all the kings men - [COTC/TANGLEWOOD]

[gael]

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♛ | GAEL Ó BROIN

The vulpine found his brow quirking.  As his daughter suspected, Gael could care less about anyone's opinions of him.  He tilted his head, impassive to the luminary's accusations against his leadership; he had more members than Dante and Jormungand who followed his commands without requiring disciplinary action.

He could understand Aine's frustration -- Elsweyr had been somewhat snappy upon arrival, even if she never directly yelled.  Always the Pitt, she said in the beginning -- yet Aine is correct, you are baselessly accusing the rest for actions they did not commit.  To a youth who suffered losses brought by angry Luminaries, he found it more than expected that she put it in those words and feel threatened.

The faerie was too old to trust so easily.  He had appreciated the lioness' openness to them before, but it did not dismiss the words spoken now -- no more warnings.  "You do not give me every reason to trust you, Elsweyr," he corrected tonelessly  "Aine is correct."

He had no reason to trust someone who would make presumptions.  "You say 'everyone else' does something different than my words?  Yet my members number more than the mere two who decided to act out." He met Dante's gaze with his own hard stare as he spoke -- one of those two in question.

His ear twitched, nodding at the discussion of the nature of Jormungand's departure.  "I do not recall him explaining his absence publicly," he affirmed after a moment of consideration -- running through the past moon in his mind.  "I only had my assumptions, primarily when I saw him at the monthly meeting, accompanying a wanderer."  The Ardent could not keep an omnipresent eye on those who decided to leave the desert.

"I am not without sympathy for the situation; I do not condone Northwest's earlier attack on you, and I am personally furious that Jormungand decided to risk my clan's safety while he was away, but I know Moth better than I know you.  She has been a guest here in the past. She is a healer and a mother."

Elsweyr may not have seen Tanglewood harm the Pitt, but the vulpine would not forget it had been a luminary who set their jungle ablaze -- directly endangering the children present, nor Kydobi's unnecessary death at Aurum's paws.  "She knows the losses felt on both sides of our clans' previous conflicts."

"Regardless if you believe you need the benefit of the doubt, that is what we have to offer." The vulpine held the words in finality.  It was hardly up to her, how they felt -- trust was not just given without care.  Gael glanced at Aine, gaze briefly softening in concern; watching the way the sand reacted to her energy.  Whether she was just frustrated with the situation in general, or tense about Elsweyr's fire, he could not be certain of, though he possessed his suspicions that it was likely both.

Ideally, Kold would return with Jormungand soon, and they would settle this business.

BUT I PROMISE YOU I'LL KEEP YOU SAFE ♛  gael ó broin / faerie / ardent