"You know, Blaze, what happened to being intelligent in what you said in front of him? What happened to careful speech, keeping yourself controlled?" Stare snapped.
There was a light cough. The kenku paused, then pushed the goblet into the waiting, pale hand. The men's conversation began again. Blaze watched the interaction with growing rage, as Mer frowned.
"Nothing," Blaze replied haughtily. "But this situation is rather out of the ordinary, isn't it?"
"You fucking know that if I could do something I would," Stare whispered harshly. "But I can't. And he knows that I would if I could, so the opportunity never comes up. Life is what it is, Blaze. Deal with it. You gave me that advice once."
"I didn't realise how much of a hypocrite you would become, sitting here in your palace-"
"Shut the fuck up," Stare yelled suddenly, her rage suddenly live within her. "You don't know ANYTHING, you-"
A hand flashed out and grabbed her shoulder.
Stop, now. Look at me now.
Her words were cut off. Sucking in her breath she realised that she was staring right at Blaze, and that the girl was stuck, still and stunned as if in a trance. Realising exactly what she had done, what she had allowed her emotions to do, Stare began to blink, slowly at first, then more rapidly, her heart hammering as she felt the torment inside of her chest. The desire to be so furious, to argue all those accusations, to-
Stare!
The grip at her shoulder tightened, piercing.
There was utter soundlessness. Stare held the eye contact with Blaze for a moment longer, longing to instill a vivid sense of the faerie-elf's worst nightmare. But pressure built at her shoulder again and she swapped her glare. Instead of her red-haired victim she found herself focusing on the calm blue eyes of her god. A wisdom so deep she could barely comprehend the surface. A power so great that she had doubts no one was greater. A complexity of a man with such ambitions, a scarred past and villainous present that his future was beyond anyone's guess.
