the girl had been frightened of her when she'd visited on her porch steps, and that was before the horns that had grown from her skull. so she keeps distance, and tries to smile warmly, but the latter is a bit wrong on her face, and she looks more pained than anything.

especially when she notices the banged up state both eris and her companion are in. 

"for work," she answers.

"what are you - oh. right, i saw isaac had relocated here after petalburg." she sighs. "that's why i'm here. to make sure the city remains defendable. so petalburg doesn't happen again."

Eris Halla

☉

freya doesn't recognize an el, but if it's someone these two are close to, then she's glad they're safe. the liberator and eris have endured more than their fair share and with plenty go around, she's thankful they've spared at least that. 

in one sentence, eris surmises what several hours of strategy meetings concluded in. tunnels filled with impossible crystals, the ground a nervous system that might seize at any beneath them. she nods wordlessly. 

"here and there," she says quickly, keen to skirt around that topic. Gwendolyn Conway is faring better with each passing day, and damn near killing herself trying to keep up with her new injuries. efforts to make her slow down are made in vain so the councilwoman's started keeping tabs on certain projects through her personal email to lessen gwen's workload. 

it hasn't been easy. 

"you've been left alone, right? since we talked? the league hasn't come asking anything of you?"

Eris Halla

☉

"i'll take my chances," freya says with a wry smile. war is going to kill her before caffeine ever has a chance to. or primal poisoning. her fingers tighten on the cup and she raises it to her lips, hiding the flat fall of her smile. 

she nods. "i told him a while ago about the expectations that would come with ascribing to sapphire. it's not...we would never ask him to do anything against his will."

she chuckles. "but good to hear they're holding their own. i think, for better or worse, times are finally changing. gods and their powers aren't absolute, and people are realizing that now." 

and yet she is a figment, dramatically and more than likely, irrevocably, changed. what else could do that? 

Eris Halla

☉

whatever light optimism she'd been batting around is effectively killed the more eris talks. her mouth sets and she chews the inside of her cheek.

"uxie says the red chain is the only thing that can stop necrozma?" her thoughts immediately go to Greyson Connors and their plans that are in the works. solgaleo is the counter-measure they can rely on for necrozma. 

but we'll always need a contingency. 

she swats at fernando's whispers and her fingers curl to fists. 

"who told him that? the all or nothing?"

she doesn't smarm back that sapphire hadn't known about the impish psychic creatures in their possession, nor the recent restructuring due to stagnation by lack of funding. all things that are inevitable fact, but taste like excuses nonetheless. 

Eris Halla

☉

"concordas," she growls under her breath. they're very much cut from the same cloth, paxton and freya, but he still wears the black and white lenses she'd shed years ago. she makes a mental note to pick his brain later.

vague memories drift but despite rayquaza's blessing, these she cannot confront. her conscience snaps and snarls away the image of that milk-eyed woman. knowledge is power, but the cost is too great, and she has already sacrificed too much of her psyche for the greater good. 

"well," she says and looks curiously at eris, "what do you think you should do?"

Eris Halla

☉

she'd expected a bit of closure, but eris almost shuts down entirely. frustration slithers through her, but patience is water over the coals, and her sigh bubbles as she tucks her hands behind her back and waits. 

"you don't need to tell me anything you don't want to."

Eris Halla

☉