"Do you?" she asked him flatly, registering his presence with far less enthusiasm than he did her own. Rather than the blistering retort she'd normally greet him with, however, she let the conversation briefly lapse into silence instead.[break][break]

For all his talk of treason, he had different intentions with these rendezvouses, she knew, than her own. At least his motives were transparent enough to be unsurprising.[break][break]

"The last time we were here we tried to kill one another," she continued at length, taking in the shadows that flickered across the flame-cast walls. "I think it's the first time we really saw each other for who we are."[break][break]

False masks had been stripped away, while polite aloofness and feigned pleasantries melted in the wake of erupting anger.[break][break]

He'd seen what she truly was before Wo-chien forcibly revealed her begrudging nature to the world.[break][break]

"It's not a flattering reality, is it? The ways in which you and I are alike."

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

"No," she said finally, turning over his choice of words with mild curiosity and amusement. "Not pain. It's unflattering, that's all."[break][break]

Their voices echoed strangely here, reverberating off the walls of the cavern. Nothing here seemed to disturb him, but then again, why would it?[break][break]

The woods had been her place of refuge, and this place was his.[break][break]

Her arms wrapped around herself, a shrug of her own dismissing him. The lava crackled in the pause between her thoughts.[break][break]

"Why? Do I seem pained to you, Matias?"

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

It irked her, the gentleness that entered his tone, the way he lowered his voice as if he cared about her beyond the way in which she was useful to him. That irritation built up inside of her like so many rotting leaves and branches, a dry wood waiting for any excuse to give way to kindling.[break][break]

"What does that mean?" she snapped at him, his concern met with searing mockery. "To be 'okay.' To be 'fine.' Have you ever felt that way? Has your world been kind enough to let yourself believe that lie?"[break][break]

Then again, he was a Silph, raised in wealth and luxury. Powerful as an Avatar and member of the Elite Four. The League's darling, no matter what crimes he committed in the name of his own perverted sense of justice.[break][break]

How pathetic, that she'd come here to meet with such a man in the first place. To think any part of him might understand.[break][break]

"People keep saying I'm different," she scoffed, crossing her arms, "but this is who I've always been."

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

"You'd be the exception to the rule."[break][break]

Suspicion drew its shadowy veil over her as she circled him, wary of this shift in his demeanor. She hadn't trusted it when they'd met last, and she didn't trust it now.[break][break]

She'd invited him here, but that didn't mean she'd let her guard down.[break][break]

"You said matters had gotten complicated. Why is that?"

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

This information evoked the briefest laugh from her, one possessed of its own bite as she grinned at him, evidently entertained.[break][break]

"Funny. We don't rank the League as highly on our list of threats."[break][break]

Some had, admittedly; she hadn't. Elisabeth's thoughts on the League in that discussion hadn't been a lie. The organization was a hindrance to her, nothing more.[break][break]

"But I suppose you are always the ones chasing Rocket, and that gives us freedom to pursue what we like. While you, alas, are helplessly tethered to our shadow."[break][break]

Not unlike the man in front of her seemed to be, for reasons beyond her own comprehension. She regarded him as that thought idly crossed her mind, followed by another observation she voiced aloud.[break][break]

"I suspect your people know what I am now. Which means the risk of these clandestine meetings is higher than it once was."

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

"And to think, I've gotten all this information without fucking you once."[break][break]

His shrug was mirrored, and she examined her nails with bored disinterest at this line of thought. This was an old song and dance, one she'd played in Kalos many times over.[break][break]

Maybe it was inevitable that Hoenn would turn out the same way. History had a miserable way of repeating itself.[break][break]

"But it's good to know the League thinks the Silphs are incompetent enough to be seduced by any woman for valuable intel. Sounds like your downfall is more likely than mine."

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