and some by virtue fall; Straia

[Kushiel]

Kushiel smiled, and there was a gleam to his eye, all the more wicked for it was unexpected. There are very few things more disarming than a person who spoke the truth and nothing more. It was a refreshing change, to be smacked in the face with an honest answer. In a room full of liars, the honest person would be the one who stood out, dangerous and rebellious for her candor.

Her laugh caused his smile to twitch into a grin, and he watched her with his warm, bold, eyes. His gaze was perhaps the only plainly honest thing about him. He didn’t glance aside or down. He simply watched her with an impolite level of interest, making no effort to hide the pleasure it gave him.

“Ah, now I understand you, Straia. You intentionally recruit the mad, for they will attempt schemes others would call crazy.” He thinks for a moment about his Chambermates. Several of them were, in fact, completely crazy. Kushiel did not count himself among them. He was full of shit, but he wasn’t crazy. There was a key and crucial difference. But, for one fleeting moment his flame flickered higher, and he felt the insatiable hunger inside him rise. The hunger for fire, and the all consuming lust of letting it burn. He swallowed it down and his grin turned sheepish, rueful.

Perhaps, just a little crazy than.

Still, Straia’s vision for her rule is surprisingly straightforward, the honest answer of a dedicated monarch. He isn’t surprised, per say, but it was not what he expected out of the mysterious Raven Queen he had built up in his mind. Yet, it would not be the first time the vision he had created in his head was not true of real life. It matched everything she had told him, clearly and honestly, and yet it still surprised him. He titled his head and looked at her a little more closely, as if he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, as if any moment she would turn into some mythical beast and laugh at the joke she had played on the foolish boy. Of course, that didn’t happen and Kushiel shrugged, a less wicked, but no less pleased smile rising to take its place.

“A noble dream. Perhaps, you will go down in history as the woman who did her job well and cut the bullshit. You will have a book all to yourself.” As he had thought before, there was nothing more disarming than a powerful person willing to speak the truth of the matter. Straia may be crazier than she let on, for it was madness indeed to attempt something so straightforward. Yet, unable to let a profound statement linger, Kushiel continued.

“And how do you feel, my queen, about making an honest man out of this poor schmuck?” Shameless fishing and shameless flattery, it was what Kushiel did best.