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For a moment, Val didn't say anything. She looked up at the man, her body perfectly still. She hadn't dressed up for him this time; she was wearing the same blouse / jagged skirt combination that she usually wore these brightenings. It was a dark, subdued purple, and her shoulder-length hair seemed even paler than usual against it. She wore no makeup. The expression on most of her face was illegible, but in her gray eyes was a deep, naked pain that she couldn't hide. Not that she was trying.
"Umbrosus..." It occurred to her that he had called her by her full name, and that hurt her even more. "I...you and I need to...to talk, I think." Even more than angry, she sounded tired. "Things are...are not so well. All sorts of things. Between...between the Empire and its enemies...between the Sanguine themselves..." She stopped abruptly, uncomfortably, and looked downward. "Between...you and me."
Then she looked up again, and now the pain was supplemented by a certain amount of fire. "What good is it," she asked slowly, "to make promises to people who...who have no interest in whether or not you keep them?" It was enough of a leap that the connection between this comment and her previous statements might seem bewilderingly unclear; however, Val had always been prone to these sorts of leaps in conversation.
"I am...am in a place where the answer to that question is...becomes more important. More important all the time. I can't...I need a reason to go forward, Umbrosus. A good reason. And I can't find one in...in the places I feel like I ought to...well, to be looking." The dagger was still in her other hand; she wondered whether the man would recognize it, or the sort of uncertainty that it represented to her.
At any rate, what she had said so far was in no way very clear, and she knew that, but she couldn't think of anything else to add. Not yet. Instead, she held her gaze directly on his, intent to the point of being unnerving.
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