78th of Frost, Year 119
Before long, he could see it within view; it was overlooking Grimholdt and the ocean atop a seaside cliff, standing stalwartly before waves that crashed against the rocks below, with the sound of chattering and moving mechanical objects sounded from behind the courtyard walls. Stepping towards the main entrance of the building, he noted the strangeness of the tropical plants that proceeded the gothic structure and its cold, steel-like gates, with the unique brass-colored states decorating the path further betraying the aesthetic 'cohesion' Eloise had told him briefly about.
"Taelian!"
A voice. The voice of the woman he'd only just recalled, looking at him from the parapets with a dainty pair of golden binoculars, with ridiculous monocles at their end. She blinked from the parapets quickly, appearing before him wearing a silk green dress, lined with fancy puffed fabrics. A V-line leading down her chest revealed the edges of her breasts, but not quite, and jewelry dangled from her neck.
"I am so pleased to see you, my dear," the woman said, leaning forward to lay her lips gently upon the Siltori's cheeks, kissing him twice before receding back. He would've eyed her strangely two years ago, but it was a Daravinic thing, and he knew that was where she was from. "I trust you were safe amidst your journey from Kalzasi?"
"Did you conspire to have me brought here?" he immediately asked. Taelian's body language was... tense, but not outright enraged; he was mixed on how to feel in regards to the woman's presence. She had been nothing but kind to him, and she had saved his life in the past. He owed a lot to her, the woman who gave him Transposition and taught him how to use it well. But with a similar, proceeding stroke, she had taken Riven from him - indirectly. She knew of Taelian's love for the man, and how tumultuous their relationship might have been. How he worried of Talon taking his lover from him.
And then, she did the work for him, pulling Taelian away at the zenith of an endangered affair.
He could not deny his anger. Far from it. He accepted it, and made it her job to answer for his rage. If that was even what it was. Sorrow was, more likely, closer to the truth.
"Ah... how did you know?" she replied. At least she did not deny it.
"Unimportant. I suppose my knowing proves to you that you were right to place trust in your expectations of me; I am no fool of a man. But you should have simply given me time. I could've convinced Riven to come to Atinaw with me, instead, and it would've been far better for all of us involved. Instead... I traveled all these miles lonely, with a shameful caravan, and now I am bound to the Black Remedy which essentially followed me here. Are you sure it was a wise choice?"
"Yes," she said in reply. "Because you wouldn't have wanted to leave the Remedy - and that is the truth. Though you may believe that you wish to, you are unable to surrender your ideological attachments. And if anything, that is good; the Covenant is not an organization of thoughtless power-mongers. We seek the ends to our ideology, individual and collective. And your penchant towards Elainian liberation will do well to motivate you within these halls."
