GoldenCat/TalkinAboutSati

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Crimson Blood on Virgin Snow

Cael: Cael strides along the corridoors of the Zephyr deliberately, making his way to the Pale Angel's cabin. He wasn't especially looking forward to the conversation he was going to have to have, but he would have to have it ...

He knocked on the door.

"Pale Angel?"

Vorpal: There is a long period of silence.

It is just the sort of sleepy silence that dutiful mothers are rewarded with when they march into their children's bedrooms and pull back the curtains, letting bright morning sun flood the beds in which their descendants try very hard not to wake up. It is a squinting, groaning sort of silence, silence of groggy thoughts and wildly sticking hair.

And then comes the reply, a vague, drifting voice.

"Come in."

Somehow, she manages to make it sound like Go away.

Cael: Cael pushes on the panel that opens the door, looking around the room as he steps within.

Vorpal: Vorpal's cabin is, as usual, somehow slightly cooler than the rest of the ship, as if the presence of the being that currently occupies it would chill the very air itself. To the Pale Angel's credit, however, it must be said that she keeps her quarters in military neatness - there are no discarded clothing on the floor, all of her personal belongings are kept firmly inside the saddlebags in the corner of the room.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the bed. Whatever is it that Vorpal did last night, it must have involved plenty of moving around. The sheets have been twisted and crumbled into a tiny mountain range. In one end of the bed rests a pitiful bundle that certainly looks like a huge maggot strangled and wrangled to death, but what more likely is just a blanket after a very rough night.

On the edge of the bed sits the hunched form of the Pale Angel herself, clad in dark pants and a short-sleeved tunic. Her hair flows down her shoulders and back in tumultuous cascade, not at all in the usual, arrow-straight avalance Cael is more used to seeing. One of her hands is resting on her knee, while the other has currently been draped over her face in a not very graceful fashion.

"Whatever it is, Cael", she mutters without looking up, "please make it quick. I had a looooong night."

Cael: Cael takes a seat on a chair within the room, settling his usual immaculately groomed self on to the chair. He looks her over with sympathy...

What I'm going to say is probably not going to make your morning easier

"Well, it's about last night that I have come to speak to you." he says levelly. "Part of it at least."

Vorpal: "Mmmm-m?"

Sitting a little straighter, she begins to gently massage her temples, a slow, smooth, circular motion.

Cael: "Was it really nessesary to do that in front of the Bull of the North and Valencia?" Is all he says. He would show her some sypathy, but he was fairly certain wouldnt had the situations been reversed, and besides, she could take it.

If she wasn't feeling quite so under the weather anyway.

Vorpal: "What was necessary?" she asks absently, the motion of her fingers not changing their rhythm.

Cael: "Humiliating the Dark Angel? Showing holes in the group before a warlord with temporal power and a self-professed desire to tail over Creation? Was that nessesary?" his voice isn't raised, but is firm.

Vorpal: "...what?" Now, her fingers do stop.

She opens her eyes, a sudden, intense flare of red in a white face, and hurls at Cael a gaze that holds irritation, demands for an explanation and no small amount of astonishment. "What? I did what, in front of whom?"

Cael: "You strode over to the Dark Angel, in the middle of the conference with the Bull of the North, his Zenith, Samea, Valencia La Silverstar, the Prince and myself."

He says with measured calm. He wasn't sure why she didn't remember, or if this was a game she was playing, but she asked, so it would be said.

"And then you started to whisper in her ear. And play with her wings. If I recall correctly, at one point you mentioned having her on a leash. You informed us that 'the little silver bird' could talk about the war matters. And then after your rather open tete-a-tete, I do believe you told that 'little silver bird' that the Dark Angel was 'a petty liar and a trembling coward at the heart, as you can see. A chicken dipped in a can of tar, pretending to be strong'." His voice remains level and dispassionate throughout it all.

"All this while the Bull of the North watched on. You could see the way his mind ticked over."

"Now, I ask you again, was that nessesary?"

Vorpal: As Cael goes on with his descriptions, Vorpal's mien grows increasingly attentive. A mixture of understanding and disbelief suffuses her face, only to be replaced by a sudden, sharp grimace as he reaches the end.

