"Overhearing what?" Elizabeth said, whirling on the spot. "Spying on me? That's a crime worthy of almost treasonous offenses. Want to axe me off like you did my parents? Remove the Vivus House, no, the entire human representation from the map? You want to send us back to the way things were? Here's your chance!" The woman was on the brink of flying into a frenzy, her tome glowing even brighter. "My time in isolation was f enough, now you have to torture me by wasting my time and finding reasons to find ME untrustworthy. You know damn well why things are the way they are! I don't give a damn that you have a human son, I don't give a damn about any of your plans, and you know for damn sure that I don't give a damn about the Houses, not even my own! Why should I?!"