[ The comparison is-- effective, more telling than he's come to expect from Isaac. (Worrying. Warming some small point behind his ribs, all the same.) ]
You've a better head for plots than I. [ Not a dismissal; trust your judgement. ] But it does at least seem unlikely anyone would arrange to lose to me at cards on the off chance the Avereschs would start a two-man Exalted March over it.
[ Which, of course, doesn't rule out a trap more belated in the making. ]
I don't know that he'd care to dispute it, either. [ Impassioned fools, was the turn of phrase he'd had for Kostos and Nikos. Ilias gives a tetchy sigh. ]
Is there any hope of the consequences touching them regardless?
He's clever. [ A conversation regathered; a view again obscured. Isaac rolls onto his elbows, considers. ] Gave him an idea and he made it better. More useful.
[ To himself, not Isaac. Obviously. It wouldn't be a compliment otherwise.
(It wouldn't be a question: He wants Ilias' measure of the bloodthirsty little stranger. Some names have a way of blotting out the sun, but his eyes have since adjusted; there must be a reason that Mhavos came up.) ]
Perhaps not nothing. Safety, choice, comfort, routine. But the things bigger than those -- hopes and dreams, careers, love -- he doesn't seem to know what to do with.
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[ the pause is indelicate, hangs like cord. ]
You asked me once, whether you were being paranoid. [ and here leander is, alive. ] But if there's a trap, I can't divine the mechanism.
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You've a better head for plots than I. [ Not a dismissal; trust your judgement. ] But it does at least seem unlikely anyone would arrange to lose to me at cards on the off chance the Avereschs would start a two-man Exalted March over it.
[ Which, of course, doesn't rule out a trap more belated in the making. ]
What did they say the money was for?
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Is there any hope of the consequences touching them regardless?
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Finally: ]
He's clever. [ A conversation regathered; a view again obscured. Isaac rolls onto his elbows, considers. ] Gave him an idea and he made it better. More useful.
[ To himself, not Isaac. Obviously. It wouldn't be a compliment otherwise.
(It wouldn't be a question: He wants Ilias' measure of the bloodthirsty little stranger. Some names have a way of blotting out the sun, but his eyes have since adjusted; there must be a reason that Mhavos came up.) ]
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He's good at that. Making himself useful to other people. Less so, I think, with-- [ Hm. ] wanting anything for himself.
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That seems like underestimation.
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Perhaps not nothing. Safety, choice, comfort, routine. But the things bigger than those -- hopes and dreams, careers, love -- he doesn't seem to know what to do with.