With a groan, she lets herself fall backwards onto the bed, the back of her hand slapping against her forehead. "So... she... really was me in that dream? Well, shit." She pauses, then lifts her other hand to make a lazy wave in the air. "No, it was not necessary to me, but... I suppose it was necessary for her. Didn't think it was true, didn't want to believe it, but..."

She lets her hand flop limply onto the bed again. "Cael", she begins, her voice carefully modulated to be straight and even as she speaks to the ceiling of her cabin. "Whoever was it that was summoned to that meeting, it was not me."

Cael: Cael raises a single elegant eyebrow at the Pale Angel's performance.

"Who is it then, who walks your dreams clad in your skin? You speak as if you know her and then claim you do not."

Vorpal: The truth was that she had been frightened by that dream. Terribly, terribly frightened. For all her life she had been cold and distant to everyone - although this was an act, it was an act that had become a second nature to her. A nature set so deep that when she once dreamed about being a different kind of a woman, she had immediately denied every possibility that it could be... her.

In that dream, she had been a braver woman than the Pale Angel was. A less scrupulous woman, one who did not care what others thought about her. Not once had she even wondered why was it that this another woman knew the exact same things as the Pale Angel knew, nor had she been puzzled about why the others around the table had all treated this woman as if she had been their companion for a long time. All this had made perfect sense then, but such is the nature of dreams.

But this is not what had frightened her. What had shaken her most was the fact that she had enjoyed it. She had enjoyed that kind of freedom of her own, self-made shackles - the memory of how she had let her gaze trail along the hems of Cael's long coat, how she had slid her hands along the Dark Angel's feathers...

"I don't know", she responds, and closes her eyes. "I don't know..." Her voice withers away, suddenly somehow strangled. She frowns, deep lines etching into her smooth forehead.

You're lying straight to his face, you know, comes the honest, accusing voice inside her head. You know very well who it is.

Cael: Cael watches the emotions pass over her face, play over her body.

Who she was frightens you?
Frightens you enough to lie to me?
And unsettles you enough to stop you from telling me it is not your business...
Now do I ask you or not?

I do.

"Are you sure? Are you sure you have no recollection at all?"

His eyes catch hers as they open, holding her there. Waiting for an answer.

Vorpal: Well, shit.

She lies there, staring at Cael, her own gaze just as unflinching as his is. What she sees in his eyes is a challenge.

Whatever else Vorpal might be, she has never been good at leaving challenges unanswered.

All right then, you bastard, she decides, have it your way.

This is fearsome territory for her to tread, area in herself that she does not want to explore, much less expose to anyone else. But she'd be damned if she'd let this man see her scramble away like a whipped dog bitch. And so she reaches out a mental hand and takes a hold of that fear by its throat, shakes and squeezes.

"You do realize you are barging in on private territory, yes?" she responds with a frown, a trace of mild annoyance in her voice. "Fine, if you have to know. Have you ever heard of Crimson Blood on Virgin Snow?"

• Cael has! Name of an anathema queen demoness, great nemesis of Mela and the Dragon of Air, a demoness with flesh and spirit of snow... she is also called Daughter of Destruction, or Sati.
  
  Sati, The Dawn, being one of the names Alexsei mentioned in his exposition...

Cael: "I think it stopped becoming wholely private when it was paraded publicly in front of those who would be our foes in the future." Cael offers in reply to the anger in her eyes.

I would not ask if you had not made it nessesary.

And then she answers.

''Crimson Blood On Virgin Snow...

Sati!

His mind flashes back to visions of a few days ago, himself entwined on a bed in the throe of lust and passion with that woman, his own mate watching amused.

Cael locks down on his emotions almost as soon as they play across his mind.

"I have heard of that name, yes. She was a dawn of no small power." he says, his voice neutral, made that way.

Vorpal: Vorpal lets out a sudden laugh at his mien. She might not be quite as good at fencing with words as she is with a true sword, but there is a variation of that game of bluff and poker that she had played all her life. It is this knowledge that now tells her that it is the time to shift from the defense to the offense.

"I saw that", she announces, her voice soft and gentle like the sound of a dagger being drawn out of a sheath. A sudden kick of her legs pulls her up from the bed and back into the sitting position. "Go ahead, darling", she continues with a dangerous smile on her lips. "What do you know about her?"

Cael: Ah, so she saw that? That makes things more interesting.

The fact that vorpal saw through his attitude was not something to draw rancor in Cael. He did consider carefully for a time.

