<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/Y3n5ibZ.png)</div>Larissa listened intently to Dorokor's terms while her eyes were trained on Dorokor's features. ...and she could find no deception. Strength was important to orcs, or at least, the<em>appearance</em>of strength - it was no mere sense of pride, it was how they lived and died. But to offer Elaine, Pinna,<em>and</em>Castle Rend? It beggared belief. All for either Fang or Claw.<br/><br/>Looking upon her swords, Larissa had only until recently seen them mounted above the throne in Castle Ruxvan. They were the successors to her ancestor's true swords, the true Fang and Claw of Ruksavaan. While her swords were, as Kasala once put it, pale imitations, they were still good swords. ...but practically speaking, there was no way she could pass up this deal. And she had nothing else on her that would make for a tangible enough show of strength for Dorokor that would matter to the White Tusks.<br/><br/>"...I have no issues with this deal," Larissa said. "One of the swords should have the symbol of a claw etched on the pommel; you may have that one."<br/><br/>Larissa would wait for Dorokor to inspect her prize before speaking again. "Showing you are a great leader can be more trouble than simply being one, of which you are, Dorokor," Larissa said. "This pageantry is necessary to achieve your real goal - of which I feel much empathy for. I seek to make my own people stronger - I seek a stronger House Ruxvan, just as you seek a stronger White Tusk. I see much I admire. We seek the same for our people, and have the same enemies. There is no reason I see why we can't be aligned."