2018-07-02: Inconvenience
- Cutscene: Inconvenience
- Cast: Talia
- Where: Pendrago, Rolance Empire
- Date: 07-02-2018
- Summary: Talia returns to her chief employer after the Saint of Sinners attacked Lastonbell. It doesn't go well.
"You're late."
Talia felt like hell, as she walked into the darkened halls of Lubov Yemelin's mansion in Pendrago. The Sundering of Lastonbell had been a grim, violent thing. She survived, somehow -- being hurled into the interior of a building, away from the Fell Dragon's attentions, helped -- and crawled out the next day, to find that Lastonbell was broken and temporarily abandoned. The city's populace had fled; neither army had retaken the city, when she left, and she wondered if the remains of the fortifications would amount to anything.
She was sore. She was hurting. She was in that state of exhaustion that went beyond the word 'tired.' To say that Talia's patience was thin was to call a flame hot.
But Lubov Yemelin brooked no impatience, much less impertinence from his tools. She turned to look at him, standing at the top of the stairwell leading to the back room. Lamplight from down the second floor hallway lit his severe features, with black hair gone grey at the temples, slim facial features, and familiar piercing, red eyes. Those eyes shone in the lamplight, meeting Talia's own.
"There was a Fell Dragon," she said, finding her tone flippant. It wasn't wise of her. "You might have heard something about it, no?"
"A lot of dead, in Lastonbell." She saw the impression of a shrug, beneath his large fur cloak. "And the city shattered. What kept you? We're afforded an opportunity to move our plans forward, Talia."
Her eyes narrowed. "I barely escaped alive."
"You wasted your time on peasant filth. I don't suffer filth to live, if it causes me inconvenience," he says. "We need Hyland's advance to continue. Is this something that you can handle?" He paused. She opened her mouth, ready to answer, but Lubov stopped her with a look. "I will not have you become like your brother. A waste of potential. I do not have room for two mistakes. Am I clear?"
She felt her cheeks growing hotter. She felt her jaw work, muscles in it tensing until her teeth ground against each other. Lubov looked down at her, unmoved by her visible anger. She let out a long, slow hiss and reminded herself of who she was. She thought of Ivan, and what she could lose.
"Yes," she said. "As you command, my lord."