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They snuck into the city to drop off a note for a meeting with Opheria and Marianne outside the walls. A few days later that meeting was had and the information was conveyed. They way Marianne talked… Isha was becoming more and more convinced that she was yet another kind of Anathema. She had abilities unlike Isha had ever seen of her fellow exalts. Thematically, her abilities were just _different_. How did she compare to the other Anathema she'd met? Nellens Song… Piercing Voice of Winter… Marianne herself had said there were many times of Anathema. So where did she fall?

But with so much other, terrible things going on, Isha couldn't afford to fret about Marianne's origins. Their needs aligned, which was all that mattered at present. She would eventually have to investigate Marianne's motivations… but later.

After processing the information the group gave her, Marianne handed Rathimund some kind of magical scroll that allowed the group to set up a meeting with Marianne magically.

With that important meeting over, it was time to address the ruler of this unruly satrap.

Grantaire snuck into the city to fetch his elite guard and bring them outside the gate for a more impressive entrance. Once the group was ready, they marched the couple of hours to the city gates. The guards at the gate were given an ultimatum a couple of times and when the demands to open the gate and stand aside were not heeded, the exalts knocked the door in and knocked the heads of the guards and continued on their way to castle.

As they approached the castle, Isha, Grant and Rathimund broke off from the main procession and let Az and the Princess handle the confrontation at the gates of the castle.

The other three snuck to the tunnel they'd found that lead from the dungeons to head into the castle. Once they emerged from the tunnel they headed to the throne room to see where the king might be. Turns out he was in the courtyard so the throne room doors were thrown open and demands were made.

The king refused to turn over his crown so the group stepped up and began the beat down.

They found out what “given the powers of an Anathema meant.”

He had a seal, a trinket of some sort that he used to summon whatever Anathema powers had been given to him by the fake empress. Isha stepped forward, right up to him and whacked the trinket out of the kings hand and stood on it, but the damage was already done. Unfortunately, it seemed, the king held the powers of an Anathema whether or not he held the trinket. Not sure why he was attempting to retrieve it, but if he still wanted it then Isha wouldn't let him have it.

And thus the group unleashed a full-force attack on the king, and after some effort, killed him. And then he rose again. And they killed him again. And he rose yet again. He looked hideous, disgusting. Each subsequent battle was harder than the last, but for the third time they put him down. This time he stayed down.

As he fell for the third and final time, an image of the Empress appeared in the throne room. Her eyes stared balefully at Isha and her group. She spoke, “behold, the Anathema,” before Rathimund slammed the doors shut on her. What did it mean? The empress calling Isha and her group Anathema? Could she really do that? The concept of Anathema was well-defined, and as Terrestrial exalts, she and her cousins didn't qualify, and would never qualify as they were.

Well, no matter. There were things yet undone.

The crown was retrieved from the smouldering husk of the king and a challenge called out to all present, demanding of them to step forward if they contested the House Nellens control over the kingdom. No one stepped forward.

Presently, the gate doors were thrown open, admitting the new ruler of this kingdom.