It was not an ideal situation, what Morgan described. It sounded as though Halo had lost several - many? - of its best and brightest leaders and minds when Neron was handed arbitrary control, and given Loren's earlier descriptions of his brother (before the Healer had been elevated by him, at least), it hardly seemed a fair trade. He appreciated the Captain's brief crack in her armor, the glimpse of her honest and sincere thoughts, however, and he nodded solemnly in understanding of her apology.
The abrupt question was only fair turnabout, but it still left him drawing in a sharp breath of surprise before his lips quirked up faintly in a humorless smile. "The current or the previous?" he asked dryly. "If the latter, I will admit that she and I... do not get along. To put it mildly. We tried to kill each other once, but the Voice interfered to save her." And if there was a note of bitter failure in his voice, well, the intervention of gods was not always a good thing, as Morgan had experienced with the Eirachi's choice.
"The current though..." He sighed, a sip of his cider as he mulled the question over. "She was my friend, before Zariah drove her to chose Ascension as the lesser of two evils. Or... no. That isn't how she would describe it, but Zariah certainly played a large role in the timing of her decision to Ascend." Jigano smoothed away the frown as he met Morgan's eyes squarely. "She is my Queen, chosen by a vote of the people, however... loaded that vote might have been. I do not always agree with her personal choices, but her guidance as a leader has suited the Hollowed Grounds better than any of those who came before her. And she is still my friend. The woman that she was before the Voice sank her hooks into her remains... at least, for now." Though push had not yet come to shove where Rexanna's true loyalties would lie, if it came to a question of the Ascended and the Voice's interests against those of the rest of the people of the Grounds.
The abrupt question was only fair turnabout, but it still left him drawing in a sharp breath of surprise before his lips quirked up faintly in a humorless smile. "The current or the previous?" he asked dryly. "If the latter, I will admit that she and I... do not get along. To put it mildly. We tried to kill each other once, but the Voice interfered to save her." And if there was a note of bitter failure in his voice, well, the intervention of gods was not always a good thing, as Morgan had experienced with the Eirachi's choice.
"The current though..." He sighed, a sip of his cider as he mulled the question over. "She was my friend, before Zariah drove her to chose Ascension as the lesser of two evils. Or... no. That isn't how she would describe it, but Zariah certainly played a large role in the timing of her decision to Ascend." Jigano smoothed away the frown as he met Morgan's eyes squarely. "She is my Queen, chosen by a vote of the people, however... loaded that vote might have been. I do not always agree with her personal choices, but her guidance as a leader has suited the Hollowed Grounds better than any of those who came before her. And she is still my friend. The woman that she was before the Voice sank her hooks into her remains... at least, for now." Though push had not yet come to shove where Rexanna's true loyalties would lie, if it came to a question of the Ascended and the Voice's interests against those of the rest of the people of the Grounds.
