"Sister, we need to talk," Aleser said, shifting uncomfortably on his tail as he glanced around the room with his only working eye. The air tasted charged, and his sister's aura contained fading traces of menace, but as soon as the topic of the arena came up, the air around her acquired a sharp, acrid tang that was unpleasant to tongue and nose alike.
"We do," Erna agreed as the tip of her tail swished through the marble dust on the stone floor of the workshop. Now that her irritation had returned, the feel of dust beneath her scales and the chill that seeped up from the ground combined to make the space more unwelcoming than she'd realized when her attention was focused on the statue taking shape in the middle of the room.
"Not here," she said firmly as she pulled the fur-lined winter cloak she wore tighter around her shoulders. "Join me on my boat, we can return to the palace together, and your man can follow behind us."
