At first he doesn't respond to her talk about the Sun Summoner and Saints and all that is there in her words, and more that wasn't said. Instead he merely gives her a droll look, rolling his eyes.
"Do you think I would let allergies bother me? Please."
Maybe he does have that much control over his body. Maybe he's just the guy that would do anything to hide allergies because it's a weakness to be effected by something like pollen of all things.
He does draw up the reins though, bringing the horse to a stop. Hooking the reins to hold the horse to staying right there, he turns on the bench seat to face Inej. Not just staring off into the distance as he talks but looking at her.
They're here, no one else around, and she deserves to hear what he thinks of her talk off Alina and all that had happened in their world.
"Do you know the difference between you and Alina Starkov? Choice. She became a saint not because of her actions or her intelligence or anything but the random spin of genetics. You, on the other hand, have made choices all along the way to continue doing what you do. At any point you could have given up. You could have taken the easy way out."
His tones are soft, but his words fierce, full of a fire that spoke volumes of how he feels for her and what he thinks of the woman beside him.
"You could have murder Heleen at any time. You could have killed any number of men and been jailed and languished there. You could have embraced your place, or walked away from me, or never taken sail to go after slavers. And yet you did. Each and every time. You stood strong and you fought back and you made your way on your talents that you worked hard for. What the Sun Summoner did for Ravka will be talked about in story books and classrooms for centuries and then become yet another story in a small gilded book. What you did will be the story of legends spoken by those hoping for better life for eternity. Girls lost will remember you and know they can overcome it all and become who they want to be, not what life might try and make them."
no subject
"Do you think I would let allergies bother me? Please."
Maybe he does have that much control over his body. Maybe he's just the guy that would do anything to hide allergies because it's a weakness to be effected by something like pollen of all things.
He does draw up the reins though, bringing the horse to a stop. Hooking the reins to hold the horse to staying right there, he turns on the bench seat to face Inej. Not just staring off into the distance as he talks but looking at her.
They're here, no one else around, and she deserves to hear what he thinks of her talk off Alina and all that had happened in their world.
"Do you know the difference between you and Alina Starkov? Choice. She became a saint not because of her actions or her intelligence or anything but the random spin of genetics. You, on the other hand, have made choices all along the way to continue doing what you do. At any point you could have given up. You could have taken the easy way out."
His tones are soft, but his words fierce, full of a fire that spoke volumes of how he feels for her and what he thinks of the woman beside him.
"You could have murder Heleen at any time. You could have killed any number of men and been jailed and languished there. You could have embraced your place, or walked away from me, or never taken sail to go after slavers. And yet you did. Each and every time. You stood strong and you fought back and you made your way on your talents that you worked hard for. What the Sun Summoner did for Ravka will be talked about in story books and classrooms for centuries and then become yet another story in a small gilded book. What you did will be the story of legends spoken by those hoping for better life for eternity. Girls lost will remember you and know they can overcome it all and become who they want to be, not what life might try and make them."