[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/FjVCFoQ.png[/img][/center]
[center][color=cyan][h2]Etoile[/h2]
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[color=E3485D]“What about you? You aren’t going to bleed out after this, are you?”[/color]

Etoile's face twisted for a moment, almost as though fighting against itself. After a moment, a wry smile crept across it. "[color=cyan]Hurts, but I'll be fine. Pride is more wounded than anything.[/color]" She took a deep breath, retrieving her shredded cloak from the floor where it still lay, then sat down heavily next to the girl. The smile winked out as soon as it had arrived, replaced with a grim flat line. "[color=cyan]All that being said, still better deal with it before it [i]does[/i] become a problem.[/color]"

With a few cuts from her sword, she'd sliced off a piece enough to serve as a bandage. Then, washing the clots of blood and dirt out again with what little water she had left in her waterskin—setting her teeth grinding—she quickly tied it in place with a few deft knots. The blood, flow renewed by the washing and by the crystalline block that had sat in it recently, immediately began to stain it as she sucked in her breath. "[color=cyan]Hopefully, that'll hold.[/color]"

Then the kid came up to her, overflowing with awkwardness and a forced laugh. And then she just...looked at him. Crossly, of course, but not the glare that he was probably expecting. Her gaze was hard, but level, as she weighed his apology. And only after a few moments had passed and she was sure he'd finished that she replied quietly, with a voice just the same: hard, but level. "[color=cyan]No. You were correct to dislike and distrust me.[/color]" Looking back and forth between the two of them, she took a deep breath, doing her best to speak calmly despite the pain in her leg. "[color=cyan]I believe I owe you two an explanation.[/color]" The rest of the group could [i]possibly[/i] come later, but if she didn't speak now, then she wasn't sure if she would find herself able to again. And if nothing else, she wanted to explain herself to the paranoid Pythia. So she heaved in another breath.

"[color=cyan]You are correct. I am—or rather, [i]was[/i]—an Inquisitor. Perhaps a more complete introduction is in order.[/color]" Now that she was at rest, she pulled the toggle of the severed cloak from around her throat, tossing it languidly into the dirt to rest next to its other torn piece. With it out of the way, she pulled her sleeve up until her shoulder was exposed, then rapped her left knuckles on the gleaming silver of her artificial arm before gently tracing around the crest with a finger. "[color=cyan]My full name is Etoile Amélie Lécuyer, of the Iquenos Lécuyer noble house, daughter of Thibaud and Marianne. My brother is Edmund Lécuyer; the seventeenth head of the family, after my parents pass.[/color]" Another deep breath, as she dredged up old memories. "[color=cyan]I joined the Inquisition on my sixteenth birthday, and served for a full decade.[/color]" She leaned backwards, unwilling or unable to look at either of their faces. Her voice softened, and she spoke more quietly. The muscles in her face tensed. "[color=cyan]I thought it was the correct path. Until I learned of the deception of the Archon regarding the Nsiferum dynasty, and the injustice of their extermination[/color]." Her voiced hitched before the last word, and she swallowed heavily.

She looked up at the leaves above her. "[color=cyan]I am not proud of who I have been. But what is done is done. I can only move forward now.[/color]" The lump in her throat went ignored as she took one last long breath and then sat up straight again and looked them in the eyes. Her eyes slid past Zestasia and came to rest locked on Pythia's. They were both young. Too young to be traveling on their own. And the reunion with Pagonia only confirmed things. Her voice hardened again, quiet and bitter. "[color=cyan]Kill me if you wish. In my state, I doubt I could stop you, and revenge would be justified. But it will not bring your families back. I have no love for the Imperium, I am more useful to you alive, and [i]I will not go quietly.[/i][/color]"