She's got the devil's eyes
It surprises her not at all that he has so little knowledge of Castile, Lepis, and Wolfbane’s plans. They had certainly chosen not to share them widely. Indeed, even for a woman of her rather far-reaching capabilities, it had been a struggle to obtain the information she had. In fact, she had only managed to confirm her suspicions by confronting Lepis directly about it.
Of course, when one has the insights Heartfire does, it’s not difficult to apply leverage in the right places to gain the information she desires. And Lepis, for all her close-lipped confidence, is an easy woman to locate the weaknesses in. One need only pinch at her pride to cause her confidences to spill.
And spill they had.
She eyes Litotes openly, considering his surprise at her words, the restless shifting of his pale frame, the obvious agitation at realizing things had been kept from him. Though Heartfire could never claim to be an open book, she does wonder why they would choose to keep such things from their allies. Especially knowing she would likely object as she had.
It would be utterly foolish for them to expect to take all of Beqanna bloodlessly.
“It was done with Castile’s blessing,” she replies bluntly, the truth of that statement easily visible in the hard, unforgiving glint the settles in the blue of her eye. Her features are stony as she continues, her displeasure at the circumstances clear. “Whether it began with Lepis and Wolfbane is irrelevant, it was done with his knowledge and support.”
Were she a crueler and more petty woman, she might wonder aloud if Castile had ever had such an original thought. But she is not, nor does she desire the backlash such a comment might bring. Still, it has become increasingly clear, over these last months, that most of what had occurred lately had rarely started in Castile’s head. But they always seemed to have his fingerprints all over them nevertheless.
It’s also becoming increasingly clear that Litotes is not nearly so enamored of Castile as she’d once thought. A mistake to believe so on her part, but one she is quite glad to see she was mistaken about. And in the wake of the understanding, she pushes harder than she might normally have, not willing to miss her chance to impress upon Litotes exactly the nature of the man he had allied himself to.
“I doubt Lepis had any true desire to share her plans with me, but…” she pauses then, a faintly satisfied smile briefly crossing her lips. “Let us just say she has far too much pride for her own good.” Her gaze cools once more as she fixes it with unerring directness on Litotes. “She informed me herself she plans to either make a play for the Northern throne or secede Taiga and align it to Loess. Either way, she made clear her plans to ally with Castile and revealed his knowledge of those plans.”
It had been a mistake for Lepis to tell her those things. But then, Heartfire has always been a woman who thrives on others' mistakes.
and they'll cut you like a weapon