Words, words, words. The Evercity was full of words. Just as full of questions. Why this? Why that? Why are you not the person in my head? Why are you not the person who fits my scheme? Say the words that let me know if I should love you or hate you. Say the words to let me know I'm a good girl, a good knight, who never did anything wrong. Anything is okay so long as there are the right words in place.

Speak Not, said the sage. It was so much easier if you took out all the words and let her life express itself in a sequence of actions. A sequence of fights. Just watch the fights. Just watch the way she fights, please. Can't you see that Tactics are impossible without love? That Tactics are all she is good for?

Blades of silver and gold, gift from spirit and empress, rest on the edge of her hands. She's ready to cut her way free in a whirl of blades, leaving Akaithon a hobbled and limping wreck, easy prey for the lance. A flawless checkmate, an ice cold tactical takedown that would leave her victorious and... Akaithon would still not understand.

She was going to have to draw this out.

"Akai. Why are you so stupid." She said. Not bitterly, not with any sense of meanness. Just, thinking. How to explain to someone who only spoke the language of words. The burden of translation was entirely on Solarel here. Typical high rider. As she thought she put the Kathresis' foot against the back of the Makhaira's head and activated her thruster at full burn. It was a kick in the head, a white-hot blowtorch burning a hole through the sensor crest and propelling her out of reach, but it was a thoughtful kick in the head. Don't you see [i]that[/i], at least? Don't you see that by targeting this part of your God she's trying to get you to think in a certain way... ugh, no, it'd take more than a kick to the head to get through Akai's skull.

She took the moment of full burn scramble to think. Kick to the head and sabotaged repair protocol or no, arm's reach was lethal range and Akai's reflexes were amazing. She needed as much distance as she could get.

"Akai. What is important?" she said, as she burned for distance, darting through the debris. "For you it's... peoples. Nations. Empire. You see the City. Everywhere you look. You see the politics. You see the crown. You ask, where do this person's loyalties lie? You think, she rides a lesser God, she must be in trouble. You think if it is not encrusted in gemstones it is not valuable. You think... you think Speak Not is the same as saying nothing."

She gets her distance and burn-flips around, bringing up the lance in a resumption of her form at the very start of the duel, in the exact spatial co-ordinates she had begun from. 

"That is... not how it is in the stormlands," she said. "I would sit. And watch the Gods. Unpiloted, feral. They'd wander the plains. They'd clash sometimes. Sometimes annoyed. Sometimes territorial. Sometimes earth-shattering battles to the death. Sometimes they'd bump up against each other gently, breaking each other apart with soft talons. I once watched the Scarwalker peel the carapace off the unresisting Taurus and rake its substructure before trying to put the armour plates back on. That... matters. To see the affection, the closeness the... love that divine machines can show each other. Enough force to destroy a tribe. And yet they step around the barrier glyphs. Gently. More said in the silence of power than a thousand Imperial promises. Do... do you think it matters to me, who the Empress is? Do you think I was surprised to be betrayed? We call Instanilios the City of Lies. All your high rider talk of honour and... loyalty and greatness means nothing compared to the footprints inside the barrier glyphs."

She was quiet for a moment. And then she lowered the lance. Set her feet. Made ready. Made it explicit.

"When I saw you were using my sword," said Solarel. "That made me happy. That felt like the nicest thing you'd ever done for me. So... thank you. I really appreciated it. When I asked to use this lance it was me doing the same. What I am about to do to you is my most sincere compliment and act of affection. I am worried with all the words in your head you won't see it. Won't realize it. So... shut up Akai, okay? Shut up and let me kick your ass. For love."

[[b]Make It Right:[/b] When you allow yourself to be vulnerable to someone you hurt during your villainous past, they choose 1:
- Decline to engage; they gain a String on you
- Lash out; you Stagger
- Guide you; they mark XP and give you a task to help make amends
- Show vulnerability; you take +1 forward to interact with them
- Forgive you; you each clear a Condition and this move no longer triggers with this person]