Sunday, December 21, 2014

Page 918

The little old woman shivered with apparent surprise at his embrace. “Oh! I didn’t realize you were the hugging type, Zeff.”

He usually isn’t,’ said Ax, sounding perhaps even more surprised.

Zeff released her. “Thank you for everything you have done for my family.”

Octavia gave a low snort. “Fat lot of good it’s accomplished.” She locked arms with him, and they began walking together. “Honestly, darling, I’m surprised you don’t hate me. I assume Axiolis has filled you in on everything?”

“He has.”

“Then you know three of your children were captured under my watch.”

While you were here,’ Ax reminded her, ‘trying to rescue Zeff and his son. We can hardly fault you for another House’s betrayal.’

“Even so, you shouldn’t--”

I’ll hear no more of that,’ said Ax. ‘Not when you could have turned the Elroys over to the Vanguard whenever you wanted.

“Ax is right,” said Zeff. “You will accept our appreciation, whether you think it appropriate or not.”

She snorted again. “You are much bossier than I remember.”

It was true that it had been some time since he’d last spoken with this woman. There’d been various Council meetings over the years, sure, but those were purely business, and Zeff recalled multiple occasions where Octavia had attempted to converse with him afterward, only for him to brush her off. And all because of that old resentment he’d felt when she’d tried to forbid him from rejoining the Vanguard in his youth.

What a fool he’d been.

He wanted to apologize to her a dozen times over, but he was too ashamed of himself to broach the subject now. And of course, there were more pressing matters at hand, anyway. “When will you launch your next assault on the Keep?” he asked. “I would like to be a part of it.”

“This evening.”

He frowned.

“I know,” she said. “That is longer than you care to wait, right now. But Sanko is supposed to arrive sometime today. Wendy is waiting for her at the airfield right now. So as difficult as it may be, I must ask you to be patient.”

He tried not to scowl. “Patient...”

“I’m sorry.”

And when Zeff did not respond, she seemed to become uncomfortable.

“Perhaps you would prefer to depart for Luzo, instead,” Octavia said. “I hear the siege on Marshrock has been proceeding more quickly than expected, thanks to your Sandlord friend.”

15 comments:

  1. So who's going blow up the whole place first;Zeff or Parson?

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  2. And when [Asad] did not respond, she seemed to become uncomfortable.

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  3. "sounding similarly [words missing]"
    "you will accept our [appreciate]"
    (This is kinda fun. =J )

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  4. Aha. No, man, Asad is totally here now. He, uh... he teleported here with Ibai... even though Ibai can't teleport that far... and it makes no sense...

    *cough*Fixed now, thank you.*cough*

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  5. *realises she's an early bird, so the typos she spotted wouldn't be snapped up, zooms to comments after noting them...*
    Drat, not early enough to snap up those worms. :P

    Anyhoo... Zeff's about as stable as a drunk DIYer trying to put lights on the roof. -_- What are the odds that's what somebody was hoping for? <_<

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  6. Ibai: your ultimate Get Out Of Gaol Free card. ;)

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  7. Now I just need an aberration with the terrifying ability to jumble up text and misspell words.

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  8. *tries to imagine what a mobile fog of intense dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, aphasia and just general clouding of consciousness would look like*
    An off-white, heavily opaque cause of deadly balance loss and other cognitive malfunctions at just the wrong moment? Slight crackle of static and a cotton wool feel?

    Hmm... doesn't sound scary. Until you really start thinking about it. *shivers* It'd be perfect for stalking and gaslighting people in fun ways. :P

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  9. "‘He usually isn’t,’ said Ax, sound[ing] perhaps even more surprised."

    Rogue "to":
    "But Sanko is supposed to arrive sometime [to] today."

    Probably missing a word:
    "So as difficult as it may be, I must ask [you] to be patient."

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  10. If Zeff goes to Luzo it'll be a mess.

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  11. Wait, you mean it hasn't been an aberration doing that? O_O

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  12. I wonder if Zeff is going to be relieved that the fight is over, or furious that they probably negotiated an aberration's safety with only an unconvincing promise of good behavior to keep him in line. Fortunately, Xuan and Melchor together can probably beat him up if they have to.

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