The Silver Queen [AU]

[Isabela]

"To love someone?" she asks, startled. 

[NPCs]

Dau nods mutely.

[Isabela]

"Ah, well... I guess.. you want to be around them all the time. You want them to do well, even if you can't be there. You want them to be happy. So on. Have you never...?"

[NPCs]

"I am person. But I am too much a plant for that. I feel... affection, I think. Compassion. But that is all." He smiles sadly. "I am the eldest Daughter and Father was still learning when I was made. My shells are flawed and my ability to emulate mortals the weakest."

[Isabela]

"Ah. Well." Isabela shifts, uncomfortable. "It's.. you're Raplin's daughter, you said? How do you feel about Raplin?"

[NPCs]

"He is that from which I was given life," Dau says simply. "He provides protection, care, knowledge and community. A place to grow and thrive. I am grateful and loyal."

[Isabela]

"But nothing more? No special bond?" She shrugs. "I'm not sure i'm the best one to explain it really. I'm Terisine. I go where I want, and then sometimes I find that what I want is... well... someone specific. It lasts as long as it lasts." 

[NPCs]

"Of course. He is my Father." Dau seems to struggle a moment. "He is my creator. I exist because He willed it. Gave of Himself to allow it." He sighs a little, then shakes his head. "Why do you assume it will change? Your love for him."

[Isabela]

"Everything changes. Everything ends. Everyone eventually betrays each other. That's just how life is." She shrugs, again, seeming unaware that her doctrine has slid more toward Kato than Teiris. 

[NPCs]

"You speak words of Tessaline and Kato, not Teiris," he observes, not a hint of censure in his voice. "All things change. Each death lays a foundation for the life of another. For every betrayal, there are two unbroken vows. Life is what you make of it."

[Isabela]

"Maybe it's time I switched gods," says Bela, with rancor that surprises even herself. She shakes her head, closing her eyes briefly. "Sorry. We were speaking of Lady Olocaryn, I believe?"

[NPCs]

"Your maybe love for her," Dau agrees softly.

[Isabela]

"It's a difficult situation. She is... complicated."

If I didn't care about morality, it'd be simpler. I could keep her, as her husband did. Treat her right ,but encourage her to be dependent. The idea is repugnant, but oddly fascinating. If I took as my core tenant the idea that everyone betrays each other... how would I live? I'd be a better pirate, much less of a hero. I'd be wary, clever, canny, never trusting and so impossible to betray. 

She'd have to get rid of Zevran and Carver and Helene. She'd have to walk away. That's enough, for now, to push the idea aside. "It's a complicated situation," she says again.

[NPCs]

"Hmmm. It is my observation that mortals say that when more often when they are afraid to look directly at a thing- emotion, relationship, problem- than when it simply has many interlocking factors."

[Isabela]

"Perhaps, but this is complicated. She has many facets, very few of which seem related to each other. Until I can figure out which of her is the real one, then I can't sort out what my real feelings are and what is clever manipulation."

Is she even worth keeping?