Andrea Arron sits quietly in her study with her siblings, Octavia and Vincent; she ignores the two as they argue between themselves.

"Trying to kill Queen Nalani with cheap poisoned food or even throwing that poisoned knife would have never worked and you know it Octavia," Vincent snarls, as he slams his fist down on the table, causing Octavia to flinch but Andrea does not even move as she stares at her two younger siblings arguing.

"Well after Carina's performance at the Gave Noir people were whispering about her, about how she was weak," Octavia shouts, her Arron temper showing, "we cannot enter the Ascension Year with a weak queen, Arwen and Nalani are both too strong."

Vincent claws his icy blonde hair on frustration at Octavia's words while Octavia continues to become redder and redder as she screeches, "With the temple and shadows backing Arwen and the elementals and naturalists backing Nalani. I needed to send a message, to display a show of power so both Rolanth and their supporters how easy it can be to kill their great Fire Queen."

Andrea rolls her eyes at that but continues to stay silent. Her sister, always so eager to prove herself and appear powerful yet always so short sighted as she doesn't think of the bigger picture and the possible implications.

"You are a fool sister, an Arron, one of our own is guilty in an assassination attempt against a queen, how could you be so stupid, it can be so clearly tied back to us," Vincent cries, "The Black Council and Pele Murtra could come for our heads!"

"Don't be so dramatic Vincent, they will not, she is dead, they cannot get a confession from her," Octavia says, confident in her words but failing to see the damage she's caused.

"But why Queen Nalani?" Vincent asks voicing his frustration, "why not that damn Shadow Queen, she is our most dangerous threat heading into the Ascension Year, Nalani simply plays with fire and we've dealt with the likes of elementals before, she is the lesser threat out of the two."

Octavia screams at Vincent, her eyes burning wildly for a moment with a look of insanity causing Vincent to take a step back in slight fear at his crazed sister's expression.

"You are not listening Vincent!" She yells, pacing back and forth across the study, anger and treachery practically seeping from her.

Both Vincent and Andrea feel it but only Vincent shows an inkling of fear. For hell hath no fury like an Arron woman scorned.

"But to send one of our own into Rolanth," Vincent begins, calming his voice slightly as he tries to reason with Octavia, "Laura was a foolish girl but she was still an Arron. Our blood. Part of our family and that counts for something. And now she is dead. For nothing."

Octavia shrugs, alarming nonchalant about Laura Arron's demise much to Andrea's quiet cruel amusement and Vincent's disgust. Though Andrea does not entirely agree with her sister, Arron blood is precious and the family is bound in blood, even with the poison running through their veins. But what's done is done.

"Laura was a foolish girl who had too much ambition but not enough brains but at least she was loyal and it was her choice to slit her throat," Octavia states emotionless as takes a sip of water to soothe her dry throat and gives a casual shrug again, "a little too dramatic for my taste but at least it got the message across."

Vincent shakes his head in desperation at Octavia's remark, running his hand through his hair repeatedly and then gradually goes silent as he reaches a breaking point. It only lasts for a few minutes before he starts to argue with Octavia once again.

Andrea just continues to sit, watch and plot. They are still the silly arguing children that they were in Andrea's childhood, a harsh childhood under the firm grip of the old Arron matriarch, Kesdeya Arron. Though even harsh Kesdeya Arron could never match the cruelness of Andrea's grandmother, Lilith Arron. Bruises never left Kesdeya Arron throughout her miserable life, though she was wounded more on the inside than out but it wasn't like it could've been prevented, Lilith was truly terrifying.

Andrea always thought that Kesdeya became cruel after she failed the last Ascension Year when the poisoner queen was killed and the war queen ascended to the throne. As a young girl Andrea heard rumours about her grandmother's fury after Kesdeya Arron failed to get another poisoner queen on the throne, Queen Isobel, whom no one speaks off or remembers along with her other dead sister, Queen Serra the weak naturalist whose familiar was a small robin bird but Andrea remembers everything all too well. Their names live in her memories alone.

Queen Halia's Ascension Year was a bloody one but that was to be expected from a war queen and Andrea remembers when the Arrons found Isobel's dead body, the little quiet poisoner girl had never looked more defeated than in that moment, Andrea cried all night over her foster sister and then she never cried again. Her mother had slapped her for her sensitivity but only after Kesdeya had been slapped senseless herself by Lilith.

