She is guarded, and he respects the distance she keeps between them. He could hardly blame her for being a little careful around the new way of doing things. Their very world had cracked in half to birth this new one; who wouldn’t be a little cautious? So he doesn’t attempt to breach the distance, instead staying several paces back, keeping his crooked smile warm. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Lucrezia,” he offered, looking around them at the crowds that still milled about. “I wish it had been under better circumstances.”
An understatement. Perhaps the understatement to end all understatements. Homes had been destroyed; gifts ripped away. Their world shaken and turned upside down. Words did not do justice, and he did not attempt to encapsulate the loss within a few phrases. He had to trust that she would know what he meant.
She may have been a diplomat, but he was always a soldier first. The gift of words had not always come easily to him. As a young boy, he had to fight to control the wildness that the jungle had nurtured. He had been savage and beautiful and wild—running amongst the vines with wild cats at his shoulder. He had been untamed. That savageness had been later cultivated in the Chamber, where it had been groomed into that of a soldier’s discipline, a warrior’s ferocity. He later learned how to soften it with charm, but it had been a hard-fought battle. Even now, he could not always control his tongue. Diplomacy was not easy.
But, for now, it was easy with her. “The change has shaken up quite a few people. Today has been,” he paused to search for the right word, “tense, to say the least.” At her concern for him, he just rolled his shoulders and laughed lightly, the sound husky in his throat. “I’m doing okay.” He considered her for a second before adding, “I’m just doing my best to help people. It’s the only thing there is to do, I think.”
magnus
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