"She was a demon queen, a spirit of ice and snow, enemy of Mela and of the Dragon of Air." that, straight from the history texts ... well, certain ones, he gives in that manner.

"The other thing I know her is slightly more personal. It involves a series of intimate encounters. Between her. And someone who became me. Do you want the details of what I remember in full?" He offers with a smile at the end, watching her face carefully all the time he speaks.

Vorpal: "Hmmm."

Vorpal crosses her arms, considering thoughts of her own. To her credit, she retains her cool demeanor perfectly this time.

In the inside, she grabs hold of the fear with the other hand, snarls and twists and yanks hard, forcing the imaginary beast to give ground, inch by inch.

"I suppose those details are somehow related to that moment in the dream when I was seriously thinking about ripping your clothes off and having you then and there?" She says this with a perfectly straight face, only raising one eyebrow artistically.

Cael: Cael raises an eyebrow to meet hers, his face likewise perfectly sculpted.

"I imagine they could have something to do with that, yes."

I imagine they might have something to do with your reluctance to meet my eyes the morning after that vision from the past too...

Vorpal: "I see." Unwilling to be the one to first break away from the gaze of the other, she retains her hold, reinforcing her chilly barrier every passing second.

I am not a little girl, skypirate.

She raises one hand in a precise and calculated gesture, pointing at somewhere below Cael's belt buckle. "Don't let it get too excited, now. "

Cael: "That is not something you need worry about, dear. I can keep myself quite under control. Unlike you in the dream last night." If he was in any way annoyed by her insinuations it did not show.

"Which brings us back for the reason this conversation. Who is Sati to you?"

I already know. But can you admit it?

Vorpal: In the inside, Vorpal grins. If it is some sort of stuttering and denial he is looking for, the pirate is in for a disappointment. The matter has gone too far, the most difficult steps have already been taken. The rest comes easier for her.

"She is me", she responds, simply. "This is the first time I hear her true name, though. Sati, Daughter of Destruction." She spells the name carefully, savouring it on her tongue like wine. Then she smiles at Cael. "I like it."

Cael: Cael nods, his face lifting a little like the news was some surprise to him.
Well, she can admit it. That is start.

"I see. And why is it that you have such difficulty ... controlling her actions?"

Vorpal: "I don't have difficulties'", she states dryly, and now all mirth vanishes from her face. "I already told you, darling, that it was not me who was summoned to that meeting. It was Sati. I was having a dream where I was her, and it was her who walked into that crystal palace. Period."

Standing up, she lifts her hands towards the ceiling and arches her back, stretching like a white tigress. "And now, be a sweetie and go wait outside. I need to get dressed, and then we can go and have breakfast."

Cael: "Ah, so you did." Cael ackonwledges with a slight roll of his eyes. "That would explain the lack of difficulty."

Cael allows himself the small pleasure of watching her stretch.

"I will take my leave of you in fact, some of us had breakfast several hours ago. Noon is swift approaching ..." He stands gracefully then turns and walks from the room.

"I hope your dreams are less troublesome in the furture."

Vorpal: Vorpal catches him by the collar at the doorway. "Then it's lunch", she says, but with surprisingly kindly tones. "Whatever it is, I won't let you off the hook that easily. We are going to have another chat soon, and I want to hear everything you can tell me about Sati..." Letting her hand drop, she takes a step back into her room. "All right?"

Cael: Cael ducks aside the instant before her fist closes on her collar, turning smoothly as he does, smiling at her calmly

"My dear, all you had to do was ask." He says simply and smoothly, making no comment to her attempt at manhandling him.

"Lunch then? Or would you prefer dinner tonight?" he asks, an eminently reasonable tone in his voice.

Vorpal: "Lunch", she states firmly, and closes the door in front of his nose.

Cael: "Lunch, then."

Cael turns and walks from her room and back to his own study.

"Calisara, dearest, would you please prepare a lunch for myself and the Pale Angel?"

Later...

Cael is waiting in the smaller dinning room on the Zephyr, a modest spread of lunch on the table and a bottle of red wine open.

He smiles at Vorpal as she enters

"You're looking better now ... sorry for disturbing you earlier."

He gestures to the seat.

Vorpal: Once again immaculately dressed in her signature dark colors, Vorpal indeed looks much better than how she did in the morning - her posture is straighter, her eyes sharper and more intent, and even her hair has been tamed to fall straight and true down her back. Her mood seems to be slightly better, too, as is apparently from her reply: "A bit of a mid-morning drill works wonders."