Andrea remembers her grandmother, a harsh stony woman with a constant sneer and ice cold stare of cruelness along with her tight grey hair with some strands of her old icy blonde hair, Lilith Arron had prided herself with her achievement of rising to advise Queen Arsinoe the White Handed in her later reign. Lilith was quite young but acquired much power for herself, gaining the respect of the rest of the Arrons.

In this family, a person holds an Arron status that actually counts until they fail. When an Arron fails, you are of less importance than a pauper. Because that is the game and aim - never lose.

Andrea brings her eyes back to Octavia and Vincent, who are both practically at each other's throats literally. The older Arron sister sighs, she has had enough of this stupid pair at each other's throats.

Andrea raises her hand and immediately the younger Arrons stop, for her presence was so powerful that Vincent and Octavia knew better than to disobey her. For when Andrea speaks, everyone listens.

"I have had enough of listening to you two arguing like children," Andrea snaps, her tone commanding the attention of her two younger siblings, "if we want to come out on top then we need to be smart."

She then pauses, turning to address Octavia, "Sister, impulsive risky plans like yours will not work. With queens' Acsension Years you cannot and do not win in game of chance. If you play that way there is too much collateral damage and it is a flip of a coin chance to whether you'll win. Sometimes you have to take risks, fabricate rumours but you cannot win by playing like that all the time. You win through strategy and careful planning. And that is how Carina will win, so that we may win."

She pauses again to look at all her siblings as she continues, "Now listen carefully Brother and Sister, in this cycle of triplets, the players have changed. There have been countless poisoner and elemental queens in the triplets cycles over the years. We know the patterns and we can make plans to their weaknesses, Nalani's weaknesses."

Andrea then turns to Octavia specifically with her sharp glare as she says, "Going after Nalani was foolish, especially as it can be tied so easily to us. But for your sake sister and our reputation, I will bribe who I lost and smooth things over with the Black Council. However the people will here of it, we will be blamed and it will stain Carina's reputation and her popularity will weaken even more."

Octavia mutters a quiet apology at that which Andrea mostly ignores. Her sister didn't think of the potential consequences and now popularity of the poisoners will weaken further, it makes Carina more vulnerable. Goddess save Octavia when Carina finds out what she did.

"You were focused on taking down the wrong queen for we know nothing of shadows as there has not been one since the Queens of Old. Queen Arwen is only the fifth shadow queen in the history of Fennbirn Island," she pauses, taking a breath before continuing, "We need an angle and we need a plan. Something that nobody will see coming, not Queen Arwen and certainly not Cierra Raduron."

Both siblings lean forward, transfixed as they nod and absorb Andrea's words,

"So now I ask you, my younger siblings to help me. Infiltrate the Umbra court and the households, learn about shadows. Their strengths and weaknesses, to ensure Queen Carina's victory over Queen Arwen, we must know what we are facing. We need to know everything they know. Including the small history of the four past queens. Queen Dominique, the first shadow queen, Queen Clio, Queen Ondina and Queen Reyna, the last shadow queen. Know your opponent and then take them down. That is how mother always taught us and that is the Arron way. So that is how we and Carina will win." Andrea finishes with a small smile on her face.

Vincent clicks his fingers and a servant immediately enters the study, armed with wine and three glasses. The servant sets it down quickly before disappearing out of the room away from the snakes of Prynn.

Sighing, Vincent fills each glass to the top with hemlock berry wine. He offers it to Octavia first as a sign of a silent truce, Octavia begrudgingly nods and takes the wine, smiling as she looks at the pure poisonous drink. He politely offers it to Andrea next and both siblings exchange a smile, one poisoner to another.

Vincent raises his glass to speak, "To the Arrons, and may our family grow in power and restore the rightful poisoner dynasty back on the islands throne."

"To us," the Arron sisters both murmur before all three Arrons raise the glasses to their lips and gulp the entire drink down, each relishing the poison in the drink. Though it was hard to tell which was more deadly, the berries or the snakes that were the Arrons, waiting for the precise moment to strike.