BEXLEY BRIAR
They are too still. Too aggravated, too at odds. Bexley is already growing tired of their dynamic, unused to this kind of response - though really, it might benefit her to hear a little more of it. With a cold and narrowed gaze she watches for Vadim’s reply, white lashes fanning against the gun-flare sun, and as he opens his mouth again, one ear flicks lazily backward, just brushing the silken curls piled atop her neck. There’s no way he’ll tell her what she wants to hear. It’s infuriating.
Faith alone does not keep you fed and watered and unwounded.
Don’t be stupid, Bex replies immediately, letting a bitchy, incredulous smile split her lips to only half an arc. Her gaze sparks suddenly with amusement as it meets his. Faith is not throwing your body on the pyre or fasting for weeks just to prove your devotion. Faith is knowing that if you love Solis, He will love you, and in that case - yes, it does keep you fed and watered, and, when you’re lucky, unwounded. Who puts fruits in the desert? Who lets rains fall when we need them? Who blesses His soldiers in battle? Somehow it feels natural coming from her mouth. If only he knew what an outsider she was six moons ago, the amount of Solterran soil she has not touched. A blink passes over those cerulean eyes - and if Vadim were to look hard, he would notice just how nervous it seems - but it leaves as fast as it comes, so that within half a moment Bexley is herself again, sultry, overconfident. And we have faith in each other - that all Solterrans are bound to take care of their kind. That tends to our garden. That delivers medicine to the sick. That scouts our borders.
To say anything else would be pushing her point, so Bexley merely nods at him and takes another drink, body flushed with the heat of the sun overhead and the irritation in her chest. We are not all of one kind, she remarks. You’ve only met those of your rank. We have priestesses and healers and sages, but within blood is where glory lies. She shifts one hip toward him to show off the paling scar that runs down one side of her ribs - what was a gushing wound only weeks ago, now bleached to healing by the light.
@vadim <3
