Arrow Lake pronuntio

germanicus found lady meadow to be more skilled a tactician than perhaps she realized. or perhaps she did, and that is why she maneuvered him into awareness as if he were no more than a piece upon a senet board. 

she had wanted him to reciprocate. she desired it even now. he had been sorely wrong, to have ignored so much while being in its awareness.

still now, her amber eyes were suffused with trepidation. they held him rooted to the lakeshore. he thought of the way reyson's eyes had lit in a way germanicus had never seen before, all stemming from the very mention of the woman before him.

in the manner of a centurion removing his crested helm, the eagle exhaled and glanced toward the ground, her first glimpse of his own inner considerations. "before you and reyson visited basilica, we held a brief meeting over towhee's swifter move to epoch. during this discussion your name arose. i do not think i had seen him smile in that way before."

and that was the moment. "i was sensitive when i returned from our first meeting. hearing him tell me that he had already been with you, that a trip of ambassadorship had been arranged, and then his clear joy: it seemed to me that had i any thoughts of courting you, as his imperator i must recuse myself."

his sun-yellow eyes were intensely upon her own visage. "when he returned, he confirmed what i chose to assume. if you no longer wish to meet me, i shall respect it. and should still hope, lady meadow, for your good regard of me, and to know you stand very high in my own esteem."