resurrect the saint within the wretch
The pegasus’ dark blue eyes become sharp, his instincts heightened with the intensity of their stare that the two Eastern stallions bear down upon him. Warden returns his own thoughtful gaze, the muscle in his hardened jaw jumping beneath the pale ivory of his face.
“I appreciate the sentiment, but it would be a waste of time to pretend as if my approval or disapproval would change the past or make the East reconsider their ways.” Warden’s voice is smooth and without waver, but there is no malice or judgment in it - he speaks only the truth and leaves any emotion that could possibly accompany him elsewhere, far from this conversation where it has no place belonging. The overo stallion snorts softly, somewhat contemplatively.
“Tephra only wishes to be as it has in the past: a place of protection and a place of peace. If the East continues to come through our borders as friends, then you can expect the same.” The winged stallion shifts his weight, finding the unblinking gaze of Yadigar somehow more unbearable than the other, with the splitting skin across his face that flutters every so often. Perhaps it is because Yadigar’s out-of-focus glances remind him so much of his visions, the thought pricking his spine most unsettlingly.
Will Yadigar pry for more? Will he really believe that peace - and nothing more - is all Tephra sought? The Watcher is not interested in delving out anything more than he is given and though he is not a liar, Warden does not yet trust these two strangers as perhaps the previous leaders had. His ivory wings flutter, the scent of salt and smoke rising with their movement, wondering if the brothers also find it hard to trust him and, perhaps, they would all be better off for it.
He nearly gives them something - an offering, a sign of a truce - but the stallion finds that revealing his precognition might better be saved for another time and place. Instead, Warden rolls his shoulders slightly and gives the duo a break in the thin line of his lips, a half-quirked smile on his pale mouth. “Perhaps we will learn more about each other, in due time. Goals and dreams change.”
The future always comes, Warden reminds himself bitterly - to both the lamb and to the butcher, without regard for their roles in it.
@[yadigar]