how can you rise
if you have not burned?
She slips in against him as he tugs her in closer, content to be by his side, still amazed he’d even have her. Maybe they were finally even on that score, both shocked that the other wants anything to do with them. ”We could both probably use that joke,” she says, and in any other situation it would be with her usual mischievous grin, with that gleam in her amber eyes. Today or tonight (she has no idea what time it is) though, her humor is a flat thing, an automatic defense and nothing more.She does feel him tense, and she lets out a breath, putting down the whiskey and tugging her hair out of its braid. Most of it had come loose long ago away, between the fighting and the aftermath of it all. She runs her fingers through her hair, feeling the grime that coats all of her, but it is nice to at least be able to pull at her hair and feel something at all. ”I’m sorry, I shouldn’t ask it of you.” And though he offers some advice, similar to what she was thinking, she doesn’t press it. Either Zariah would be exiled, or she would remain as the Headmistress of the Arcane Academy, though without her position in Halo’s government. There were two options, but she did not need to decide now.
At the mention of Neron though, she wraps her arms around him, squeezing. ”He doesn’t deserve death or even a prison cell for being an idiot. I understand, at least on the barest level, why he made the choice he did.” She just couldn’t sit by and let it affect Halo anymore. But the truth is, she wished none of it had happened. She would have been fine if the status quo had just stayed. Neron hadn’t been a bad Warden. Weaver didn’t even think Zariah had been particularly bad at her role. Some part of her longed for what might have been had things stayed the same.
In the end, Weaver just wanted to run the Kraai. Not a whole town.
He speaks of Morgan, and she nods into his chest, having a similar opinion of the Captain though with slightly less details. ”I can’t remove her. She supported me so long as she remains Captain, and besides, we both know there is no one better suited to that role.” She trusted Morgan to protect Halo. She had watched Morgan charge toward a man with mage glass with nothing but a warhammer.
He scoots away and she looks up at him, a little bereft as he moves away now, wondering if she’d finally tipped the scale and broke his good will toward her. But then he speaks, and she understands. ”I know,” she says softly, leaning forward to cup his cheek with her palm, kissing his forehead, despite the sweat and blood streaked there. ”Halo has been through enough upheaval right now, and I would like to keep what I can the same. You and Morgan have been by Neron’s side, and you know what has been happening where I do not. You the longest, and I suspect the closest. If nothing else, people can understand that I need the information you can provide.
“Besides, I watched you charge a man with mage glass. I watched you draw his attention to you, and I suspect I have you to thank that no one ever noticed me. We have you to thank because otherwise, Zariah might hold that mage glass. You are the best Healer we have, and no one else is better suited to the job you have than you. That said, the choice is yours Loren. You may stay as Healer, if you want, and I would have you in my cabinet, but if you’d rather leave the politics to others, you can simply be Healer. I will not ask you to do what you do not want to.”
WEAVER
