[center] [h3][color=C0392B]Rudolf Sagramore[/color][/h3] [h2]&[/h2] [color=#736AFF][b][h1]Ranbu no Izayoi[/h1][/b][/color] [/center] [@Raineh Daze] At some point over the course of the day, both Rudolf and Izayoi found themselves within the small chapel that had been pointed out to them by the guard, conveniently finding Miina conversing with Cid of all people. With that initial hurdle out of the way, Izayoi approached Rudolf while the former two conversed. [color=#736AFF][b]”Boy,”[/b][/color] She intoned neutrally. [color=#736AFF][b]”With everything that had happened, I never did thank you for saving my life in the desert. Without your intervention, I would surely have died that day. To a man I’d already killed once already, at that. So, thank you.”[/b][/color] Izayoi gave a formal bow, her hands at her sides, back straight. It hadn’t been terribly long since he’d handed the chocobos back off to Goug, and in turn been relieved of the somewhat necessary sun exposure that came with the birdsitting— while he’d reassured the Moogle he did indeed intend to arm himself anew before they shipped off at first light tomorrow, he couldn’t deny that he wanted a second in some damned [i]shade[/i] first. The chapel was sure to at least offer that much respite, and beyond that immediately provide him some geographical mooring in the new, unfamiliar city. Better to know where he meant to return to before setting off. His eyebrows rose. While Cid’s reappearance across the vast distance between this small chapel and the underground temple they’d met him at was already surprise, before he could even insert himself into a fitting point of their back and forth to ask the billion questions brewing on his mind about it he’d been blindsided from another direction— with Izayoi, of all people, bowing stiffly before him. It had been long enough since that, aside from the brief allusions to it by those on the ship that cared to bring that day up, he had begun to believe the moment lost in the swirl of their quest. They would be bound to all save each others’ lives many times over, before the work was done, he’d reasoned, and all proper thanks would be paid in a return of the favor, sooner or later. Faced with actual thanks now, he needed a second to reorient. He nodded, letting his face settle into an expression that was a little more composed, and replied. [color=c0392b]“Truthfully, I’m just glad I got there in time. Once you incurred the rebound from that technique of yours, each moment was so much of a rush I’d been lost in the instinct of it all. I was hardly thinking.”[/color] he offered a shrug before folding his arms as he leaned against the archway that lead into the small arrangement of pews. [color=c0392b]“And saying that, I realize I never thanked you for saving [i]our[/i] lives just moments before. Call it a draw?”[/color] He hated leaving hanging debts, after all. It wouldn’t shock him if Izayoi was the same— and that was one explanation for the stiffness of her thanks. That, or she just wasn’t familiar with giving them. He wasn’t far removed there either, in that case. [color=#736AFF][b]”Very well.”[/b][/color] Unbeknownst to Rudolf, he wasn’t far off the mark. In that both of his assumptions were correct. Izayoi had never been the one [i]needing[/i] to be saved since she was a young girl. From the moment she’d struck off on her own, she’d been the one doing the saving. Hence, this wasn’t a situation she was familiar with. [color=#736AFF][b]”In any case, I say this to reinforce that I’ve no ill intent towards you. But that traitor dragoon at sea did state something I found curious.”[/b][/color] She gave Rudolf not so much a hostile stare as an unamused one. [color=#736AFF][b]”Did you honestly believe that any Osprean commander fighting on the southern front wouldn’t recognize the name Shilage?”[/b][/color] The young man closed his eyes, and a deep breath through the nose covered up the lead ball that had suddenly been plunged into his stomach. His fingertips pulled against his bicep, grip tight, mirroring the sudden pressure through his brow, through his jaw. He’d let his guard down for a second. One. [i]And it was me you were scared of revealing. How funny these things shake out, huh?[/i] And now, what was [i]almost[/i] the worst case scenario had been thrust into his day. As she’d said, she didn’t hide an intent to gut him with that… just one to force him into this conversation again. One his heart told him he wouldn’t get the same ending he’d pulled out of Galahad for. He met her gaze after a moment, meeting her pointed lack of hostility with less wariness in turn— [color=c0392b]”As I’ve heard it told, the old bastard gave plenty of reasons to the contrary during his campaign. No. Not for a second would I believe that. It was why I was surprised when Galahad beat you to the punch.”[/color] But he was no more amused, eyes narrowing and firming. While [i]their[/i] dragoon’s words still lived in his mind, and lived with a fair weight, his stance was still hard as ever— concealment was not the only reason he’d introduced himself the way he did. [color=c0392b]”And as I’ve already told him, that traitor dragoon doesn’t know what he says. I am no Shilage. I’ve no right or tie to that name. I do not bear it, I do not claim it.”