expecting them to hurt me too."

"They would never dream of doing that," Esha said, she came back as Prudoria was talking, then came over and knelt in front of the Prussian, wiping away a tear, "It's true, sometimes love can hurt, like how I loved Arthur, but it would never hurt that much, and the people who really love you would never hurt you. Prussia never loved you, but we do, and that's all that matters, alright."

Prudoria nodded, leaning his forehead on Esha's shoulder to silently weep, while she rubbed his back and wings comfortingly, letting him take his time to let it all out.

N:   Royal sighed as she excused herself from the room, reassessing how she was supposed to view Prudoria: a threat or someone who needs help. Meanwhile, Johann got up and wordlessly left the room, the memories from his time imprisoned slowly creeping back, so he just wanted to be in a familiar place to calm himself down.

Eventually, England walked up to Esha, and when he had given Prudoria some time to recover, he asked, "Were you able to get something for Mira and Edel?"