Out here, there's no Elysium protecting them; nothing any of them can do quickly enough to stand against the wrath of an outraged, fully grown fae. But it's that, if nothing else, that makes Lambert bolder. With the stakes as high as they are, just being here, can they afford to be anything else. He holds himself tense, poised like he's ready to pick a damn fight, if only because the other option is to buckle.

"MORE AUTHORITY THAN YOU," he dares. He doesn't think the Ringmaster has seen her father in a long, long time. "I'M HER FRIEND. AND ... I OWE HER."

Now that he's got the River Dragon so close, though, he's going to put Amethyst down, so he can speak at his own, slightly hoarse volume. Besides, if he's completely off the mark with this, at least only the rest of the Carnival can laugh at him.

"The Red Beast was someone the Ringmaster knew all along, wasn't she? A bird that can be reborn from its own ashes, a being of Birth and Decay -- the Phoenix. Her own mother."