[/color] [color=#736AFF][b]”I’m sure.”[/b][/color] Izayoi replied dryly, her expression indicating she didn’t believe him in the slightest. [color=#736AFF][b]”Not at the moment, to be certain. But at some point in time?”[/b][/color] She cocked her head. Well. It explained the manners, at least. [color=#736AFF][b]”You were hiding the matter with Esben, as well. So this wasn’t a lie concocted in fear of my reaction. Disowned, then.”[/b][/color] She shook her head. Between Galahad and now this, how certain people could simply turn their children’s claim to family into mud was beyond her. She couldn’t even [i]conceive[/i] of doing that to Suzume, short of her having done something unthinkable. [color=#736AFF][b]”It matters not, in any case.”[/b][/color] She concluded, shrugging her shoulders. [color=#736AFF][b]”Your family’s affairs are hardly pertinent to our quest. If you wish to be Sagramore, then Sagramore you shall be. We were always going to have needed to avoid Shilage lands, lest it end in bloodshed between myself and the local lord.”[/b][/color] Izayoi trailed off, a thought coming to her head. Was it…? Well, she hardly remembered. It had been five years, after all. [color=#736AFF][b]”Were you the youngest? I once signed off on orders to attempt to abduct you during the war, in that case. It was one of the only ones that failed.”[/b][/color] [color=c0392b]”None of your—”[/color] he began to heatedly retort, before his mind caught up with his wounded heart and told it just what she’d said. [color=c0392b][i]…Imre?[/i][/color] A flash, somewhere in the depths of his gaze. Himstus upon him, a scarlet blaze interwoven with black pitch. In spite of his insistence that he had nothing to do with them, he was as Esben had learned on the masts days ago— [i]good[/i] at concealing those subconscious reactions, but not quite perfect. His knife. Was his knife still sheathed? Yeah, his hands were free. But tense. And his left had drifted closer to it. He held it still. [color=c0392b]“...Checking the old warhorse’s rampage by holding a hostage in his face. I see… With that one, maybe there was a chance.”[/color] he spelled out, a half-step further away after he’d stopped languidly propping himself against the architecture. Even in using the logic to recenter his emotional control, he couldn’t help but think back to that offhand quip he’d made before his spar with Robin— about how right he’d really been. She had no way of knowing that her failed attempt had been towards the one with a better shot of defending himself to begin with. By that point in their lives, Imre had already been about as tall as Rudolf, and better behind a sword— And both fair haired, sharp-featured like their mother. Had he not been sent away to the southwest, just how close would the odds have been that he wouldn’t have been the one her agents had gone after, even if only by mistaken identity? He swallowed, pale and chilled in spite of the tropical locale. And even if that had not come to pass, how close had his brother come to such a nightmare while he was away? While he could do nothing? [color=c0392b]”...It wouldn’t have been me. Depending on the time you did this, I could have been practically Edren’s entire breadth from their holdings.”[/color] he said, searching her warily with his eyes. [color=c0392b]“Unable to do anything about it. I should be glad you failed either way, I suppose.”[/color] Perhaps understandably, he had little relief in him to show on the face. His left hand, dangling at the side, slowly curled into a fist. Not a white-knuckled ball, but… as though grasping for something that wasn’t there, and holding the void where it should have been. [color=c0392b]”Framing it as we have… why do you tell me this, Izayoi? I don’t imagine you intend me to [i]act[/i] upon this knowledge. Not at this point.”[/color] [color=#736AFF][b]”Merely making doubly sure of your identity.”[/b][/color] Izayoi noted Rudolf’s reaction, seeming relatively unconcerned at his hand drifting towards his knife. [color=#736AFF][b]”That sort of reaction isn’t something one fakes on command without being a very good liar. Better you hear it from myself than from Istvan Shilage.”[/b][/color] [color=c0392b]“There is another I should hear it from, but… yes. You’re right. Better you than he.”[/color] he muttered, cold and bitter, as his business reordered itself in several ways. [color=c0392b]”Seeing the opportunities I had to ensure otherwise, I’m sure you still drawing breath would be a contentious point.”[/color] She looked away from the conversation and up towards the one stained glass panel above the chapel’s pulpit. A sigh. [color=#736AFF][b]”Of all my regrets, abducting children to force their parents’ hands is one of my greatest. I did my best to ensure none of them came to physical harm, but that can mean little. For what little it is worth, I am glad the attempt on your brother failed.”