The Confrontation
(Sort of a what if, or an actual scene. Up to you. I wrote it months ago, but tweaked it a bit just now. Posted because of this.)
Meg starts to doubt Aaravos. She’s admittedly still afraid of him and after what he did to Viren she has good reason to. So after learning the full story, she confronts him. They argue and she points these things out. He contradicts every one of them:
“You got Viren arrested.”
“Correction, he got himself arrested.”
“How?”
“If I recall, he was already in trouble when he finally accepted my help. He came to me as a last resort of desperation.”
“You helped him kill three guards!”
“I cast Primal magic spells that he utilized to his advantage.”
“You provided the ammo.”
“He aimed and then fired.”
“You told him to motivate the other kingdoms with fear.”
“Fear does not mean death.”
“But war?”
“War is imminent. The assassins were only step one of the elves and Dragon Queen’s revenge. Did he tell you of the Sunfire elves at the boarder? The dragons flying overhead the outer villages?”
“What? No...I...didn’t know about that.”
“Hm...I’m not surprised.” He frowned, looking a bit disappointed about something. “I suppose he thought you were safer not knowing about this.”
She looked away.
“Am I wrong?” He raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t think it’s got anything to do with him caring about my safety...it isn’t in my area of work, so why would I be told? I’m not in the council and I’m not near important enough to hear all the goings on of the military. All my information came from Gren and sometimes Corvus...but I haven’t seen him in weeks...”
She didn’t see the frown crease his lips or the slight narrowing of his eyes as he noticed what appeared to be an almost longing expression on her face.
“...Xadia is prepared for war. If the kingdoms don’t wake up and see the signs, you won’t stand a chance.”
She looked back at him to see the seriousness on his face.
“...so you wanted this. But not for revenge purposes.”
“Have I ever given the impression I have plans of revenge?”
“No, but I just thought...” Maybe she was the guilty party. He hadn’t said anything about hating elves or killing anyone for personal reasons. He hadn’t said anything about a revenge plot. All he said was that he didn’t know where he was. Not how he got there or why, or what he thought of the other elves and the dragons.
Aaravos’ voice interrupted her thoughts.
“War is coming. There is nothing we can do about this but let it play out.”
“So we just wait then? Wait for the conflict to end?”
“No. I didn’t say I was removing myself from the board. But you are free to walk away at any time.”
“Why?” She looked at him in surprise.
“You said it yourself. You are not important to military operations. This is not your fight.”
“It is if it involves my kingdom.” She frowned, straightening up to her full height (which wasn’t saying much next to Aaravos...who still towered over her) “Katolis is my home, and I swore my loyalty to the kingdom and the crown.”
He didn’t respond right away. There was an unreadable expression on his face, an unfamiliar look in his eyes. Then slowly his lips curled upward in a smirk, but there was something different about it from usual.
“You say that now...but how long will it last?”
-end?-
(I wasn’t sure how to finish this one...but I think I like the ominous, cryptic final words from Aaravos. lol
That...is how it would go if Meg confronted Aaravos on what he and Viren did. He did say he’s persuasive...and as you can see, he was.)