help. she knows better than to interrupt when an enemy seems so willing to spill their secrets, but she balks visibly at the request. there is a weary frustration that drapes over her. the two of them should have broken down months ago and even though they're running on empty, they've no choice but to keep going until they run themselves into the ground. 

nomi seems to understand that price now, after all this time. 

Elisabeth Fiorelli has been ruined by wo-chien. anger has nearly devoured her once-brother. it's an ignorant fool's game to discard the warnings and to not turn a suspicious eye to her fellow councilwoman, but she can't. 

she can't. 

for months, they've been combatting the insidious weeds that have flowered from budding seeds of distrust. only a few short weeks ago was she accused of being a willing bedfellow to walsh, as though everything she'd ever done for her people was nothing. 

"i will not turn against the people i trust to chase an alliance with an elusive variable. you were the one who told us the drk triad was the real enemy."

Naomi Sato

☉

nothing is ever black and white. freya is not a woman who trusts on words or whims; while she doesn't think the visionary would lie to her now, can't trust a hunch. swapping theories and hypotheses would go over better with their peacemaker.

when she mentions time, though, freya's lips thin, and illeana reyes's reminder scratches the back of her mind. space will mend while time continues to bend.

"they bide their time while we wait like rattata in a lab." she thumbs a patch of scales near her thumb, brows furrowing when she finds them cold. "what good will it do to dig through those layers if we're not even sure we're digging our own graves in the process?"

then comes the unown avatar's warning, mixed meticulously with a plea. freya considers her, and she puts a hand to the pommel of her sword. 

"then stay out of my way while you do it. out there, naomi, i will not hesitate. and i will not be merciful." her gaze hardens. "so tell your loved ones that too."

Naomi Sato

☉

"i know what i'm capable of," she says and she says with bared teeth, "but there is no mercy in war."

when the battlefield is burning and her people are dying and the opposition stands before her, she will not hesitate. she will incinerate that which stands to oppose her, even if it is being done for posterity. naomi sato has made her choices, and those choices have bound her as much as they bind freya to her own allegiances. 

the world pitches. her expression darkens and she curses herself as she throws out her arms against nothing. leaves rustle from her breeze. somewhere, in the distance, a dragon bellows with rage. she tastes smoke in the air. 

when she's gone, freya tugs off a gauntlet and sticks her fingers in her mouth to let out a sharp whistle. 

the visionary will never mean them any harm.

and freya says softly, quietly, "that is how you'll lose them."

Naomi Sato

☉