Pain and Fear.

Stelon stopped where she was as Larkin and Aurora began speaking at more length, watching them interestedly as Aurora brought up the point of the ball. Aurora was not the only person wondering what the purpose of the ball was for, and Stelon was curious about it. Hoping to remain forgotten, she walked slowly back over to Larkin's side, forgetting for the moment why she'd been leaving it in the first place.

"Ah, I'll remedy that soon for everyone, but I believe it's too early to...," he whispered, "too early to announce war."

Stelon gasped just as Aurora did, her eyes widening. War. There was going to be a war. She covered her face for a moment as she took this in before lowering her hands to resume watching and listening to the two governors. Of course, in the time she had done this she had completely missed Larkin's action telling them who they were going to war against. By the time she had looked back at them, all she saw was Larkin touch his finger to his mouth and warn the other governor not to say anything.

"When are you going to...?"

"Soon."

Stelon winced again and then bit her lip nervously for what had to be the millionth time that night as Larkin looked at her. She knew she was not supposed to have heard that. There was no way that information was meant for her ears, at least not yet. She felt the panic she had felt earlier before Tic ran into them return to her. She didn't know how the Shrike would respond to her having overheard them, and she wasn't quite sure she wanted to know.

Still, as things were...there was going to be a war. She couldn't remember ever having seen or lived through war, because either she hadn't, or it was before what her memory could recall. All she knew was that it involved pain, misery, and worst of all, death. Lots of death and suffering. She closed her eyes slowly, as if trying to shut out what she had just heard. When she opened them again, she found Larkin still looking at her, the expression on his face unreadable to her.