habits have teeth and words have knives

Good news: Roana wasn’t resisting arrest, at least not yet. Bad news: she was getting hung up on her sword of all things. In her shoes, Loren would’ve been far more worried about saving her skin and her children than he would be about a family heirloom. Then again, he had a very different relationship to his family than she did. Deimos had already covered pretty much everything important, but the Launceleyn figured the general didn’t know the history or the significance of the blade. So it was time for Loren to interject ”I can hold onto your sword for safekeeping, Roana. I’ll keep it as safe as your boys.” If that was her only objection, he figured it was best to just get the blade, then figure out what to do with it later. And honestly, he didn’t mind holding on to it if that made Roana happy. He was supposed to babysit her anyway, so he could show her he still had it periodically. On the subject of her children, the summoner craned his neck so he could see them hiding behind her. He tried to make eye contact with one or all of them. ”Would you like to go visit Phoebe?” Loren didn’t bother smiling. He knew how chilling his smiles were these days, and they were trying not to scare the boys, after all. LOREN Not quite an open book