>>5658497>>5658261>>5658158>>5658148That afternoon, you sat with Ekaterine in one of the royal family’s entertaining rooms, a spacious and well-furnished space replete with marble statues and many well-organized and well-stocked shelves of relevant tomes from which any learned guest could call upon the wisdom and wit of ancients and contemporaries to lend credence to a talking point in the midst of conversation—Itself, as likely as not, supplemented by the stocked liquor cabinet. Neither you nor your Eka partook, of course, instead preferring sober contemplation and conversation, though of late the young female’s mind seemed full to bursting with more personal and trivial matters—the preparations for your ‘big day’, as she called it, down to the specific shade of white which she desired for her dress.
You, however, had a different topic on your mind:
“Have you heard about the eventsss in the Bloodrise Mountainsss?”
Perhaps you were riding high on the news of your people’s triumph. Perhaps, buoyed and overjoyed, you simply wanted to share the good news with someone. Oh, there was the Novice Fleshweaver, of course, but her response had been rather… Muted and pointed: “Good. Then impregnate the ape-thing and let us return there to finish them off.”
(You… think she’s mad at you.)
Ekaterine’s own initial response is surprise and confusion at the sudden change of topics, but then her expression shifts to one of understanding.
“You fear for us,” she surmises, wrongly but understandably. “These… Creatures, these lizardfolk and other such monsters… You fear they are in league with those you fought here.”
You aren’t sure exactly how to respond, so instead you shrug.
“We should be sending the Paladins now,” Ekaterine then says, with surprising venom, “ending that threat, NOW.”
You are a little shocked at this, and joke: “What became of Princcessss Ekaterine, the Paccifissst, who lovess and toleratess all racesss?”
Ekaterine replies seriously: “They nearly killed you, Wang. They came to this, this very PALACE to kill my FAMILY!”
This… Isn’t exactly the response you hoped for.
“I ssuppose,” you say. “But then again… Isssn’t that merely the nature of war? People of all racesss sseek to ssecure their own landsss, their own independence and wealth, at the expense of othersss… And sssometimesss, regrettably, that causesss death and dessstruction.”
Ekaterine looks at you strangely, but her natural inclination towards intellectual debate quickly kicks in, and she—true to form—stands and extracts a book from its place upon the shelf with practiced ease and immediate knowledge of its location. She flips through the pages, landing upon one with outstretched finger.
