Arrow Lake ungesagt
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with all the goings-in in diaspora, mahler devoted a day of rest to himself. mental rest, he supposed; there were still hunts to be had and paths to scout.
the general considered the lake still a part of his claim, despite the distance. and though the beauty of it had been sundered by rockfall, mahler felt the passion for the peace here beat in his breast all the same. 
how did @Sarah fare? he wondered absently, crossing an exposed ledge.
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Sarah was doing quite well, in fact. There was a bit of confidence-boost, ever since she had sparred with Awol and had withstood some of the man's attacks. Stiff and rusty - her skill had not disappeared, but needed good polishing and oiling with the help of frequent exercise. 

And now she was out of Emberwood, heading East to see, if anything was known about a tall-dark creep that had scared the hell out of Reiko. Sarah did not have much pity for candy-floss and princess like girls, but she took her job as a guardian very seriously. Any insult to one packmate of Uaine Gorsedd was a personal insult to her.

So, when she first caught sight of Mahler from afar, Sarah froze and observed the fellow through narrowed eyes. The general was saved from a sad fate on guillotine, when she recognized his gait and immediately eased up, and began to move towards him.

It had been few months now, since the two had last met and discussed - furrowed brow - Sarah no longer remembered the subject. However, she did recall that the old fellow was the only other person besides herself, who she could bear and find interesting to have a conversation with. For a person, who did not like other people much, that was the highest compliment.

"You have not changed at all," she called out to him from afar.
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the voice that rang out forced mahler to a pause; he searched around for its familiar wearer. plume flagged behind his haunches once to see sarah watching him at a distance.
her coloring was unmistakable; the general moved swiftly to close the distance between the two of them, and soon came upon the woman with an affable little smirk.
"i could say the same for you," mahler chuffed, haze filled with the remembered pleasure of sarah's company.
two misanthropists; he flanked her amusedly. 
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#4
"Now you flatter me," Sarah replied with a crooked grin. This was true - Mahler looked as gorgeous as ever, while she had got a couple of new bald spots in her coat, where the previously infected wounds were covered with soft, pinkish and tender skin. There was a slight wheezing sound to her breathing from the time she had swallowed quite a lot of lake water, when Black Hat had tried to drown her. And the prolonged illness had left her leaner than the previous time. 

Life had not spared her much in the past few months, but there was one remarkable difference. Sarah's soul had changed it's taste in music. From "what's the point of life" blues to "I am glad to be alive" jazz. She was a proud knight in beggar's clothes. "What have you been up to?" she asked.
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it was her sinewed frame and flaws that appealed to mahler; he wore his own scarification proudly, and it affected not his regard of sarah.
rather, it gave her a fierce edge. she might have been no paragon of shrinking female beauty, but mahler had rarely appreciated such.
"solidifying my plans," the general told her with a single arch to his dark brow. the last they had spoke, this woman criticized him greatly, but he had let it go on.
now mahler drew her scent. "did you find a better place for yourself, sarah?" he purled softly.
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"You found willing partners in crime," Sarah replied and after a little pause asked, smiling. "Should I congratulate you now?" All things considered, Mahler was a good catch, solid like a rock and you wanted to trust and believe that, what he said was absolutely true. She had been skeptical, when they first had discussed his plan, but now she could easily see, why some would agree. 

"I did," she nodded. "My niece Ibis gathered a group of wolves and settled in Emberwood - not too far from here or my previous pack," she explained. "She is a good girl - young and still learning the ways in the world - and I saw a job that had to be filled. I do not care much for the rest... yet, but I want to ensure that Ibis is safe and sound."

"It's been good so far,"
Sarah concluded. "Is food plentiful, where you reside?"
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"prey is just beginning to return to the mountains," mahler rumbled, somewhat pleased to know that sarah had found her own niche. "i am sure ibis is grateful of your company."
to her teasing, mahler had given a low smile; now he trailed the last of it over his features. "it vould seem that you are not the only vone to share a dismal view of vhat i plan to do," the general chuckled lowly, filling his eyes with her for the sheer fact that he could.
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"I feel at liberty doing so," Sarah replied, "because my opinion won't stop you at all." Which made things all the more interesting. Mahler was making a social experiment and, though she questioned the ethics of it, she was also very curious about the results. There was a miniscule possibility that the man would become a pioneer of a yet uncharted field.

"What happens after you have succesfully made an army of children?" she asked. "I don't believe that you do it only out of fondness of your heart. There have to be selfish reasons too."
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oh! she struck hard and fast to the empty core that he had not yet filled with a reason. "the man alongside whom i helped to build diaspora vished to control all the sunspire. in time, i vill make that a reality." truly, bitterly selfish; greedy; illogical.
but she had asked, and he would not hold back the truth. let her judge him; the near flash of her eyes was enough to bring him a quiet pleasure. and so he was silent, waiting for that scathing opinion. 
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The assured way of Mahler, when he spoke about dominating Sunspire with his brood, reminded Sarah of a conversation she had had with Treason. Two wolves with such great plans for the future, but built on unreliable foundations. You could not trust people in general and being related to them played no role there. She was a prime example of this, having left her brother's pack without a word of goodbye. Pledged loyalty to Ibis, even though the Witch knew that this too could change at some point. 

