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˖*°࿐ chapter sixty. lx. A DRAGON AND A WOLF
"I'M PLEASED YOU BENT THE KNEE TO OUR QUEEN," Arin says, making heads turn towards him. "I would've advised it, have you asked. But have you ever considered learning how to lie every now and then? Just a bit?" Tobin turns around, "I'm not going to swear an oath I can't uphold. Talk about my father if you want, tell him that's the attitude that got him killed. But when enough people make false promises, words stop meaning anything. Then there are no more answers, only better and better lies. And lies won't help us in this fight."
"That is indeed a problem," Arin responds, nodding his head, adding more to his previous statement. "The more immediate problem is that we're fucked."
"Any ideas as to how we might change that state of affairs?" Dorin asks, his King watching the dead wight on the ground, Arin looking to his right as he sighs. "Only one," Laelia looks at her advisor. "Everyone stays here and I go and talk to my sister." Arin's green eyes watch as Laelia steps closer to him, "I didn't come all this way to have my Hand murdered." Despite being a Queen and despite being the Mother of Dragons, the fearless ruler who rode into battle on the back of a large, black beast, she cared about her people, she cared for their safety, their mental, emotional and physical states, their relationships with one another and their lives. Not ever fearless ruler had to be feared. "I don't want Catherine to murder me either," the imp responds. "I could have stayed in my cell and saved a great deal of trouble."
"I did this," Tobin's Northern accent rings out. "I should go."
"She'll definitely murder you," Arin retorts. "I go see my sister alone. Or we all go home and we're right back where we started." Laelia's nod of confirmation lets him know that she agreed to let him go, so he walks off, the four he left behind ― his Queen, the King in the North, and their advisors, Allister and Dorin ― stare at his small back, all praying to the Old Gods and the New that he came back safely, his head intact, no poison in him and no wounds.
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BROKEN BONES SAT AROUND THE DRAGON PIT, small stones surrounding them as the King in the North bends down, picking one up then stands right back up, Laelia stepping down the stairs over to the dark-haired man. In the few months they've been together, Laelia had realized she was beginning to fall in love with Tobin ― but perhaps she was already in deep. She walks over to him, watching as Tobin looks back at her, fingers fidgeting with the ossein in his hand, recognizing it as a jaw bone. He sighs deeply, "No one's less happy about this than I am."
"I know," the Greystone to his right replies, clicking her tongue once before continuing. "I respect what you did. Wish you hadn't done it, but I respect it." She walks a bit, walking in front of him as her fingers stretch out to seek the jaw bone, Tobin handing it over as he watched the light girl turn it in her hands. "This place was the beginning of the end of my family. Zaldrīzes buzdari iskos daor. A dragon is not a slave." She takes a few steps to the broken wall, "They were terrifying. Extraordinary. They filled people with wonder and awe and we locked them in here." Tobin looks at his Queen, while she looked around the place, and he soon follows her eyes. "They were wasted away. They grew small and we grew small as well. We weren't extraordinary without them. We were just like everyone else." She hands back the bone, and Tobin says the first thing that comes into mind.
