sixfeetofdirt | TLV: IC Contact

He thinks back. "Two floods and a breach ago," he finally decides.

"Not everyone counts time the same."

Astarion nods, sanguine.

"What does he consider to be 'wardening'?"

Corvo hums a little as he considers.

"We haven't discussed it. He hasn't read my file and I don't think he intends to. He tries to catch me in inconsistencies, challenge what I'm thinking. But I believe he trusts I won't harm anyone unless they deserve it, so he gives me a long leash."

"Hm. Did you ask him not to read your file, or - well, I'm fairly sure he can read."

"No. I didnt care one way or another." Corvo is a private man, but he understands the inevitability of secrets getting out. "He would rather get it out of me piece by piece, I think."

Astarion chuckles, quiet and grim.

"Hells, that's exactly why I allowed my warden to read my file. Not that he's ever really mentioned it since."

"He hasn't? Then what is the point of them?"

He wouldn't just as rather they didn't exist.

"One more thing for insecure wardens to hold over the heads of their inmates?"

Astarion shrugs.

"Your guess is as good as mine, darling."

"Do you - like your warden? What sort of wardening does he do if he doesn't mention your file?" he wonders.

"Mostly we either have pleasant conversations about nothing or we argue about my life choices," Astarion says, shrugging again, bigger this time. "I'm not sure what part of it constitutes 'wardening'."

"Is graduating something you want?"

He knows there are inmates who don't care. He was one of them, for a while.

"I don't love being on the Barge and I don't especially want to be dead. If graduation is the only other option, then I suppose so, but I'm not hugely wed to the idea."

"Why not?"

Corvo knows why he isn't - he hates himself and doesn't think he deserves a second chance! He does know this might not apply to everyone.

"Well, if I graduate, then for one, I'm going to have to work out somewhere else to go back to. My city isn't exactly hospitable to the likes of me. For all the little quirks of this place, sometimes it's better the devil you know."

He glances at Corvo.

"What about you?"

"I'm not opposed to the idea of it. But I don't think it can be done."

Which is as far into that concept as he's ever really gone.

Astarion tilts his head thoughtfully and then bounces his own question back at him:

"Why not?"

"Because I'm certain graduation involves something along the lines of my feeling remorseful for what I did. And I don't. And cannot imagine a time when I might," he explains. "I did what was necessary. No more. No less."

"Ah, yes. I'm probably in the same boat - no pun intended. Remorse for the past and some very different plans for the future."

He rolls his eyes.

"What are your current plans for the future?" Corvo's are simply to give up and expire because he's feeling particularly dramatic, but that usually fades.

"Oh, going home and destroying the fetid nest of the man who made me a vampire and destroyed my life," Astarion says lightly.

"Ah. I see why you wouldn't want to change that." And frankly, Corvo doesn't see anything wrong with it. "It seems reasonable."

"I thought so too," Astarion says briskly. "Unfortunately, burning him right out of my city is also going to mean killing my 'siblings'. The others he's turned. I don't relish the idea, but - needs must."

"Needs must," he agrees. Get rid of them all. If there's anyone who understands scorched earth, it's Corvo.

"Does that make it better? That you don't want to?"

"Oh, I don't think so. Maybe I'm supposed to just go scuttling back into the shadows again, or - find some perfect third option where only the wicked need suffer."

He's rolling his eyes even as he says it.

"There is no world, no peace, without sacrifices," he mutters. "And if they won't do it themselves, then - perhaps this is better."

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sixfeetofdirt - 2024-05-27 16:33 (UTC) - Expand

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