Plopping down into her seat with little ceremony, she adds: "You'll have to try it one time."

Cael: "I think I can honestly say I've never done drill in my life...it would be a new experience." he says with a small grin. "I tend to write poetry or fold origami to relax.."

"Some wine?" he offers.

Vorpal: "Red, eh?" Vorpal muses aloud, a mildly amused expression rising to her face as she offers her cup for the Solar to fill. "Wouldn't that be more fitting for a moody dinner than a lunch?"

Cael: Cael fills the cup expertly, and then fills his own. "No, that would be the expensive red wine." he says with a grin. "Cal picked it to suit the meal she prepared anyway."

Which wasnt thaaaaaat far off the kind of meal she would have served for a moody dinner, though it was lighter and not quite so much food.

Vorpal: "Fair enough", the Ghost-Blooded responds, almost smiling as she leans back and takes a moment to sample the wine.

"Mm", she says after a while. "Nice taste. Give Calisara my compliments." She lowers the cup, intending to place it onto the table, but then decides against it. Instead, she lifts the wine in Cael's direction, mischief twinkling in her eyes. "Want to tinkle?"

Cael: "I will." He says, pleased.

He meets her gaze with an amused twinkled of his eyes. "But whatever would we toast to too? To the war seems so prosaic..."

Vorpal: "Hmmm..." She makes a show of pondering the question carefully, tapping her fingers several times against her cheek.

Suddenly, however, she raises her cup, and accounces quite solemnly: "A toast to the little prince! Perhaps, one day, the little king of Whiteshield! May there be a little princess waiting for him somewhere out there."

"It is for him that we go to war after all, isn't it?" Her smile is almost enigmatic over the cup of wine.

Cael: "Ah! A nice neutral toast." He grins.

"And yes, I suppose it is..." he smiles faintly.

It's why I'm at war anyway.

"To the Prince then. May he one day be King. Any may he find many princesses..." he raises his glass to hers.

Vorpal: Their glasses touch with a melodius tinnnngg that seems to echo in the room long after Vorpal has finished taking a slow and deep sip from her cup. She closes her eyes and exhales, purging the worries of the day from her system and allowing the wine to begin to relax her from the inside.

After a moment, however, she unexpectedly reopens her eyes and lifts the glass for a second time. And now, her gaze has turned deadly serious as she states, more quietly: "And another toast, this one for loose tongues. May there be no secrets withheld today."

Cael: Cael takes his own sip of the wine, letting it play over his tongue before he swallowed it. Calisara had picked well...

As she opens her eye to propose the second toast, Cael regards her evenly "That is a dangerous toast to propose, Pale Angel ..." he says softly "But as you wish..."

"May there be no secrets withheld beween us today."

Vorpal: "Excellent", she nods, a cool, calucated gesture. Setting the glass carefully onto the table, she leans slightly forward, gazing the Solar intently over the plates and platters of their lunch. "So let us talk while we eat. Please, tell me what you know of Sati, the Daughter of Destruction."

Cael: Cael starts to speak as he eats, enjoying the spread that Calisara has spread before them, giving small sections of the tale between stretches of eating, telling all he knows on the 'public' life Sati to start himself.

Her legendary skill with the blade.
Her even more legendary temper.
Her rivallary with the Dragon of Air.
How in one of thier many battles she smashed out one of the great Dragon's teeth and had that tooth forged into a Daiklaive.
The name Crimson Blood On Virgin Snow ... after her visage...so close to the one she wears in this in this age, and yet so different. Wine dark eyes, white hair tinged with the azure colour of the war north, skin flawless.

And this telling takes up the main course, spun out care and between bites of meat and tastes of wine.

Vorpal: Vorpal speaks very little during the lunch. While she does seem a little nonchalant about Cael's narrative at first, she grows more and more attentive over the course of the meal. Half-way into the lunch, she barely lets her gaze stray away from the Solar long enough to see what she is moving from her plate into her mouth. Whether this is a tribute to the Windwraith's narrative skills or a sign of Vorpal's personal involvement with the topic matters little - she clings to every word.

Sati's skill with the blade, her apocalyptic temper - it all fits in, new puzzle pieces to fill in the gaps between the fragments she has managed to gather from her dreams and visions so far.

