06-07-2018, 10:34 AM
He denied her a gracious exit, and so she stood her ground.
As he spoke Natalie pressed her toes against the smooth interior of her shoe, scrunching them tight until she could feel the half-healed wound on the sole of her foot constrict. It lanced pain upwards as it began to split, almost enough to water her eyes. Two.
Nikolai Brandon had plenty of American associates, even in his closest circles. He was one. Yet it did little to smooth the fractious relationship between their nations; cracks her father had only helped widen. Her family had cut ties with quick and brutal precision, like severing an arm, but the taint never fully cleaned away. Such a scandal was natural leverage in perpetuity; part of the reason Natalie so blithely dismissed insults intended to control her. Much like her mother, she did not care for these kinds of politics; but, in her grandfather's mould, she nonetheless had a gift for it.
And part of what he said she couldn't so easily shrug off.
He hadn't mentioned Jay by name, which perhaps meant he did not know it; and while he apparently knew she worked with the Cross, he did not appear to know her project of the last six months had been teaching at St. James. The information was only a little off; just enough to suggest the grasp of an unexpected opportunity, born from chance rather than planning. He painted his concerns within the frame of what he thought might motivate her; wrong, but not an unfair assumption. Atonement for her, but what for him?
She didn't know who he was, and apparently he considered his renown enough to forgo an introduction. His presence dominated; the room ebbed and flowed around him, reacting to his gaze, eager to catch his eye and attention. But though he may have pieced her name and face together, and that in itself an unusual feat, he did not have the measure of her. Not if he came to her with this offer expecting a favourable response. His friendly advice only stirred her to belligerence; he misunderstood her stakes in this; misunderstood her instinctual reaction to such gentle manipulations. But if she bristled within, it was smoothed beneath a detached, albeit cold expression.
"If the Custody had reacted faster to the turmoil in Africa, it would not have been necessary for the Legion to intervene, nor to be here now, begging aid. As it is, I owe them my life. Anyone else who may notice my association with a particular American will just as swiftly discover its innocence, as you have now, although I understand the reason for your concern. It is appreciated, of course."
She was not convinced he was a guide so much as a pale fin scything these waters himself, but he was not wrong about other predators. By elevating Jay in such an obvious way, Brandon had painted him a target -- and Natalie doubted the man in front of her was the only one seeking to twist it to his advantage. It was why, rather than acting on the urge to bite back, she instead nodded, like he had brought a crucial matter to her attention.
"Then I shall consider it an obligation to discover the truth. Such a threat cannot go unchecked, you are quite right."
All true, if misleading. And lest he think she acquiesced without a favour in return: "I trust you will be giving generously tonight."
As he spoke Natalie pressed her toes against the smooth interior of her shoe, scrunching them tight until she could feel the half-healed wound on the sole of her foot constrict. It lanced pain upwards as it began to split, almost enough to water her eyes. Two.
Nikolai Brandon had plenty of American associates, even in his closest circles. He was one. Yet it did little to smooth the fractious relationship between their nations; cracks her father had only helped widen. Her family had cut ties with quick and brutal precision, like severing an arm, but the taint never fully cleaned away. Such a scandal was natural leverage in perpetuity; part of the reason Natalie so blithely dismissed insults intended to control her. Much like her mother, she did not care for these kinds of politics; but, in her grandfather's mould, she nonetheless had a gift for it.
And part of what he said she couldn't so easily shrug off.
He hadn't mentioned Jay by name, which perhaps meant he did not know it; and while he apparently knew she worked with the Cross, he did not appear to know her project of the last six months had been teaching at St. James. The information was only a little off; just enough to suggest the grasp of an unexpected opportunity, born from chance rather than planning. He painted his concerns within the frame of what he thought might motivate her; wrong, but not an unfair assumption. Atonement for her, but what for him?
She didn't know who he was, and apparently he considered his renown enough to forgo an introduction. His presence dominated; the room ebbed and flowed around him, reacting to his gaze, eager to catch his eye and attention. But though he may have pieced her name and face together, and that in itself an unusual feat, he did not have the measure of her. Not if he came to her with this offer expecting a favourable response. His friendly advice only stirred her to belligerence; he misunderstood her stakes in this; misunderstood her instinctual reaction to such gentle manipulations. But if she bristled within, it was smoothed beneath a detached, albeit cold expression.
"If the Custody had reacted faster to the turmoil in Africa, it would not have been necessary for the Legion to intervene, nor to be here now, begging aid. As it is, I owe them my life. Anyone else who may notice my association with a particular American will just as swiftly discover its innocence, as you have now, although I understand the reason for your concern. It is appreciated, of course."
She was not convinced he was a guide so much as a pale fin scything these waters himself, but he was not wrong about other predators. By elevating Jay in such an obvious way, Brandon had painted him a target -- and Natalie doubted the man in front of her was the only one seeking to twist it to his advantage. It was why, rather than acting on the urge to bite back, she instead nodded, like he had brought a crucial matter to her attention.
"Then I shall consider it an obligation to discover the truth. Such a threat cannot go unchecked, you are quite right."
All true, if misleading. And lest he think she acquiesced without a favour in return: "I trust you will be giving generously tonight."