Anton smiled sadly at the woman's words and sipped his tea. There was something calming and peaceful about the way she said things, even if the topic was unfavorable. "All the same, I feel like there must be another way to go about it. But time and time again it proves to be as you said. War presents itself as the only option and countless suffer in its wake." Anton took another sip from his glass. "It proves to be that the most difficult thing needed to resolve a war is to get both sides, not only to calm down, but to see eye to eye. And I just don't know how to make something like that happen." Anton drummed his fingers on the counter. "Still, I want to try to end this war with as little bloodshed as possible-- on either side. What you say may be true and even if only a little, humans are by no means pure creatures. But if there were just one who wished to carry things on to a brighter future, I think it would be worth it to save them." His fingers stopped drumming. "I believe that if I could save even one good person, human or not, then I will have done my part."<br/><br/>Anton took a breath and looked to the ceiling. "You say you know the empress, so this likely holds more personal value to you than it does me, but it seems she's the most important piece to put into place. But things have to be perfect. Even if you know the most important piece to a puzzle before you start, it means nothing to just set it down without the more minor pieces attached. Not only do I believe that every one has a dark side, but that everyone also has a light side. Perhaps we could somehow tap into that. And if that's not possible, obviously the choices people would chose to take is either to lie down or to fight. As you said, lying down would bring a slaughter, and fighting a similar fate when your opponent can predict your moves. So that leaves us two options as I see it. Both involve becoming unpredictable."<br/><br/>Anton twirled his glass and took another sip of his tea. The way he did things was very elegant and graceful, just what you would expect of a former English noble. "Even though I expect these two options are our only ones, I've had experience living with both humans and not and I don't want harm to come to either of them. But I suppose it's as you said. If every thing light has a dark side than even nature itself must have a part of it that harbors war." The gentle vampire waited quietly for a moment to see if the woman was still interested.