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“Something like what?” D’stherae feigned confusion and innocence. “I’m not trying anything. I was simply going for a walk and I didn’t notice you there, lurking in the shadows.”
“A man cannot lurk in his own house.”
“Then, what were you doing?”
“I was checking on my favorite visitor,” he leaned forward, threatening her mouth with the proximity of his own. “I was curious to see how your morning had been.”
D’stherae twisted her lips skeptically to the side.
She was defeated and she knew it. She squinted at her captor ever so slightly, before he used his left hand to spin her around and direct her back up the steps.
The feel of his fingers around her arm was unwelcome, and though D’stherae tried to twist free from him and walk on her own he would not have it.
She stepped through the doorway of his room and was met with the sudden impact of Ariana’s fistful of revenge.
“If you want to hit people, said the girl, “you’ll have to accept that you will be hit back.”
D’stherae’s upper lip throbbed, and her eyes seemed to well of their own reflex. She hurt, but she was sure she didn’t mean to cry.
“War,” Ariana announced, “is a consequence of the actions of weaker individuals. You attack out of frustration at your inability to cope with, and accept, reality. But you will always suffer the consequences of your actions, no matter what you do, or what happens. You should learn to think before you act so foolishly, so passionately Maszrana woman. You would prosper longer!”
At the end of her speech the younger girl stormed out of the room. Wheat shut and locked the door behind her.
“You let her hit me!” D’stherae shouted, though she was not surprised. She was the prisoner of Warlords now, and she’d have to accept they would treat her any way they wanted.
“That,” he answered “had nothing to do with me. I do not interfere in Ariana’s battles. And I have no place in yours either. You hit a girl who is younger than you and you’re upset she’s smarter than you as well. Although you may not want to acknowledge it, you know she was right.”
