"—I'm not going to stop playing with magic. I mean, I'm going to be less of an idiot about it, but..."

... Nod.

"Please don't do any really large things where I might get blown up or put into another coma for centuries? But yeah, it sounds like it'd be kind of a pity to give it up. And not really a thing that would be fair of me to try to ask you to do."

He hugs her some more.

"And - I'd like to try sailing someday. I don't mind ideas like that. But it... sort of feels like you're trying to figure out how to get me to replace my life with one you like better?"

Wince.

"I - didn't quite mean it in - in that way, but. I was kind of coming across like that, wasn't I. I'm sorry."

"Yeah."

Hug.

"'S all right."

Sigh. Hug.

"I - do want to give you alternatives, though? To, um. Torturing girls to death."

"...I'm not sure it really works like that?"

"How does it work, then?"

"Like... I don't know. I don't... have anything. I wrecked it all and now it's just me and my sword. And I don't know what I'm going to do. But whatever it is, I want to do it with you. I don't - I'm not - it's not just that I don't want to replace my life with one you like better, it's that there isn't a life there to replace. I don't even know if there's going to be a world when we go look. So it's weird to talk about giving me alternatives, it's like - like you're trying to figure out a fair price to buy my horse at and I'm standing here going, 'what horse?'"

"What a metaphor," she says, a little delighted with it despite herself. "Evocative and informative both. All right, you lost your horse and found me instead, and don't know what to do now. Well. Neither do I, honestly."

"So let's see if we can figure something out."

"Yeah. Easier said than done, though, I - really have no idea what to do with myself. What I want to do. I had a city, a family, a future, responsibilities to people, goals to works towards - I liked it. I liked my life. And now it's just been torn away from me, and I'm here with my orphaned sense of responsibility, trying to figure out a fair price for a horse that doesn't exist."

...hug.

"I know it's not my fault. It shouldn't be. But then I have to grapple with the fact that I have so little power in my own life, which is just absurd, right? Surely I could have made different choices, and not had everything taken away by a madman that deluded himself into thinking he loved me. Could have not tried to be as pretty, could have recognized what he was from the very beginning, could have quietly had him assassinated or played along so I could kill him in his sleep, or..." She shakes her head. "None of which are fair, but neither is life, or why would my home be cursed?"

Wry smile. "At least everything that happened to my life is definitely my own fault."

She snorts, a little. "But I get a corpse to blame all my problems on and perhaps kick if I'm feeling vindictive, so maybe it all evens out. Both ways seem pretty shit."

"If I'd known, I would've left him in a more kickable condition."

Giggle. "How many pieces is he in? Or is he just a smear on the ground?"

"Let me put it this way: I didn't stop to count."

More giggling. She probably shouldn't feel this satisfied about horrific violence, but he killed her parents in front of her. He should be in many pieces, and he should have suffered while having them removed. She hums, pleased, and snuggles closer to Siran.

Mmm. Snuggly. Maybe they should go back to bed.

The poor breakfast is only half eaten, and is so neglected!

Ivethis leans against him, a little lost in imagining things a princess probably shouldn't. Like dying dragon screams.

Yeah. Back to bed. More snuggles, more breakfast.

She is amenable to both of these things! She will go back to nibbling on breakfast now that it's within reach.

"You're very comfortable," she accuses, without heat.

"Good for me!" Nuzzle.