>>59122You meet her gaze, her intensity amplified by the fiery, electrifying light which shines forth from within her… And yet you cannot share that enthusiasm which has so infected these men and women.“We should still try talking first,” you say.
Izzy doesn’t glare or glower, doesn’t stomp or shout, but you can sense the shift nevertheless: a stiffening of neck and back, a subtle change of posture, a tightening of the face and a quick sharp inhale through the nose. It’s a lot like the Archmage—your one time master. You never realized that before, but you see it now.
“I’m not saying that you’re WRONG, or that I don’t think your way will WORK,” you quickly appease her. “I’m not… I’m not necessarily AGAISNT what you’re doing here.”
“You aren’t necessarily FOR ‘what I’m doing here’ either, though,” she surmises.
“I just think that… There might be other approaches we can try first. Approaches where nobody here maybe gets chopped up or run through by the swordsman who—from what I hear—once dueled the PALADIN KING’S ELDEST SON and won.”
“And your alternative approach is to talk to his probably-brainwashed wife, and hope she changes her mind and divorces him? Or changes HIS mind?” Izzy asks. “Tips, even if he was a PERSON that wouldn’t work, but he’s a MONSTER… And she’s MARRIED to him.”
“Costella is right,” you assert. “She’s a good person. And she’s your QUEEN, Izzy.”
“Not yours,” Izirina Henzler says, “and not…”
She stops herself short of outright voicing rebellion against her own monarch, but you can see the defiance flashing beneath the surface. You reach out, and with a single soft palm upon her cheek you calm the roiling storm.
“You have callouses,” she notes, voice softening as she closes her eyes and savours the sensation, leaning into your hand.
“I’ve been fighting,” you say, grimly. “I’ve… I’ve seen enough death. I won’t shy away from doing what needs to be done, but PLEASE Izzy… I don’t want to see more, not if it’s not one hundred percent necessary.”
“Alright,” Izzy sighs. “But… Do you really just plan to ask of a meeting with her? With DARK QUEEN Ekaterine?”
