[i]Functional.[/i]

She has a speech boiling inside her, a manifesto on combat. Words bubble in her throat and shiver in her fingers. She keeps still. Swallows the words. [i]Speak Not[/i]. 

Sometimes she gets like this, a deep and manic urge to explain, to contest. She can feel parts of her mind unfold as if for combat, ready to extend prepared and rehearsed arguments, thoughts and explanations. This is how to think. This is how to struggle. This is the difference between winning and losing. This is the way. These are the codes. All her wisdom she keeps inside, as she is commanded.

Because this is how humans think: [i]functionally[/i]. It's in their gods, boxes of metal and ordinance. It's in the lessons they take from defeat: do not repeat the sequence that lead to the defeat. Identify what is broken and change it; change it enough and you might develop something built for purpose. Iterative, industrial. Crushing. Terrifying. Moving targets. Imagine living in a world that you could shape with your decisions. Every thing made with intent. Every intent manifest in steel. Impossible. The Bezorel had been a nightmare to administer because she was responsible for [i]everything[/i]. Imagine being able to cut out parts of yourself and replace them because they weren't doing well enough. Imagine having a choice.

Imagine not loving your Goddess. Imagine not changing everything you are to suit her. Imagine trying to change her rather than yourself. Imagine not cutting yourself out [i]entirely[/i].

Part of her wondered if they could be stopped. Part of her wondered if they'd pave the highlands and march legions over the wendaway. What was the storm to the windmill?

She pauses.

Isabelle. The champion of their kind. That look in her eyes. A determination. With her resources she could iterate rapidly. What kind of functional blade would she forge? Why did the idea send shivers up her spine? If Angela wouldn't repeat mistakes, what would the princess manage?

She is silent. She speaks not. But internally she draws up a new screen and sets it to playing recordings of Isabelle's battles. How is she changing? What is she building? Who does she need to be next?