RP:Black Ice Truce
Eastern Frostmaw Gates
Kuzial is standing before the two large guards, apparently at ease. His hands are crossed before his chest - a sign in the Underdark that he intends to talk and not fight - and though he occasionally shivers with the biting cold, he looks content enough to wait at the gates for the queen, rather than burst his way into Frostmaw proper. He is garbed as ever for war; his fine swords each at home about his armoured body, but the look on his face is not his typical psychotic rage. Instead his handsome features are calm with just the slightest hint of impatience flirting on the edges of his blue-tinged mouth. But he would wait until she arrives and speaks, out of respect for the formidable queen in this, her place of greatest power.
Satoshi arrives, neither quickly nor slowly, having taken a certain degree of pains to ensure she does not appear to have rushed here like some sycophant to speak to the patron drow, while at the same time not overly trying his patience out of respect. The guards, upon registered their queen's approach, take one step to either side so as to give Satoshi room, yet still able to flank her. They'd be fools to fully trust a drow, no matter how peaceful their outer shells appear. Satoshi pays them no mind, long used to the protective nature of the Frost Giants, and instead regards Kuzial silently a moment before nodding. "What brings you here, Patron Stavret?" Straight to the point. The magus isn't way to perform the dance of politics, bantering words and looping sentences to weasel information out of her target. Especially not with a drow such as the Weaponsmaster.
Kuzial spends a quiet moment staring at Satoshi, letting her know with just a look that he would rather be anywhere else but here, until with a faint nod - a gesture given between equals - he speaks in his unconsciously euphonious voice. "It is not war, Frostmaw Queen. At least, not between you and I." Ignoring the guards entirely, he steps closer to the queen. "But you and I are at war with another. He whose name I would rather not speak." The drow makes a gesture with his foot like her were crushing a bug which is explains enough. "Yet, Satoshi, I cannot wage a war with enemies lurking in the shadows... enemies like your husband..." He stops there to try and gauge her reaction, before he speaks once more. "So I come seeking a truce. Not alliance, I'd rather align myself with anyone before Kasyr, but at the least an agreement our blades will not seek each others' flesh." Though he doesn't say it, it is clear with how he speaks he wants this truce to extend to her and her formidable companions, also.
Satoshi told Kasyr, "*a series of light nudges precedes a hasty mental replay* [Kuzial spends a quiet moment staring at Satoshi, letting her know with just a look that he would rather be anywhere else but here, until with a faint nod - a gesture given between equals - he speaks in his unconsciously euphonious voice. "It is not war, Frostmaw Queen. At least, not between you and I." Ignoring the guards entirely, he steps closer to the queen. "But you and I are at war with another. He whose name I would rather not speak." The drow makes a gesture with his foot like her were crushing a bug which is explains enough. "Yet, Satoshi, I cannot wage a war with enemies lurking in the shadows... enemies like your husband..." He stops there to try and gauge her reaction, before he speaks once more. "So I come seeking a truce. Not alliance, I'd rather align myself with anyone before Kasyr, but at the least an agreement our blades will not seek each others' flesh." Though he doesn't say it, it is clear with how he speaks he wants this truce to extend to her and her formidable companions, also.] What say, you~?"
Kasyr told Satoshi, "*There's a long pause here, before the response finally arrives* I've not actively pursued him in quite some time. In part, due to the..gravity of certain situations diverting me. In part, due to other complications. Still, if he seek's a truce, so that he might bury his blade in the leechs' minions unhindered, I'll not deny him that priviledge."
Satoshi, after listening to the drow's words, falls quiet. Her gaze becomes slightly unfocused, as if she were looking into the distance, and judging by the faint movements of her lips, one might hazard a guess that she's speaking to another far from here. The interruption is fleeting as Satoshi blinks, shakes her head to clear it, and refocuses her eyes on Kuzial. "So long as the blades of you and yours are not turned on us, ours will not seek yours either. A truce you will have." The kit bows her head briefly. "He calls us ants, Patron Stavret, but clearly he has never seen what ants can build, nor has he felt the fires of their swarming bites, or known the futility of trying to crush them all. Ants are tough, stubborn bastards that refuse to die."
Kuzial waits with his typical impatience as Satoshi has what seems to be a one-sided conversation with herself, but the look fades faster than snow melting in sunshine when she speaks the words he wanted to hear. With a languid grace that hides none of his skill, the drow's hand snaps behind his head and draws from a sheathe on his back the Penzance Sabre. "Your husband was... fond of this blade." He holds it for just a moment, remembering the dandy who owned it before him, until with a shake of his head the dark elf lifts his arm up and uses the sword to slice along his forearm, leaving a dripping wound in its wake. "By my blood and by this blade, the truce is made and so am I bound. It will stand until I return to claim my sword from your husband, a claim I will openly make." With a snapping motion the drow flips the blade in the air, catches its unnaturally sharp edge with his hand and presents the hilt to Satoshi. "Give this to him, but make it clear it's not a gift." With that done, Kuzial would speak again. "He calls us ants, Satoshi... yet all he does is seek our approval... he is a child. Clearly his parents did not beat respect into his idiotic head... a task that falls to us to do." The drow grins, then; the look is far from pleasant. "He will learn the folly of uniting a land against him."
Kuzial gave 1 Penzance Sabre to Satoshi.
Satoshi accepts the blade with a grin, the expression not unlike the one Kuzial wears now: a macabre twist of the lips that plainly speaks of her feral desire for violence. "The only question is, will you teach him before I do, Patron~?" The gleam in the kit's eyes makes it obvious this is a amiable challenge, of course.
Kuzial grins again, the look as feral as anything the kit-vampire can muster. "I think, Queen Satoshi, that will depend on which one of us can run the fastest... for though he likes to yell loudly, sustenance to his threats is something I have yet to see." The drow offers another slight nod of his head, then, before he speaks again, "Now we are... what we are... I'd ask a favor of you." Using his still bleeding arm, the drow reaches into the buckle on his belt and draws forth a small letter, sealed shut with the insignia of his house. "Give this to Kirien for me?"
Satoshi is finding she's liking this drow more and more. A predator after her own heart, were he not fond of trying to kill her husband, that is. Willingly the kit accepts the sealed letter, to be safely tucked into the front of her coat. "I'll see it to his hands myself, I assure you."
Kuzial nods his head once more, before taking a step back. "Our business is done, then. I will let you return to this frozen hell hole you call home." The drow starts to turn, then, before he pauses just briefly... with anyone else he would spell out what will happen if the truce is broken... yet he feels such words would be beneath himself and the queen... So with the briefest look back at her, confirming she, like he is, is a wolf and not a puppy, he turns fully and begins to track back towards more hospitable landscapes...
Satoshi silently watches the drow depart, a hand over the letter that informs her more about Kirien than reading it likely ever could.