Been struggling with the latest chapter of Swan. Einasze, the half fiend\half human female fighter of the group gets into a big fight with a water nymph that stands guard of the Pearl Gates that lead into Lodon's and Nodelamasts' home. During the battle, Einasze calls up black lightning and nearly kills the nymph with it. Suddenly realizing what she's done, she runs off into the forests that surround the vampires' home and in a wild uncontrollable fit of fury, she destroys her great axe, chucks her large bastard sword off into the trees, and strips completely out of her armor and then leaves it where it rests on the ground. Then, to make matters even worse or perhaps better, the girl meets the ghost of her mother, Maeryn the Light, who is a powerful sorceress. The ghost takes Einasze into the past and shows her her birth and a few events just after that. During this time the Queen is looking for Einasze because she feels that the girl shouldn't be left on her own after what happened to the nymph. Einasze learns that she and Arn Stormwynd, the adopted daughter of the King and Queen, are related and that Arn has had her aging magically slowed for a yet unrevealed reason. Basically for every two years that pass in the mortal plane, Arn will only age once. Einasze is almost 18 and Arn is 15, but they are supposed to be the same age. Anyway, Maeryn tries to get Einasze to join her in the "shadows' shadows" but the Queen stops this by making her wake up and pulling her out of the illusion that the ghost created, which understandably pisses the ghost off. So all of that brings me to chapter 22, which is what I am struggling with.

We're in the field that Einasze had entered and met her mother in during the previous chapter. The Queen is holding Einasze as the girl coughs violently and spits up blood from an injury she received during the chapter that led up to her fight with the nymph and the Queen is terribly frightened of the ghost, but realizes that it's the real Maeryn, who turns out to be the Queen's sister. Silver, a large white wolf that is both the pet and friend of the vampires has tagged along to help find Einasze and protect her and the Queen, attacks the ghost and is thrown around like a rag doll. During the battle, Einasze traps the spirit in the black sapphire on the pommel of her sword, saving her life and that of the Queen's. However, the Queen is pissed because she recognizes the sword for what it really is: a Balor's Sword of Soul Stealing. What Einasze has done was to use the most foul of magic and weapons for the purpose that they were meant for, even though she didn't realize it at the time. All she wanted to do was save their lives, not give her demon father more power by trapping a soul within the gem of the sword. So, here's where I am stuck: should the Queen and Einasze exchange such violent, pissed off words that the girl runs away again, leaving behind her sword and armor or should the Queen be able to convince her that what happened to the nymph really wasn't entirely her fault and that she should come back with her? If Einasze does run away again, what should happen to her now? If she returns to the group, how should they react upon seeing her? What should I do with the broken great axe?

I had planned on having a small band of vampire hunters show up soon, but I am not certain if I should have them enter the story during this chapter or the next. What do you guys think? Lodon, Nodelamast, and their daughter are the only good vampires in the Western Kingdom, but many people only view them as freaks or cold blooded killers and want to kill them. Lodon is also completely bat-shit crazy, but still tries to do good in the world. Well, anyway, I have much to do with this chapter and I am hoping that somehow I can get everything right about it because the last couple of chapter really haven't been all that good in my opinion, but then again, authors tend to be the worst critics of their own work. Until the sun sets....