And then comes the sword.

Ah, yes.. . She leans slightly forward, like a hawk preparing for the lethal swoop. The sword of ice... So that's where it came from.

Crimson blood splatters on virgin snow, some of it raining down as tinkling red crystals, frozen solid by the cold blade... "This sword", she finally breaks her silence, "did it have a name?"

Cael: Cael watches her reaction as he weaves his tale of her past, noting it with interest, especially the parts of the tale that garner the most interest.

When she asks, he shakes his head.

"It had no name that I know, sorry."

Vorpal: Vorpal sighs and leans backwards, her disappointment readily visible. "Too bad", she says quietly. After gently setting her knife onto the plate, she folds her hands into her lap.

"Whenever I have... dreams of her, the sword is always in the central role." She does not look up from the table as she says it - an oddly subdued demeanor that barely fits in with her usual Pale Angel manners. "I believe it became a focus for her. Something like a symbol of what she was..." She frowns. "No, that's not right. She wasn't a sword. She was never a sword." Her eyes moving back and forth across the chamber, not really seeing anything, she makes an irritated gesture with her hand. "She was not a tool created for killing, she created herself. But then what did that sword stand for...?"

Cael: "That I would not like to hazard a guess too." He shrugs and takes another sip of the wine, "But then it is not something I thought to deeply on ... until I knew you were Sati, her tale was merely one of curiousity ..."

Vorpal: "Tch... " Clenching her teeth, she presses her hand lightly against her forehead. "Riddles."

She shakes her head, then lets her hand drop. "And now after you have learned that I am Sati", she says and looks up at Cael, "what is her tale now?"

Cael: "Of course." He says with a small nod.

"But first ... Calisara, the dessert please." he asks of the thin air, with a small smile for Vorpal.

Calisara: "Heeeereee!" Comes the voice from the air as she comes into being, slives of silverly flesh appearing out of thing air, ribbons forming her form, a silver plate in hand. Her smile to both of them had quite a devious tinge to it... "Hope you enjoyed the wine... it makes us quite warm!" She says as she lays down the plate, "Oh, please do not mind continuing the talk while I am here..." she winks.

Vorpal: "Thanks..." Vorpal says, if somewhat glumly. Once again she is reminded that where-ever aboard the Quicksilver Zephyr she was, whatever she might be doing, there is always a possibility that she would be observed. "You weren't listening to what we talked about this morning, were you?"

Calisara: Calisara giggled, a hand to her quicksilver lips while the other tried to balance the empty plates of lunch... "My, you think I would eavesdrop on you two talking? Me?" She asks in faux-indignation!

Cael: Cael smiles at Calisara, "The first course was wonderful Cal." he says warmly.

"Though be off with you now." he grins cheekily after she sets the plate down.

Vorpal: "Aye, it was very delicious", Vorpal echoes, although there is little enthusiasm in her voice - her thoughts are obviously working somewhere else now.

"So", her attention returns to the Windwraith, and she reaches for the wine glass again. "Is there anything more?"

Calisara: "See? A perfect gentleman." She says, pinching his cheek, "You take good care of him, Pale Angel!"

Gigggling, she begins to fade away, mantaining a perfect balance on the plate even with only one hand....

Cael: Cael grins and shakes his head as she fades, before turning back to the pale angel, taking another sip of his wine and sampling the dessert.

"Now I suppose I should tell you something of her private life."

Cael sips the dessert wine, as he considers the best way to start on this topic...

Well, she asked for no secrets ...

"You had ... fits, often. You would become violent, angry intractable and alomst impossible to control, simply glorying in destruction. Any destruction."

Another sample of the desert.

"Your mate and husband Owl was a tactican, a half-moon blessed of Luna, and you were dedicated to him. You both had a lot of ... distance betwen you however, seeing each other quite infrequently all things considered."

Vorpal: Vorpal looks up from her dessert, her gaze sharpening.

Gloryifying in destruction.

Something in that rings wrong, like a single badly plucked note amidst a cascade of chords. Everything else she had learned of Sati fit in this as well, and yet, there was something amiss in the picture, a tiny clipped corner in one of the puzzle pieces that did not quite lock together with the others.

