[i]Assumptions define the form of engagement. The murder. The duel. The trial by combat. The sparring match. That blade is not sharp. I don’t need the heavy armor. A weave light enough to dance with, tight enough to hug skin without getting in the way, thick enough to block bruises, this is all they need. There is nothing at stake. Everything is permitted. There are no expectations. I can give my all, and beyond my all, without fear. I can fly, I can sweep, I can bend blade and body until both might snap under the tension, then fall to floor and laugh until I cannot breath. They aren’t trying to hurt me. I can pretend the fall was serious. I can dictate my last living will. I can school the smile from my face as they take my broken form in their arms, cursing the cruel fates that cut down such a prized flower in the springtime of its youth. I can cough my last words in a hoarse whisper. They can lean down to hear. Closer, closer, closer... This is all a game. I tickle their ear with my breath, it is a joke. To make them laugh. Their hair falls on my face. It must be on purpose. They don’t mean to brush my cheek, pushing it away. I go along with it when I reach up to stroke theirs. We will laugh later. It is a game. It is all a game. We have stopped moving because...because... The match will end. Alethea will come to call us for dinner. We will be seeing to our weapons. We will rise, salute, and she will say nothing of anything on the way home and neither will I. I don’t know if she would have closed the distance. ...would I?[/i] ************************************************************************** This can't be happening. How. In the name of all that is sacred. Did she get an Auspex?! Quickly. Quickly. What had Redana said it did? It allowed her to..."see beyond sight, from visible to invisible, and all that might be?" How was that even remotely useful?! Freeform poetry was not a suitable substitute for a tactical report! Oh, but she shouldn't be too harsh on her, it's not like she expected there to be a [i]second bloody Auspex floating around the universe![/i] Zeus, your sentence of silence is revoked, [i]only[/i] if you can explain to her how this was allowed to happen! And if you can't answer that, then, what good even are you?! [i]steel yourself. quickly. before she notices. slow your breathing. slower, slower, but not too slow. don't make it look deliberate. it is a beautiful morning, dolce has brought you your coffee, it's perfect, just the way you like it, oh gods above no it's making it worse. it won't stop. her heart's racing, and it won't [b]stop[/b][/i] "Mm, you’re so much more...eloquent than when we last met. Is this what you’ve been using your shapeshifter for? Practicing for the day we’d meet again?” She squeezed Bella’s hand. “If you wanted a song, all you had to do was ask, darling.~" She rose from the bow with a great sweep of her free hand, as far as the chains would comfortably allow. "Come! To all who may hear; listen!" Her voice boomed, cutting clean through song and conversation alike. "Listen! And I will tell you a tale of a land long forgotten. Of Empires and beasts, and what grew in their shadow. Of a thousand thousand tombstones that could not hold fast the fallen! For this is the tale of Praetor Bella, who stepped into the corpse of the Eater of Worlds, and walked amongst the living dead!" She squeezed at Bella's hand again. Only, different. Fingers, alternating, in combination, in a steady rhythm, a repeating pattern. A clever invention of the Starsong, for when mouths must be silent and words must be spoken. A simple code, child's play for the Auspex to decipher: <> Well, Bella? You know how this particular story ends: Embarassingly. You could stop her, of course! One quick twist of the arm, and she won’t talk for screaming. And everyone will know that you feared what she had to say next. What do you suppose the Magos will do, when he knows she carries a secret that you wouldn’t bear to have out? She may not be your prisoner for very long, then! You could let her go on! What does it mater, if everyone here knows exactly how tightly you and Redana were trussed and gagged together? You are still the Praetor, even if you teased out some [i]fascinating[/i] noises from your former mistress. Nothing will change. But that precious Auspex of your will let you see the thought on everyone’s mind. Every bow, every scrape, they’ll remember. And you’ll know it. But there is a third option. <> Vasilia squeezed. <> The Auspex knows the code. It can tell your muscles precisely how to talk back to her, and no one will be any the wiser. So, Bella. What do you do? [That’s going to be a 6 + 4 + 1 = [b]11[/b] on Talk Sense w/Blood. Paying the Price by revealing information she’d rather keep hidden: Bella, you know that you’ve gotten in her head in a big way. She legit doesn’t know if you would have gone through with the kiss, and doesn’t know what she would have done herself if you had. If you keep clawing at this weak spot, it’ll surely grow, keeping her confused. Off-balance. And importantly, pliable.]