Have you ever cared for others outside of their utility to you?
[ she thought that... maybe her. once. he had seemed to resent the humanity of honest desire, while she rejected the parts of it that wanted her for the ways she could serve him. ]
[ she pauses, for a moment. truly, grisha had only been tolerated in ravka because of their utility to the king. but it was an arrangement fostered by the darkling. he is their patron, shelter in a world that is afraid of people like them and seek to destroy them if they toe the line.
her face sours at the thought. the world is cruel, but not all men are like the king. the darkling. the apparat. not all men seek only to use her for what role she can play, right?
the darkling may have protected the grisha, but that didn't mean he didn't have his motives. ]
A means to an end.
[ a shield to hide his true intentions while he waited. a source of gifts to earn favor. he would not have cultivated it if it was not to his own benefit. there is no freedom under the darkling. ]
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no subject
[ she thought that... maybe her. once. he had seemed to resent the humanity of honest desire, while she rejected the parts of it that wanted her for the ways she could serve him. ]
no subject
( he pins her with the kind of look that suggests he already knows what she'll say, and that it will be the wrong answer. )
no subject
her face sours at the thought. the world is cruel, but not all men are like the king. the darkling. the apparat. not all men seek only to use her for what role she can play, right?
the darkling may have protected the grisha, but that didn't mean he didn't have his motives. ]
A means to an end.
[ a shield to hide his true intentions while he waited. a source of gifts to earn favor. he would not have cultivated it if it was not to his own benefit. there is no freedom under the darkling. ]