i am the mace, the map, the fall and the high
For all the banter they share, Reave is perfectly aware just how different the woman standing before him is from the woman he had met in that dark, monster-filled forest. There had been an optimism, a kindness then that she lacks entirely now. She may conceal it momentarily behind memories of a dead woman, but Reave sees her for what she is.
So when the facade cracks, splintering before his very eyes, the grin pulling at his lips deepens. It had not taken long for her patience to wear thin, for the anger lingering so closely beneath the surface to bubble forth. And just as she moves, as though preparing to attack, so too does he. He doesn’t fear for his life - not when he is far from defenseless - but he still prepares to defend. Just in case.
He laughs at her words. It’s a wild and reckless sound, his humor. “I can assure you, I have always been this irritating,” he quips back, grin wide.
Her emotions practically lash at him, carrying memories he doubts she wants him to see. But when she sprinkles them so liberally around her, it’s impossible for him to avoid them. Her frustration feeds her anger, but somehow, she manages to tamp it down once more. She hadn’t come here to rip him apart after all, no matter how much his slippery discourse made her want to.
Reave doesn’t bother to tell her just how much more annoying he could be if he put his mind to it. Even he isn’t quite so reckless as to pull that cat by its tail.
He lifts his head as she settles, her reply once again modulated. There is a gleam in his razor blue eye, as though she had given him everything he had wanted. “She didn’t strike me as the sort to complain,” he returns just as blandly. He pauses for a moment before adding, “Truthfully, the fact that her mother still resides in Hyaline is something I found far more interesting.”
She had earned a bit of the truth from him. Even if it is a barbed truth dangled as bait.
reave
@Mazikeen