[/b][/color] He was silent as he took that in. This [i]was[/i] different from the way she had thrown it out there when they were all dressing down Ciradyl, that much he couldn’t deny. With her stoic nature, this was likely what true remorse did look like— she’d only ever opened up further than this moment when speaking of [i]her[/i] days of parenthood. He had no reason to doubt her regrets, knowing that. Not to mention… [i]I seem to recall [b]yours[/b] line up quite well. Enough that even though it’s been five years of us, you’ve barely given me five minutes of your time. And only when you need something, at that— It’s like you don’t want me here. Even though all I do is what you ask.[/i] …He had given up his right to demand them, long before this, when he had put a brother of his in even more danger. His eyes did not follow hers towards the stained glass— instead, they drifted over to Cid, still in the midst of his own duties. How much, he wondered, did the old man really know? If Neve could sense the [i]wrongness[/i] within him, then surely he could do the same. Which meant… [color=c0392b]“Desperation makes monsters of us. I learned as much firsthand. And to accompany that, I don’t believe there’s any more worth about it I have the right to, regardless of want.”[/color] he finally said with a huff, turning away from Cid, from Miina, from the chapel. He had come here to take refuge from the outdoor light— hide in the darkness, in other words. His boots striking the floorboards filled the tiny hall as they carried him into the gloom, gathered around the borders of the light that filtered in through the doorway. … He stopped, looking over his shoulder at the Wild Dance once more. The shadows seemed to hug his small, tense frame. [color=c0392b]“Do you believe that still exists within you? Given [i]our[/i] war is now for the sake of the whole world, not just Osprey.”[/color] he asked, well aware of the cruelty that was voicing that question. [color=c0392b]”Have you changed? Would you make that choice again, if it lies before you once more?”[/color] There was an answer he wanted to hear from her. One he had been betting more than he could suspect on. He couldn’t ignore everything he had slowly been reading out of her, through his perhaps-now-justified fears. But he needed to know what she saw in [i]herself.[/i] Izayoi drew in a breath, the moral quandary of the question impacting her like a warhammer to the gut. After having given birth to Suzume, would she do that to someone else? [i]Could[/i] she? [color=#736AFF][b]”I would hope that I could say yes, should it ever come to that.”[/b][/color] She said solemnly, meeting Rudolf’s gaze. [color=#736AFF][b]”But war makes pragmatists of us all.”[/b][/color] Izayoi didn’t like the answer she found. But at the end of the day, her own quest for revenge was a selfish one. And she would already have gone to nearly any end to slaughter Reisa and whomever actually gave the order to raze Atsu. For a just cause such as averting darkness and oblivion itself? [color=#736AFF][b]”Only if the alternative was truly unthinkable. If one child, one life had to be exchanged to stop mass slaughter, extermination, the end of the world itself? My sins are already great. One more would only be a drop in the bucket.”[/b][/color] …There it was. The answer he received was, as he had suspected, much more realistic than his hopes. A reflection of the bitter truths of the world they were fighting to save— one of compromises, inertia, and broader concerns that demanded the death of the sacrificed ideal. He held his look a moment longer, that lone spot of gold against his daylight-embossed silhouette not quite [i]disappointed[/i], but… nonetheless troubled, an echo of what he saw in her. Change came from within, and so spoke the only one who could see [i]within[/i] the tired mystrel before him. And she'd had titanic reasons beyond herself to do it. [color=c0392b]“So it does.”[/color] he agreed quietly, meeting her on her first point. [color=c0392b]“Such is war. I pray we never find out, but…”[/color] He then shrugged that shoulder, turning away as he loosed a solemn breath his own. [color=c0392b]“Your sins and mine differ, I'll say that much. But I think our limits are the same, at least somewhat— My ‘unthinkable alternative’ was letting those around you mourn you a second time, when I could still do [i]something[/i]. But perhaps I’ve also changed less than I’d like, even in saying that. More and more, I’ve been made to consider it. Putting drops into my own bucket. Not even for pragmatism’s sake.”[/color] It really did feel insurmountable, didn't it? Overcoming yourself completely. There, then, he could start. At what was Pragmatic. Necessary. Let the logic and calculus of the situation guide him to Control. It was better, at least, than giving up. The way he had surrendered himself so often before. Five years had lead her to that answer. ... In this world, perhaps that was already the most fate would allow. Was there any real way to know, before it put you there? He began to walk forward once more, his course set towards arming himself. War demanded weaponry, and information. He now knew he had a critical lack in both. Blacksmith, then postage, once he stepped into the light once more. [color=c0392b]“You’ve given me perspective and honesty, Furuya Izayoi. For that, you [i]do[/i] have my thanks… And my hopes as well. I’ll be back by dusk.”[/color] With that, he was gone.