While Gallus had thought of a few other avenues of trying to console Ri'vashi, her latter words caused him to stop and sit up straight. The things she were saying were reminiscent of Tzirret's behaviour when he despaired. Gallus had already dealt with Tzirret enough times before. Not only was he not going to accept that kind of rhetoric from a clan leader, but he knew exactly how to deal with it.

As if out of patience, Gallus stood up suddenly from his chair. The legs scraped most of the way before threatening to tip over. Gallus caught the chair with his hand and walked around it. "Clan leader, stand up," Gallus demanded tersely, as an officer would to a subordinate, "Now."

Gallus needed to get her out of her spiral downwards as soon as possible. If that meant challenging her authority to get her on track, so be it. If he could channel some of her late father, all the better.

[hr]
Sabine grinned to Peiter. She had a feeling that he would be explaining himself to his entire pack, not just Gallus.

As for La'khay, Sabine listened attentively and paused to think for a moment when she finished. Sabine blinked a couple of times and looked into space as she cast her mind back several weeks to the river. She knew she couldn't forget it if she tried. Although, it was difficult to describe it as a discreet decision, it was really more of an escalation to that point.

Regardless, Sabine turned her head to Peiter, her expression blank except for her head being angled slightly forward and her eyes wide as they looked into his. She caught herself breathing shallowly as she tried to bring forth similar feelings. Seemingly without willing it, she tightened her embrace of his neck and moved her head forward to kiss him. The entire room around her seemed insignificant, even the stranger La'tahne watching on. However, she managed to hold just enough awareness in her mind to not move too much so that La'khay could begin. It was a struggle against her instincts to keep it from turning into a proper kiss rather than a static pose of it. Being in Peiter's embrace like this was as intoxicating as her experience with the Hist. Certain words came up in her mind to explain it that she realised had not yet been said. Her heart would have beat faster with that revelation had it not already been beating like the hooves of a sprinting horse. She found herself wondering if her heart always beat this hard and fast in Peiter's arms.