Azura hesitates before accepting the drink... only because it requires her to lay down her lance. Noticing this, Yukimura is at a bit of a loss-- he can't really disarm to make her feel safer, not with the magic tome following him like this.
The best Yukimura can offer is the admission, "I had no choice."
"Let's leave that aside for now," Azura answered. Once she decides she's comfortable setting aside her weapon, Yukimura takes a seat at the table. He watches her contemplate the bowl, and wonders himself if Niou has a trick up his sleeve. Well, the existence of a trick is a given, he decides. The question is whether he's chosen to employ it.
"I'm not familiar with the particular magic you've gone and embroiled yourself in," Azura said. "Rather, it's similar to things I've seen in the past. But it has its hooks deeply embedded into you-- that it was able to overpower my song is proof enough of that."
She hadn't touched her tea yet.
"I thank you for a heroic attempt," said Yukimura, contemplating his own tea. "I don't know how safely you can speak in front of me."
She nodded in acceptance. "Weapons that have anti-monster properties appear to force it into a stasis of some kind, but I'm in no hurry to test the limits of that. And it is a part of you now-- that I don't fear telling you. You already know that much."
"Maybe it was always a part of me," Yukimura said. "It appealed to a need I've always had-- my illness only made it worse."
But it wasn't the only part of him that mattered. What he needed most was another part who could act independently of him. A second brain who could come to the same conclusions -- sometimes faster, sometimes from a different angle -- and be ready with what Yukimura needed before he even knew it himself.
"I luckily have the services of an ingenious trickster," he said ruefully, and drank deeply of the tea. The tea his friend suggested as soon as he had control of the room, and Yukimura played right into having him prepare it. "Niou, your sense of shamelessness is the only one I'll never be able to steal."
no subject
The best Yukimura can offer is the admission, "I had no choice."
"Let's leave that aside for now," Azura answered. Once she decides she's comfortable setting aside her weapon, Yukimura takes a seat at the table. He watches her contemplate the bowl, and wonders himself if Niou has a trick up his sleeve. Well, the existence of a trick is a given, he decides. The question is whether he's chosen to employ it.
"I'm not familiar with the particular magic you've gone and embroiled yourself in," Azura said. "Rather, it's similar to things I've seen in the past. But it has its hooks deeply embedded into you-- that it was able to overpower my song is proof enough of that."
She hadn't touched her tea yet.
"I thank you for a heroic attempt," said Yukimura, contemplating his own tea. "I don't know how safely you can speak in front of me."
She nodded in acceptance. "Weapons that have anti-monster properties appear to force it into a stasis of some kind, but I'm in no hurry to test the limits of that. And it is a part of you now-- that I don't fear telling you. You already know that much."
"Maybe it was always a part of me," Yukimura said. "It appealed to a need I've always had-- my illness only made it worse."
But it wasn't the only part of him that mattered. What he needed most was another part who could act independently of him. A second brain who could come to the same conclusions -- sometimes faster, sometimes from a different angle -- and be ready with what Yukimura needed before he even knew it himself.
"I luckily have the services of an ingenious trickster," he said ruefully, and drank deeply of the tea. The tea his friend suggested as soon as he had control of the room, and Yukimura played right into having him prepare it. "Niou, your sense of shamelessness is the only one I'll never be able to steal."