Lion Head Mesa crook & flail

Zaahira finds herself intrigued. She senses distaste toward the Erpa-ha, though she cannot place the reason for it. Jealousy for his position, his royalty, his potential marriage to the Queen?
Evidently, Zaahira drinks from it. The cogs of her mind turn, and she points an inquisitive gaze at him. It makes sense, she comments. political marriages. Perhaps it would be better to have a shared goal over being in love.
Again, she thinks of Akhtar. She had given her body to him beneath the shadows. But that was not love. She wonders of the potential for herself to be placed in marriage by the palace. As one of few female Mazoi, however, she could not think of herself as particularly valuable.
The ones who do not bluster are dangerous, he says, and to that, hickory ears turn about. What makes you say that?