She plays with her spoon a little, suddenly not feeling very hungry. The dessert does look very delicious, pudding bright and vibrant despite the scent of death and decay that lingers around her like a chilling veil, but her mind is not really with the food anymore.

"She had a husband, but the one she went to bed with was someone else, yes?"

Cael: Cael watches her listen and play with her food, and when she asks her question, he nods.

"She shared his bed sometimes, but her passion, her love, was for another man. Bastian." he says softly.

He adds no more detail for the moment, watching the pale woman for any signs of a reaction to the name, any hint that she remembers.

• Bastian...
  
  The name brings... something. Recognition, for sure...
  
  

Inside Vorpal's soul, in that part that is power and memories, that part that is not quite her, she feels a stirring. She feels warmth.

She feels cold.

The name brings both, in a sensation that is hard to bear... crushing sadness, crushing longing...crushing... hate? So many feelings, so intense as to be disorienting, exploding in the edge of her consciousness...

Vorpal: Ugh...

She sets the spoon down before it betrays the shaking of her hand. Propping her elbows against the table's edge, she lets her shoulders hunch and covers her hands with her palms.

She lets out a shuddering sigh, pushing the torrent of sudden emotions back, struggling to patch up the damn...

Longing and hatred, fathomless sadness and unspeakable joy, all of it... the entire spectrum of life, the extreme of every single feeling there is! Can all of it truly be centered around a single individual?

Bastian.

Such a simple name. How could it ever bear the weight of all the meanings and definitions these emotions are piling atop it?

Bastian.

Bast-ard-ian.

Is this what it is, being in love?

"And she..." Her voice is cut off by a sudden chuckle, a chortle bearing a chilling streak of barely held-back insanity. Her lips stretch backwards, revealing her white teeth. "She went to the bed with him? No, no -" She dismisses the idea with a wave of hand and hisses conspirationally: "Let me guess!"

It is then that the vision comes back to her, the memory of passion she had felt during the night she and Cael had faced with the Celebrant's Hungry Ghost. A vision of pinning a man against a wall, pressing herself against him, lifting him in air without ever noticing it, mad with lust and longing and every other feeling in between...

"She raped him!"

Cael: such strong emotion .... and such ugly ones too

What did I do to her to create such emotion?

What did I do?

Such are cael's thoughts until ... rape?

Images of the event refered to fill his mind ... several events like it..

Cael shakes head "There was no rape that I know of, and they shared each other's bed on many occasions. As I said, she was a passionate woman, and Bastian did his best to fan those flames and hungers that she possessed. There were times when she was especially ... forceful, but those he enjoyed as much as the rest."

Vorpal: "Oh..." Still shuddering with the after-effects of her wild burst of mirth, she settles more comfortably into her chair and flashes Cael a bit disappointed smile. "I suppose you can't really rape a willing victim..." She shrugs and picks up the spoon once more. "I'm glad you liked it as long as it lasted, then."

Cael: "No, I don't suppose you can." He says softly, looking at her curoiusly "I don't remember how it ended, or when. I know her husband did not approve, though he said nothing to Sati nor to Bastian."

Vorpal: Vorpal chuckles slightly at that. "This Owl sounds wise indeed." She takes a moment to sample the dessert, chews and swallows cleanly before continuing: "Sati does not give an impression of being a very timid wife. Is there anything else you can tell me?"

Cael: "He does, yes." he says with a nod, tasting some of his won dessert. "Though I know no more of her. Bastian's memories and the history books tell me no more."

Vorpal: "Hmm." Resting her chin on the back of her hands, the spoon dangling idly from between two fingers, she gives the matter some thought. "I wonder if I should ask Valencia if someone could check through the Windian library for more."

Cael: "Perhaps that would tell you more of her yes, though information on that age is .. rare to say the least. It is mostly from memory that I know such things." He says with a shrug, finishing the last of his dessert.

Vorpal: "Yes", Vorpal nods. "But that would make Windia the first place to look for more information. This kingdom is all about occult and First Age knowledge, after all."

Finishing her own meal, she sets the spoon down and pushes the dish slightly out of the way. "Thank you for telling me", she says, her tones formal, as if reciting a military phrase. Then her mien softens, and she smiles, slightly. "I appreciate it. Really."

Cael: Cael nods to acknowledge that fact about Windia. "That is true."

Cael shrugs expansively "It was a pleasant meal." Aside from the ... phantoms "It was my pleasure."

---

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