She's got the devil's eyes
Heartfire has not come here because she believed Starsin a sheep who only obeyed orders given to her. Quite the opposite, in fact. She had come with full knowledge of the dappled woman’s role in the farcical war that had inspired the tensions even now coursing through Beqanna. She is also well aware Starsin had never openly claimed credit for it, despite the fact that she could easily have done so.
Just as Heartfire had never claimed credit in the role she had played in bringing the plague down upon Beqanna. Curious that similarity, isn’t? After all, she doesn’t regret, even a little bit, the role she had played there, despite the boundless tragedies it had wrought.
No, she is not here because she believes Starsin innocent or filled with regret. She is not here because she believes her to lack any culpability in the path Loess had trod in their hungry greed for power. In fact, she’s here because of that very culpability.
She’s here because she knows it was not Castile’s (or even Vulgaris or Wolfbane’s) brainpower behind those things. She’s here because she knows exactly who had whispered those devilish ideas into their ears, sending them on a path from which there was no return. And truthfully, if all she had wanted was muscle, she might have gone to Castile rather than Starsin.
Without even realizing it, Starsin had provided Heartfire with everything she’d wished and more. In the end, perhaps all she really needed was the reminder that she doesn’t need to answer to Castile. She doesn’t need to answer to anyone.
Heartfire hadn’t come here with thoughts of tearing Starsin from an alliance with Castile, after all. She’s not interested in fruitless endeavors.
No, her plans were far more devious than such an obvious and misleading ploy.
The silence is a heavy one after Starsin offers her final, bitingly sarcastic remarks, though Heartfire is neither angry nor troubled by them. Instead, she’s rather thoughtful. After a time, she slowly replies, “No.” A faint, humorless smile touches her lips then. “Eye-opening in that Loess does not have nearly the reach or power you seem to believe it has.”
She says nothing further. Starsin could no doubt use the time to stew on that bit of knowledge anyway.
and they'll cut you like a weapon