What made her smile was the realization that you could find fools in all age and experience groups. "And when you have control of the whole Sunspire - then what?" Sarah asked and tilted her head to the side.
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"i have not thought of that," mahler chuckled. his current undertaking was enough without adding to a heaped plate. "i suppose i vill be father, and be present for my children. that vill be my next task." it was his responsibility to tend well any little ones that would carry his blood; he thought himself noble in that regard despite the far-flung reaches of his plot.
"if i am successful, vhy not do it a second time?" the gargoyle was teasing, prodding sarah for a reaction with the sideways swing of his lavender gaze.
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"You are an ambitious man, what else can I say," Sarah gave him a lopsided smile and noticed that Mahler never ceased to amuse her and he did not even attempt to be funny or hilarious. 

"Better not run ahead of time," she remarked, knowing that children were a lot to deal with, especially, if they were little and there were plenty of them. Mahler might be too worn out to try again the next season. "Will you be father for the first time?"
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a blink, for mahler had not expected the question and did not wish to answer. exhausting, somehow, that their deaths still dragged at him so heavily. it had been years, but the gargoyle did not believe that his torment would be soon ended. "no," mahler rejoined, attempting to keep the shift in emotion from transforming his tone. "the first in the teekons, however."
he turned his lavender gaze quietly to the mountains surrounding them, though a reflective smile formed upon his own lips. "and vhat about you, sarah? vill you become a mother this year?"
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Sarah noticed change in Mahler's tone and the way he answered - she knew that her question had cut deep. This was no longer the pragmatic man of before, who had spoken so boldly about conquering the mountain range with an army of children. She sensed... personal. Very. And somebody, who did not open to other people lightly, she respected the man's untold wish not to discuss the matter further. 

"No," Sarah shook her head. "I wanted to have a big family once. For the wrong reasons though," she withheld the fact that her ideas had been very similar to those of Mahler's. Then. "Now... I believe that I am not cut for a family life. Let others have the fun," she did not wish to delve deeper either, therefore she finished in a lighter tone and a teasing glance in Mahler's direction.

"Or was your question a subtle attempt to rope me in your grand master plan as well?" turned out there was more light-hearted edge to share.
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each of them had struck the hard boundary of one another, clacked along it, withdrew. every woman he knew had such a jagged swathe of mountain range inside their heart. he supposed their firmness was what drew his attention.
"oh, i vould never seek to influence you, sarah," mahler rejoined dryly, moving away from the barren fields of the former subject.
"but," the general went on, "perhaps i vould ask you very directly, if you vould like to be part of my grand design."
"and if you said no, i vould take it as a gentleman, and speak no more of it," mahler went on, a little smile gracing his lips. "this is all assuming i vould vant to ask you, or that you vould be interested. all hypothetical," he added with a roguish sarcasm.
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"I would like to see you try," Sarah murmured inbetween Mahler's words, but did not otherwise interrupt him until he had finished talking. With all the teasing and sceptical attitude about Mahler's world Sunspire domination plans, there was something oddly gratifying in his hypothetical offer. He was not a suitor that one would dismiss right away. Handsome, intelligent and cleverly cunning. He did not annoy her and took her own sharp witticisms ruefully. 

Under different circumstances she would consider. Frankly speaking... why not now? If she was very honest with herself, she was no less selfish that Mahler was. Would it not be easier to bring someone in this world, who knew nothing about your past and therefore did not judge you for your mistakes, rather than fail at mending familial relationships that had already turned to dust. Do one last good thing before she died. Have someone, who loved you unconditionally, even if it was for a while. 

"Let's assume I hypothetically agree to take part in your grand plan. What is the price?" Sarah asked, no longer joking around. She was considering.
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he was quite surprised; it blossomed into rapture upon his cheeks, found his mouth in the first true display of emotion he had given sarah.
he struggled not to gaze at her in a different way, but sarah's answer charged her with a golden light. mahler would keep this restrained, of course, but already she had grown soft and budding in his heart.
"vell," he mused, rolling the word over his tongue. "i suppose the price vould be that my first duties are here, at diaspora."
pensive. he would not lie to sarah about his constraints. limitations. already he had hurt others; he could not bear to pain another.
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Mahler had either not understood her question or had purposefully avoided it. Sarah had not been asking for him to declare love, to become her mate, to move anywhere. She had wished to know, what would be the price for his involvement. That hypothetical child of hers would belong to him as well. Wasn't that the whole point of the master-plan? 

"You are not a generous man, Mahler," she told him. "Nothing in this life is for free. What do you ask for a child?"
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a bit rankled that he had not immediately taken her meaning, mahler paused along their path, set the intensity of his lavender stare upon sarah. 
no one had before asked this question: that she had caught him off-guard was somehow titillating, welcome.
"i vould be the father of this child," mahler murmured. "i vould vant to be named as its father, and to come and be vith them as i can." his litter would not be abandoned bastards.
"and i vould hope, at some point, they might join me in diaspora."
he was not a generous man! the sentiment annoyed mahler, but he saw its truth.
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"Fair enough," was Sarah's only response and looked away from Mahler, stared in the distance and a long moment of silence followed. Could she do it? Yes, she could. No one was there to stop her, she would never let anyone tell her, what to do. Least of all the still green leader she was submitting to at the moment. Should she - that was entirely different question. One that she should not take lightly. 

"I will think about it," she told Mahler eventually. "And I will call for you, when I have made up my mind," no other words of farewell followed, she left the man and headed back to the Emberwood.
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<3

he watched her go with an odd sense of trepidation reveberating in his chest alongside the cadence of his own heartbeat; mahler found he longed already to see sarah again, but decided then and there to put no hope in her words until she reappeared. 
he turned away; he returned unto his own lands.
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