☀️ Arselia and Akonia

- It seems my temporary residence permit has expired, and now they've finally given me my passport. Ha-ha! Ha... - a forced smile faded; she twirled the mug between her palms. - I was 99.(9)% sure. She did something and said that Anuzish had accepted me. You should have seen her face at that moment. It was completely blank, not at all Akonian, but just a normal human face. Probably mine didn't look very star-born either at that moment, given the lighting... But I didn't think through the 0.(1)%. I could have accepted that outcome, even though it would have been completely absurd and deserving of some kind of comedic award; guided by some extremely twisted logic, there would have been a certain justice to it. My sense of self-preservation isn't the strongest, as you know. It's just a professional hazard, I suppose? It's not easy to maintain a perfect balance when you spend your whole life doing something like this. Constantly observing other people's grief and suffering, rarely being able to prevent disaster, and only cleaning up the sad consequences, like a vulture, - she looks at her soul in the reflection of the liquid in the glass. - But still, that's no excuse. Even if I personally could accept such nonsense, that doesn't mean my word is the only one that matters. It's unfair and unworthy to apply standards to others that you don't follow yourself. You're not the only one who would put me in my place for something like that, but even that is enough. To knock the ground out from under someone's feet with a single, cruel snap of your fingers... For something like that, the person who did it to another should have slit their own stomach, if it were still possible to do so in that situation. I can imagine many of the things you might say right now, and all of them would be justified, but just your appearance, without any words, cuts me like a rusty knife. So... I'm sorry. I got a little carried away. I won't make jokes like that anymore; I can learn from my mistakes. At least... Now we definitely know, and you can finally sleep a little easier, - having said this, she felt shame and irritation at her reflection in the surface of the glass, so she took a burning sip.