She's got the devil's eyes
It had never been her intention to place Wolfbane in a position where he felt he must choose. He had done that rather neatly himself, unfortunately. He couldn’t have possibly expected the manner in which he’d chosen to overtake the wooded territory to be welcomed with open arms. And the fact that he had chosen to do so without informing her first spoke volumes of where his true loyalties lay.
The faintly bitter taste of betrayal lingers on the back of her tongue as he spells out there purpose in sharply disgruntled syllables. She wonders then whether it was consuming his grandfather’s withered heart that had brought them to this, or whether he had always thought so little of her.
Her tone is low when she replies to him, the words as flat as they are brutally honest. “You do not unify Beqanna by alienating someone who could have been an ally to you.”
He had actively made the choice to invade this land without even so much as acknowledging her. They had not just hurt Aten. They had opened a larger wound than they believed, and already it begins to fester. Even now, they seem to have little interest in salvaging it.
Lepis picks up the conversation where Wolfbane had left off, her words serving only to cement the conclusion she had come to. Peace had not been their intention. Not truly. If it had, they would have come to her immediately, rather than waiting for her to come to them. Because it is Wolfbane, she had hoped otherwise.
She should know better than to give in to foolish things like hope.
With each word, Lepis steps more neatly into the trap Heartfire had set, until it springs, silent and unfelt, around her. Though Heartfire had hoped otherwise, the navy-tinged woman had fallen straight into it, without even realizing the perilous ground upon which she trod.
She likely wouldn’t realize it until much later, unfortunately.
Heartfire, rather than growing angry or upset as Lepis had no doubt intended, instead favors her with a cool, faintly amused smile. “That’s unfortunate,” she replies mildly, her features surprisingly placid given the revelations Lepis had just made. “Perhaps one day you’ll be able to see the ground beneath your nose. Until then, I believe I have what I came for.”
With that, she turns and walks away. Let them make of that what they would. Part of her hopes that Wolfbane would find his way to Nerine with understanding on his tongue. Another part of her knows that he has already made his choice.
and they'll cut you like a weapon