Snippet #1735984

Pearlescent teeth ground quietly against one another, but not with such vigor that the flexing of her jaw would give it away. Kiera was torn, and it was not a good feeling. She had been rent asunder worse on only one occasion, and the result of that had been the mass slaughter or the citizens of this planet. It was not, contrary to perhaps the prevailing opinion, something she desired to repeat, though she also refused to regret it. For the necromancer, there was a line between the necessary and the gratuitous, and right now Gabbe and Falwich were crossing it. Must we make everyone an enemy before they have a chance to become an ally? The thought was not directed at Falwich; indeed, she seemed to have forgotten for the moment that he might indeed hear it at all. It was an entirely private sentiment.

She could understand distrust, truly, it made more sense than most things. Distrust and wariness were necessary. Antagonism was not. It was petty, and dangerous. Even so, the Aduro's reaction did not endear it to Kiera, and she suppressed a growl that might have made Kaine proud. Her friends were being threatened, and Kiera's fingers tightened in the folds of her dark blue gown before she shifted position, moving to stand between where Falwich and Gabbe were. Needlessly combative or not, at fault in the confrontation or not, they were her friends, and it was they she would defend until she drew breath no longer. A melodramatic sentiment, perhaps, but when heath is a very real possibility, when you know it quite so well as Kiera did, such thoughts might well be appropriate as well.

Her message was clear: I said I believed you, not that I trust you. They are not yours to harm. None of them belonged to anyone anymore, and now that they could fight to ensure they were not trodden upon, she at least intended to do just that. Really, she wished the situation would defuse, but it did not seem likely at the rate things were going. There was just an untenable clash of personalities being pitted against each other here, and it was beginning to show the ways in which the five of them were still not united. She disliked the feeling of being conflicted so very, very much, but no matter how she willed it, she could never bring herself to see these things in black and white. Not after what had happened.

Kiera forced her hands to relax, releasing the heavy fabric in which they had clenched, trying to smooth out the harder lines of her facial expression. She was no diplomat, but sometimes it was more about what you were willing to say than what you could say well. "It is hard to believe something without proof, when you have been lied to for the duration of your existence." It wasn't an excuse, but neither was it an apology, merely a fact.

Kaine, in that strange way he had, seemed to find a solution in the most unusual of ways. Specifically, he walked over to Vance, said something that Kiera did not hear, and promptly disappeared. Of all the things they could do, she had never seen such a thing, and for a moment suspected he had transformed into a very small animal, perhaps accidentally under the stress, and scanned the floor for an insect or a rodent. Not finding anything, she looked back up at Vance, voice surprisingly collected considering the situation. "What just happened?"