War is never what is expected. She hadn’t ever thought to prepare herself for such a thing—why would she, a quiet healer from nothing, ever need to prepare for war?—but she had experienced it anyway. She had felt the scars of it deep within her. From watching Rhonen fall and not being able to do a thing to stop it to seeing Loess rain down on Tephra and being little more than a half-functioning shield for her home.
She had known the bitter taste of war, and she wears the weight of it still.
Titus is exactly as she expected him to be though, and her smile is genuine where it touches the very corners of her mouth. “I have been busy enough,” is all she says regarding her own accomplishments because, to her, they are hardly that. They are penance for her own part in what transpired. They are the only thing she knows how to do to help after the destruction that she helped wrought.
It would be easy—to slip into the darkness, to leave.
But she does not deserve such beautiful endings.
She deserves to work and face everything she has done. She deserves to bear the brunt of it.
Still, he is kind and her smile spreads a little further, the warmth just barely reaching her eyes. “I believe in the Tephra that we are building. She is strong, and I know that she will rise strong than before.” There is a brief pause as she gathers her thoughts, looking toward his face again. “But I cannot do it alone, Titus. Magnus has told me of you, and I have watched you. I am in need of a General to help protect Tephra.”
She pauses, letting the sentence rest in the open between them.
“I would never ask you to do something you did not feel called to do, but if you are…”
Her voice trails off and she waits, watching him for a reaction.
it's only you and me there until the darkness calls
let's face the dawn together; we'll brave whatever comes
@[Titus]