Arrow Lake melusine

"mahler is..." stigmata paused, struggling to find an inoffensive description for his compromised kapitan. "soft to them. because of ruenna." this hurt to admit, if only because it had been his own doing that had brought ruenna here. he was capable of overlooking their past relationship, but mahler was more sentimental than that. he did not possess stigmata's imperial mien, either, though this was probably what made him an ideal second - to combat the ironstar's most base reaction to situations such as this.

a violent hand would have been dealt long ago if not for his kill-brother, and despite feeling disturbed by the act of being tempered by anyone, he also felt grateful that he had not been able to do anything rash. he was old enough to see that, at least. "regarding a treaty, i agree with you." those that sought to undermine diaspora's authority could never be considered allies, and letting them stand would only enforce the idea that diaspora was not strong enough to back its claim.

but though they may not have had the numbers to hold these mountains, they had more than enough cunning to overcome them. with a bit of time. "i do not believe any amount of talking will sway our alliance-enthusiasts to take up our cause, and forcing a war may put us in more danger than we can sustain at this time. we are the ones with young, after all." the vale had no such restrictions, and could fight with impunity if necessary.

"i am inclined to harass and pick them off one by one until they retreat elsewhere, but without thorn, i fear i am without any willing participants on that front," he added somberly, looking to takiyok for her advice.