HARPER
He longs to pull her hands away from her face, to ease the tension that pulls her shoulders higher, but his eyes track every backward movement with growing trepidation. He’s certain he can catch her - ego aside, it’s what he was trained to do, but he doesn’t have his normal gear either. Which means if he can prevent it instead, that’s the preferable outcome.
He waits, tense and worried, until the words ebb and flow, leaving him an opening to risk everything with. “Seren, there a solution,” he says, voice firm but gentle, reaching out to her where his arms cannot. “Where I came from, there was a machine that could detect when humans lied by the rhythm of their heart. But Caido is full of magic beyond my wildest dreams.” Harper carefully inches forward, footfalls utterly silent so that he could be closer if she toppled over the edge. “I think it would put your mind at ease to have something like that. Something that lit up or turned warm if someone lied to you, so you’d know without a doubt if someone wasn’t trustworthy.” He’s sure Safrin alone would support the idea. She’d given him his staff after all. “And if you’re given a quest, I can teach you what I know in the meantime. How to read faces, habits, tics, to tell when someone is being evasive.” Again he closes the distance, every shift of weight subtle and slow as to mimic natural movement. “It’s not easy, to realize there are people who might want to hurt you. But you’re not the first to have that realization, I promise. And you’ll make it through.”
He waits, tense and worried, until the words ebb and flow, leaving him an opening to risk everything with. “Seren, there a solution,” he says, voice firm but gentle, reaching out to her where his arms cannot. “Where I came from, there was a machine that could detect when humans lied by the rhythm of their heart. But Caido is full of magic beyond my wildest dreams.” Harper carefully inches forward, footfalls utterly silent so that he could be closer if she toppled over the edge. “I think it would put your mind at ease to have something like that. Something that lit up or turned warm if someone lied to you, so you’d know without a doubt if someone wasn’t trustworthy.” He’s sure Safrin alone would support the idea. She’d given him his staff after all. “And if you’re given a quest, I can teach you what I know in the meantime. How to read faces, habits, tics, to tell when someone is being evasive.” Again he closes the distance, every shift of weight subtle and slow as to mimic natural movement. “It’s not easy, to realize there are people who might want to hurt you. But you’re not the first to have that realization, I promise. And you’ll make it through.”
if brokenness is a form of art
I must be a poster child prodigy
I must be a poster child prodigy
