@simulacrumist
  There had been a time where the idea of questioning the Archonâs words would have been so terrifying to Calpernia, so unattainable and fantastical - surely, she had naively once thought, he was a man of reason, and if only the slaves of Tevinter could have audience with him, things could be different.
  But alas, the throne had fallen to nothing more than a glorified ass-warmer since Dariniusâs time. How he would weep to see what theyâd done to his Imperium! Radonis was a snake, his pride too wounded for him to do anything more than offer baseless tidbits of coy diplomacy because heâs finally realized Calperniaâs more valuable alive to him than dead.
  âSpoken by the man who intended to rob me of that very future in the first place.â
Radonis nearly snorted. Nearly. A smile did pass like a ghost over his lips, and didnât stay but on the corners of his mouth, overshadowed by his raised eyebrows, an expression that had something positively incredulous.
« Spoken by me, indeed. And meaning it, too. » With that, he turned and moved to a chair, each of his steps emphasised by the sound of his golden staff hitting the floor. He sat, his elbows on the armrests and looking at her as he had looked at many a man and woman who had, sometimes with his approval and sometimes to his displeasure, come to talk with him in a parlour during the fifteen long years of his rule.Â
His tone changed, lower, devoid of the patrician conversational streak that other times took some weight away from his voice. « Just as I meant your death. Iâve shaken the hand of people I once wished dead before, and the change of attitude depended on what they did, on their deeds or their potential. Not because my resolutions are flimsy, or whatever other misguided impression the idea of civil conversation gives you. Surely you understand the necessity of being somewhat flexible in your plans. And if you donât, youâll need to. » A pause. « I offered you something, Calpernia. If you ever walk into the halls of the Senate thanks to me, and, letâs not forget, against the laws of the Imperium, I will not have you waste the opportunity because your are too rigid to overlook grudges. »









