`◥ ▌➵ ᴵ ᴬᴹ ᵂᴴᴼ ᴵ ᴺᴱᴱᴰ ᵀᴼ ᴮᴱ.

                          ‘ this world is CRUEL –– ––                      to endure, one must be equally so. ‘  

           the harsh smile following splits his face like a frozen river come spring,         abrupt & JAGGED, lending only false warmth to any bearing witness. 

               ( he is no sage, means to offer no advice ––– ;               rather, words without edge were to him          as useful as a blade in the same state. ) 

— ;; ⏅

  ‘ Your kind are typically elegant… What have  humans fallen to now? Ruining the faces & race  of elves? How petty… I would say kill them– but  you’re already doing that, hmn? ‘

      “If this is an interrogation – it’s a fairly weak one,” He spat, but did not strike out. “I’ve sat the side of the Empress for decades, I know torment and terror beyond your imagination. You haven’t the slightest idea of how powerful she is, how Ifritah is nigh unstoppable. Nigh is the keyword here. She boasts above godhood, above all mortality and death, but her Heart… her Heart is what you should seek, rebel.”

           ‘ i  heard  similar  RUMORS  about  a  king,  once ––                       & it did little to stop me from helping to take his head. ‘

                                the conviction in his tone is borne of the ACT,                                  an act already accomplished –– he would not                                 let doubt sink into his words, not here.  & yet,                                 he still hesitates, a heartbeat & nothing more. 

she shrugs her shoulders at that; he’s right and wrong, just like everything else in this world.

“you’d know, wouldn’t you? or are your rules DIFFERENT somehow?”

“fail to see how THAT’S a surprise; lowlanders live by different rules.”

“‘s not the way of the WILD, ‘s somethin’ else entirely.”

    ‘   –––·the same rules that drive them to murder senselessly?  ‘

“nah. just FED ‘em once, and they’ve been followin’ me ever since.”

“lazy BASTARDS.”