Ankyra Sound imma break that birdy's neck

as dejected as drageda's once-cheka looked, he still had some spark to him. he was able to rapidly fire back some of that old wit, though it garnered absolutely nothing from caiaphas. instead of a laugh (which it might have deserved) caiaphas simply stared in return.

if looks could kill, she would have gunned him down. he was defenseless, and that meant nothing to the harpy. she was not a woman to question her own convictions, and if illidan was not here...

she tore her austere gaze from vercingetorix only to glance at illidan once vercingetorix's speech completed. catching the confusion on illidan's features, her gaze briefly softened before turning back to vercingetorix. it had been a moving, rousing speech -- something about heda, something about her -- if caiaphas was a narcissistic creature, she would have fallen easily for such flattery.

she was not narcissistic. so, she remained unaffected. if anything, vercingetorix's laid-bare commitment made her even more distrustful and it registered plainly across her sharp features. yet caiaphas looked to her son.  illidan had just as much a say about vercingetorix's fate as she (if not more, for he was beta, and even if he was not, caiaphas valued the opinion of all of her children immensely).

she left the questioning for illidan. in a matter of seconds, he had uttered the query that rested on the tip of her tongue anyway -- while it was packaged differently, the underlying tone was easily read: in what world could we possibly trust you?