Mazikeen isn’t self-aware enough to know how little her own life means to her, that much of what drives her to be more is the belief that maybe she can mean something if she’s strong enough, fast enough, brave enough to save someone else. Ryatah healing her should have been a life for a life but it wasn’t - to Mazikeen, even without consciously thinking about it, Selaphiel’s life meant more and so she felt indebted to the angel enough that interaction had helped inspire her to change the rules of Hyaline. So Ryatah would not have to send away any other children.
It is good, though, to hear that the angel saves many. That she needn’t have felt special at all for the attention she received. And though Mazikeen does not plan on ever having children, she can’t help but wonder if they’ll speak of her with the same fondness Firion uses for his mom or if it will be just hazy, distant affection like she has with Agetta. How strange to think that she should be so lucky to have someone speak of her like he is of his mom.
His thanks comes as a surprise, and combined with the intensity of his stare she almost believes he means it. She is quiet for a moment - unsure of how to respond, uneasy with the gratitude for something she had done on instinct. It hadn't even been a choice. She had just acted. She doesn’t know what to say in reply so the truth comes out. “I’d die for anyone, Firion. If it meant they lived.” A weakness of hers, undoubtedly. A character flaw. Especially given the next two words she says and how she actually means them. “Even you.”
This is an uncomfortable truth to linger on, though, even with his new tricks - so Mazikeen continues, glancing away and up to the sky for a moment. “My theory is that since I like shifting into cats so much I have nine lives.” She’s had no such theory, of course, before this very moment - she’s just speaking whatever comes into her head right now. Mazikeen doesn’t know how to handle this bizarre version of peace, it’s too unlike everything she’s come to expect from her interactions with Firion. Given his previous disinterest in a friendship with her, she can’t imagine he would mind the return to something more familiar. To sharper words.
So the smile she offers him when her orange eyes return to his face is alive with dark amusement. “Eight deaths then, until the final one. One of them has your name on it, I’m sure. It's only fair.”
@[firion]