"as you stand before me now, you’re all desperation and bravado. that is not true bravery — but delusion. i pity you, really," says @purgance as miz'ri.
miz'ri's words are salt to a wound xaedia thought healed decades ago. suddenly, she is transported back to the underdark, back to menzoberranzan; she is the eldest daughter, her mother's rightful heir. before her, she sees not the ghost of a family she hasn't thought of in years but her own matron mother.
( ' appease Her, ' she says. ' show your fealty. take this blade, and carve Her benediction into his flesh; let his blood run and nurture Her, child. let Her see you. ' )
her palms sweat, itching to reach for her daggers at her sides. if only bloodletting would rend this fury from her heart. she abhors anger. it is a distraction and a hindrance. it makes her strikes clumsy and unkempt - all the grace of a child. dark roses bloom in her gaze, their thorns seeking soft tissue to puncture with their severity.
"you are in menzoberranzan no longer," she is all too keen to remind miz'ri, striding out and around them in a predatory arc. "you hold no power here. remember that."
