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[color=#736AFF][b][h1]Ranbu no Izayoi[/h1][/b][/color]
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[color=#736AFF][b]"Arton, control yourself. The time for opinions can wait."[/b][/color] Izayoi fell back into old habits, the general she had once been reasserting itself in her cold tone. 

[color=#736AFF][b]"Ciradyl."[/b][/color] If Izayoi had been irritated before, now she was nothing but a pillar of stone, her expression unreadably blank. [color=#736AFF][b]"Explain yourself. Now."[/b][/color]

She [i]knew[/i] her old friend. People changed, but not enough for this sudden shift. Not enough to ally with the woman who wanted her as a trophy, if there wasn't a salient reason behind it. Yet Ciradyl stayed silent, to Izayoi's frustration. Before either woman could say anything further, a few sheets of documents were silently passed Izayoi's way by Esben. She picked them up and began to read. Her frown deepened. 

[color=#736AFF][b]"This..."[/b][/color] Izayoi began to say after a minute. She knew many of these names. She wouldn't be mourning the majority of them. [color=#736AFF][b]"This would absolve you, in my eyes. I have committed larger wastes of our people's lives. My presumed final stand was little more than a temper tantrum on my part that got many more killed uselessly."[/b][/color] 

Izayoi placed the documents back on the table, free for Esben to elaborate on. That one did like to talk, after all. 

[color=#736AFF][b]"Why do you not defend yourself?"[/b][/color]

[b]"That's something I'd like to know too."[/b] A voice proclaimed from outside the room. The door slid open, and Hien shuffled in, bleary-eyed from an apparent lack of sleep. [b]"What?"[/b] He shrugged in the face of Izayoi's questioning glance. [b]"All the commotion awoke me. Regardless, let's hear it, Lady Ciradyl. I believe we all deserve that much, at least."[/b]