<div class="floatright">Nellens Taleda (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=343168.msg16215124#msg16215124)<br/>(https://i.imgur.com/UHoG3vb.jpg)</div><br/>As Carnelian mentions the other men and potential profit, Nellens Taleda nods, and replies; "Indeed, you're correct. Their deaths will not be in vain." Then when Carnelian tiredly asks what exact game Taleda is doing here, he sighs and replies; "You say as if I had really a choice in the matter, the governor assigned me as this inquisitor's aide. Refusing would be had been treasonous as killing him. I suffered from my success as an investigator, so my fame got dragged into this affair. Once I learned where Rhapsody had headed, I planted seeds of action since then. As a precaution, and thus my worst fears manifested. Inquisitor not just finding of Rhapsody, but also about you as well. Secondary would have been inquisitor deciding to kill you for aiding a fugitive or punish another cruel manner, was prepared for that outcome as well with equal force."<br/><br/>Taleda then looks more directly towards Carnelian, albeit eyes showing no emotion, nor face but his voice trembled with undertones of emotion albeit he kept in check; "Our little games, they have been pleasant to me in the expense of your wits and it seems I may be guilty in driving your wits more than once to end with my antics. I may have even overdone with carrying it long as I did. As the only purpose of those games...were simply revenge. Payback from the years in Spire. Remember when I asked about your actions, your rejection of me entirely, in social gatherings and parties, when we first privately talked here on satrapy? I carried those memories years in my heart, they were bitter memories which constantly agonized me each time I remembered them or saw you."<br/><br/>Taleda clenches his hand on his knee, as he remained knelt in a sitting position and his voice grows bitter; "I knew very well dynastic politics, reasonings for rejection. Nellens is not a desirable house to marry into nor gain members from, we got nothing to offer to the likes of Cathaks. You told me how heavy your schedule was, how everything was planned for your marriage and even the names of your grandchildren! But not once, in all those years, did you never say you're sorry. I may be blind, but when people saw your beauty I saw who you were and I loved that! The brilliant mind and the passion you had for things which you were free to do! We plotted together in Spire, we were a good team, we were fellow students but I imagined also us being friends! At least in my end, I had hoped I had made clear my interest to you privately and I did expect it never go anywhere, considering how planned your life was. But would have expected at least a private sympathetic response to me, even a simple gesture of being sorry but instead the cold rejection entirely...it made me question were we, friends, at all or did you merely use me."<br/><br/>Taleda then sighs, his hand unclenches and he says; "I could not make an appearance in your funeral ceremony, both duties as a diplomat and also lack of invitation it was not proper to crash your funeral. But later on, I did visit the grave marker, when I stood on the gravestone I always pondered on what if; pondering if I had been born to a different house entirely and perhaps not crippled as I was. Could I have managed to change your fate, find a way to court you, and set you free from the stranglehold of your parents and especially your mother? I found it morbidly manner funny that my life's biggest events have happened while standing in rain at gravestones, my exaltation...and my decision to master politics as means find a way to change the unjust society which caged one brilliant soul into practical breeding slavery. Even in your 'death', your flame inspired me to become senator of the inner chambers of the Thousand Scales."<br/><br/>Then Taleda bowed his head deeply forward, forehead touching the floor like how patrician family head elders greet any dynastic house members and he speaks; "I humbly apologize for past weeks' humiliations done to you through my games which lasted longer than they should have. The venom, the bitterness, of the memories of Spire ceased to be after a few of those games. All further games were only for my personal enjoyment than settle a debt. I hope my actions here and today help settle the debt I owe you from continuing the game long as I did. You never were in danger of me exposing you, I merely wanted some payback for things you did in Spire that's all. Now the secret of death of this inquisitor binds us together tighter than any potential gains that may have tempted me for turning you or Rhapsody over cease to be even factors. So thus I no longer hold any leverage over either of you; rather opposite you hold now all cards. You can turn me over for this crime, decide to return anytime to Scarlet Dynasty, and be viewed as a heroine turning a traitor in. Your only crime was hiding and running away, wrist slap compared to me killing inquisitor from All-Seeing Eye. With a low effort, a storyteller can turn your crime into merely an exciting part of the narrative tale about your exploits in Threshold."