his eyebrows raise slowly as fidelio tells this, but - taair is still taair, after all, and there's a light of historian curiosity on his face as he listens. ]
A visionary... [ ... ] Though... I'd be cautious. I know that you're loyal, but... King Faris was exactly the same. He swore to end our oppression alongside Iria's, and we believed him. A general come king.
[ ...he vaguely feels like he might have made this same comparison in his own head when he heard the story before. like being similar to louis was something to worry about that had made him slightly uneasy about an otherwise hopeful ending.
but— of course he wouldn't think that. louis never lies. he's the one person outside of his family that he's sure he can trust. ]
...Yeah, well, Lord Louis ain't your king. He means what he says, and he's not gonna bend to anyone else's ideas or let power corrupt him. Wouldn't have bothered savin' us and doin' all he did if he didn't truly believe people like us could amount to somethin'.
[ but, that distinction aside - he just regards him for a moment, quiet, thoughtful. there's a twist in his stomach that feels like familiarity. history always comes in waves, in cycles. it rises and falls. ]
...I hope I am wrong. I would like it, if I was - a nation built on equality sounds wonderful. [ and that's genuine - the smile on taair's face is as genuine as it always is. ] He saved your lives?
I mean, he didn't pull us out the way of a runaway carriage or nothin' like that, but.
[ ... ]
Paripus kids in the army, we're just fodder. Probably would've died bein' meat shields for some fatcat officer who never bothered to learn our names. But Lord Louis took us with him, and he treated us with respect. Made sure we had what we needed, helped us learn our letters and everything. Didn't let nobody look down on us.
[ louis did things for them that no one else would have. they still owe him more than they can ever hope to repay, and he feels guilty even entertaining the idea of abandoning his trust in him. ]
Only reason we made it far as we did was 'cause of him.
[ the worst thing is this isn't even an unfamiliar story. even if taair wasn't afflicted by this strange alternative universe timeline, he'd still think it. the vlderians, the paripus - they've been through such awful suffering, the kind of things taair records in his histories that make his heart break.
what makes it the worst is that it sounds like this person, this louis, earned their trust for basic dignity. he swallows, hard. ]
...It sounds like a trust earned. [ but the similarities are still there. faris had vlderians fighting for his cause, after all. prince dantalion took allies in luccia and vlder - even the chieftainess, fearsome and proud, agreed to help him, and what did they get out of it? corpses on a battlefield. ]
[ it was earned is the thing, and even if he knew everything he usually knows right now, fidelio still wouldn't be able to say otherwise, as much as he'd like to. he'd never really let on to bas how bad they'd actually had it, and so he'd never understood the full extent of just how much louis had done for them and how rare that was. ]
What? No, she's a priestess on this island way out in the ocean. Only just met her.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
his eyebrows raise slowly as fidelio tells this, but - taair is still taair, after all, and there's a light of historian curiosity on his face as he listens. ]
A visionary... [ ... ] Though... I'd be cautious. I know that you're loyal, but... King Faris was exactly the same. He swore to end our oppression alongside Iria's, and we believed him. A general come king.
It took ten years, but it still happened.
no subject
but— of course he wouldn't think that. louis never lies. he's the one person outside of his family that he's sure he can trust. ]
...Yeah, well, Lord Louis ain't your king. He means what he says, and he's not gonna bend to anyone else's ideas or let power corrupt him. Wouldn't have bothered savin' us and doin' all he did if he didn't truly believe people like us could amount to somethin'.
no subject
[ but, that distinction aside - he just regards him for a moment, quiet, thoughtful. there's a twist in his stomach that feels like familiarity. history always comes in waves, in cycles. it rises and falls. ]
...I hope I am wrong. I would like it, if I was - a nation built on equality sounds wonderful. [ and that's genuine - the smile on taair's face is as genuine as it always is. ] He saved your lives?
no subject
[ ... ]
Paripus kids in the army, we're just fodder. Probably would've died bein' meat shields for some fatcat officer who never bothered to learn our names. But Lord Louis took us with him, and he treated us with respect. Made sure we had what we needed, helped us learn our letters and everything. Didn't let nobody look down on us.
[ louis did things for them that no one else would have. they still owe him more than they can ever hope to repay, and he feels guilty even entertaining the idea of abandoning his trust in him. ]
Only reason we made it far as we did was 'cause of him.
no subject
what makes it the worst is that it sounds like this person, this louis, earned their trust for basic dignity. he swallows, hard. ]
...It sounds like a trust earned. [ but the similarities are still there. faris had vlderians fighting for his cause, after all. prince dantalion took allies in luccia and vlder - even the chieftainess, fearsome and proud, agreed to help him, and what did they get out of it? corpses on a battlefield. ]
Does Miss Eupha work for him as well?
no subject
What? No, she's a priestess on this island way out in the ocean. Only just met her.