[ Not obvious, but Geralt's expression is similarly flat, so they're on the same page.
Delicate. Yeah. What else isn't fucking obvious?
He lets Kylo talk, reacting to little even as he quietly mulls it over—though his eyebrow lifts when the matter of an execution is brought up. Hm. That's new. Not the most surprising. What kingdom hasn't got a bloody coup and an execution or fifty in its history? His expression suggests he doesn't like any of this. He also knows he doesn't have to. The balance between the three nation states can't be maintained forever, but. The longer it can, the better. It'll at least give him time to learn more. ]
I'm not seeking retaliation. I only want to know ahead of time if or when a storm is brewing. Whether that involves the queen or otherwise.
[ It needn't be said, but he does so nonetheless. That's always been the one thing he's made clear no matter who approached him. Because he's aware, given everything, it would be easy to assume that's what he wants, that he would be willing to support certain things simply because he holds no fondness for someone who did that to him. And he doesn't, but that's not the point. He knows full well what allowing resentment and vengeance consume you does. Never ends well. It isn't a place he wants to find himself in.
Probably, that's what Kylo will sense most in him: that if he holds any desire to see the Queen pay (and part of him does; he'd be lying if he said the impulse to take her head did not exist), it's largely tempered, carefully cooled and set aside. As long as he can be certain the people important to him are protected, what happens to her—good or ill—is a secondary concern. ]
The mage. The one who set me free. [ He still hasn't got a name. Truthfully, he isn't sure he wants to. It might be best he can't name to anyone—whether that's Thorne itself or the Free Cities—which of Thorne's mages cut him loose, if it ever comes to that. ] I owe her. And you.
no subject
Delicate. Yeah. What else isn't fucking obvious?
He lets Kylo talk, reacting to little even as he quietly mulls it over—though his eyebrow lifts when the matter of an execution is brought up. Hm. That's new. Not the most surprising. What kingdom hasn't got a bloody coup and an execution or fifty in its history? His expression suggests he doesn't like any of this. He also knows he doesn't have to. The balance between the three nation states can't be maintained forever, but. The longer it can, the better. It'll at least give him time to learn more. ]
I'm not seeking retaliation. I only want to know ahead of time if or when a storm is brewing. Whether that involves the queen or otherwise.
[ It needn't be said, but he does so nonetheless. That's always been the one thing he's made clear no matter who approached him. Because he's aware, given everything, it would be easy to assume that's what he wants, that he would be willing to support certain things simply because he holds no fondness for someone who did that to him. And he doesn't, but that's not the point. He knows full well what allowing resentment and vengeance consume you does. Never ends well. It isn't a place he wants to find himself in.
Probably, that's what Kylo will sense most in him: that if he holds any desire to see the Queen pay (and part of him does; he'd be lying if he said the impulse to take her head did not exist), it's largely tempered, carefully cooled and set aside. As long as he can be certain the people important to him are protected, what happens to her—good or ill—is a secondary concern. ]
The mage. The one who set me free. [ He still hasn't got a name. Truthfully, he isn't sure he wants to. It might be best he can't name to anyone—whether that's Thorne itself or the Free Cities—which of Thorne's mages cut him loose, if it ever comes to that. ] I owe her. And you.