you can hear when the heart stops
 | HELLO DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND
Anaxarete does not find politics to be mundane. Not in the slightest. She had been a diplomat long before she had become a warrior. Before battle had made her something more. The shadowmare was fully capable of leading an attack - of calling the dogs of war to her aid. But to be frank, that simply wasn’t her style. No. Anaxarete prefered to pull the strings from the shadows. Some thought of themselves as a battering ram or another machine of war - Anaxarete was more interested in knowing where the last domino would fall after the first was tipped ever so slightly.
She regards him carefully, especially with the reputation that precedes him in mind. She’s heard things of him just as he had heard of her. It would be effortless for her to bore into his mind - for her to simply take the answers to her questions and be done with it. But no, she affords the dragon king the respect he deserves and so his mind remains unbreached. As long as he behaved, at least.
Curiosity, he admits, is what brings him to her borders. She nods her head, just so. “I cannot fault you for that,” she says, cooly, “I always wonder how I stack up against the rumors.” A dark smile blooms across her lips then. What a curious creature he is - this dragon king of Loess.
“My, my, Castile. Do you think me some sort of warmonger?” She laughs then - a dry, lilting sound. “I have no craving for war. You can rest assured of that.” This much was true, there was no deception in this.
“No one has come asking my protection yet. I’m not sure they’d like my answer if they had. I’m not in the habit of freely offering such,” and that much is true. Anaxarete would protect those loyal to her - but for those with ulterior motives...well, her loyalty was not absolute in that case. That would depend on the strategic advantage of interceding. “Pangea looks to grow from within. We have no desire to expand our borders. We are content here,” she says, matter of factly. It was a statement where she could so easily add a ’for now, at least’ but such was unnecessary. ”We have no meddle with Loess, just as I assume you have none with Pangea,” she says, simply. The implication is clear enough. Neutrality. She will not interfere with Loess if they do not interfere with her here, in Pangea.
But when the conversation moves back to her companions - first mentioned by the dragon king’s companion who remains silent by the king’s side - her tone changes ever so slightly. “My companions are with me all the time - even when you can’t see them. Every moment of every day. They are not only called upon simply when it’s convenient - when they have some sort of utility. They are a part of me and I a part of them,” her eyes flash for only a moment before the cold returns. Perhaps they do not understand - they are connected beyond blood. “They are not weapons, they are family,” she adds, with a note of finality. Family is perhaps not the right word, but she knows it is something easily and almost universally understood. understood.
A N A X A R E T E |
image credit
@[Castile]
@[Nimue Isolde]
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