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[peasant]

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[peasant]

( naturally, her thoughts drift to nikolai, secrets encased in the middle of every word, like hard candies to chew on. all the easier — all the more dangerous — to swallow and digest, when they're sugared in half-truths.

a single year of it has seen her weary, mistrustful — she can't imagine a tooth-rotting lifetime of being fed sweet lies. her nose wrinkles, the dark jest ripped out of her before she can stop it: )

You mean you don't like courtiers pretending to kiss your feet while they plot new, inventive ways to betray you?

You're safe with me, in that case. I'm not much of a foot-kissing traitor.
I guess that's the one advantage of not being born noble.

[unapparent]

[ in all her brazenness, alina reminds her of rhaenyra. she feels a faint flicker of envy, over the ability to speak so freely.

and in the world of alina’s words, is she not the sweet traitor? ]

I shall have to seek out your honest company, then. It has been too long since anyone spoke to me as myself.

take two

[peasant]

So long as you don't call for my head.

( haha ... just kidding ... only — alina has rarely known a noble whose smile wasn't a cutthroat blade, whose pride hasn't unbalanced the head on their shoulders. )

I don't envy you. It sounds like a lonely way to live.

[unapparent]

[ no comment, from the queen of an eye for an eye. ]

It can be. [ because she can’t admit that it is, not here. ] I suppose I know no any other way to compare it to, but I should like to learn.

[peasant]

Loneliness is the one thing that isn't exclusive to ladies and lords, I'm afraid.

( the implication, therein: alina is far too familiar with it. her eldest friend, outlasting even mal's companionship. )

But you'll find good company here. Or at least less knives that want to stab you in the back.

[unapparent]

That is most encouraging. I hope I can repay such kindness.

[ she’ll believe it when she sees it. ]