"Cocky, aren't you?" she commented, reaching for the flower wreath she'd placed on his head. Thorns gently pricked against her fingers as she studied it in her hands. "But you don't mean that, Matias," she stated calmly. "Death possesses a finality. Imprisonment can be maneuvered."[break][break]

Burying her captor while slithering out of his grasp had taught her those truths.[break][break]

Absently, she plucked the blossoms from the mockery of a crown in her hands, letting their withered petals fall upon the ground.[break][break]

"People say when gambling, only bet what you're willing to lose. But my father taught me," she continued, discarding the remnants of the ruined garland, "that if you're afraid to risk anything, then you'll never gain anything worth having."[break][break]

Only when her hands were free of the instrument did she resume her steps towards him.[break][break]

"I always play to win, Matias. If you stab me in the back," she said, a finger pressing against his chest, "I'll gladly return that gesture with a knife to the heart."[break][break]

She held his stare in return, undaunted by his threat as she grinned.[break][break]

"I would be offended if you didn't do the same."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"And? Sane women never live fulfilling lives."[break][break]

It entertained her, that men of his high standing and prestige still threw it all away out of misplaced ambition. Her husband. FERNANDO SILPH. MATIAS SILPH. ALEXANDER STONE.[break][break]

Maybe even declan walsh.[break][break]

They were all the same in that way, weren't they? Different from any other man, they'd fervently proclaim, even as they continued to relive the same pattern that history wrote out for the egomaniacs that ruled the world.[break][break]

She didn't break from the way his hand seized her own, refusing to back down from him as his insult met a wall of amused indifference.[break][break]

Her smile widened.[break][break]

"But no one has ever accused you of flirting with sanity, Matias."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

A sudden bright laugh answered his observation, a devilish look entering her eyes as she considered the merits of it.[break][break]

"We work about as well as kerosene and flames. Just because two things can interact doesn't mean they should."[break][break]

Morbid curiosity, however, prodded her to pry further into his line of thought.[break][break]

"But indulge me. What have we accomplished that's worthwhile, to your mind?"

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"And why is that, Matias?"[break][break]

Her hand snaked itself around his waist as she pulled him close to her, the other claiming his chin between her sharp nails. As light as her touch was, he could break free if he wished without difficulty; in the same vein, she could evade the way his hand had reached for her.[break][break]

Although she hadn't.[break][break]

A splash of moonlight dappled her black hair, shimmering like an iridescent oil spill that tempted flames to burning.[break][break]

Hadn't an indignant, self-righteous councilwoman accused her of playing the role of seductress, in another place and time? Hadn't the world decided the sort of woman she was, despite all her futile attempts to prove otherwise?[break][break]

She leaned in close, her following taunt whispered into his ear:[break][break]

"Decide carefully. Are you better off with me alive or dead?"

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

And so he ignited the match between them first.[break][break]

How far did a man have to fall, to prefer plunging into a thicket of briars over the comforting embrace of a devoted fiancée, or to prefer the venom of mockery and derision over passionate promises of a love that burned everlasting?[break][break]

He'd find neither with her.[break][break]

Nothing in her pretended to be kind to him, and it showed in the roughness with which his kiss was returned, born of something more akin to violence than affection. She'd taste like a familiar resentment on his tongue, a self-loathing that had thrown him to this inevitable descent in her arms.[break][break]

Was it so easy to tumble the League from within?[break][break]

"You'll regret that," she promised him with certainty as she pulled away from his kiss, a smirk on her lips.[break][break]

Men always did.

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"Of course you wouldn't believe in regret. You Silphs seem incapable of it."[break][break]

The emotion behind that accusation veered between annoyance, envy, and heightened amusement. She wiped the back of her hand against her mouth, as if dismissing the previous moment from her memory, before her gaze turned behind her.[break][break]

"Your poor little Sword of Justice still seems to be missing," she commented absently, facing him again.[break][break]

A wary curiosity studied him, like a curator searching a work of art for signs of forgery.[break][break]

"A shame you didn't find what you're searching for."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]

"They say if you love something," she replied, subtly disentangling herself from his arms as she spoke, "you let it go. And if it doesn't return to you, then it was never yours in the first place."[break][break]

Perhaps Virizion had finally realized the volatility of the man it shadowed.[break][break]

Perhaps Eva Morales would have inevitably done the same.[break][break]

The thought brought a cruel smile to her lips as she moved to depart his company.[break][break]

"I wonder if you are capable of either. Loving someone enough to free them, or being loved enough for someone to return to you."

[attr="class","ooc"] MATIAS SILPH[break][break]

[attr="class","pkmn"]