"This is exactly what I mean." Aeotha said mostly to herself. Neither of them had any idea what she really meant, did they. Leironuoth would take the door off the cell in no time and his friend would be free to run about pretending there were no rules except the ones he made up. Rules such as: I get to fall in love with everyone around me and I don't have to explain myself. I get to destroy an entire quarter of a city but run free since my best friend is the biggest hero ever. I get to go where ever I want, whenever I want because I am Skandra fucking Tyullis and who the fuck are you. Aeotha was well aware that such thoughts were harsh and unnecessary, but saying such things out loud, where she should have been doing it would probably glean her another dirty look and a hand twisted in malice. Poised to strike out because she was right in a way. For every good thing about Skandra, and there were lots of good things, or had been lots of good things, there were bad things to. Obviously he didn't care so much about those Elves dying in the square as he cared about saving.. what, saving Fiaethe from something? Stopping the Drow from getting something?
And everything else? Taking the stone, and keeping it.. using it to change the course of fate, or destiny, or whatever one wanted to call it. Reality. In order to keep Elemmire alive, which probably signed her fate over to the darkness. Or was going to get all of them killed. Upsetting the balance. But, in the same breath, what did Aeotha care? She wanted Elemmire alive, but she was unwilling to sacrifice innocent lives to keep someone she thought was a friend alive. Skandra was.. different from that. And that scared her. That she was okay with the idea of releasing him because she trusted him, or trusted him enough to release him. She trusted him to, in the end, do the right thing. But she didn't trust him to trust her. She'd already made her decision, her choice. To trust him, but not to trust what he said to her. His actions, normally, were for the greater good, the lesser man, except.. well mostly himself. But in the whole picture.
Ah. And this was why Elemmire had thought Aeotha crazy. Why another score of friends had always looked at her oddly when meeting him over their various years together, or since then when she spoke of him. Why did she trust him so much? And why wasn't that returned. What had she done to him since they'd last seen each other that made him cautious, made him not want to tell her everything. When it used to be so easy? When they used to be able to tell each other plans, or at least convey a silent trust to each other? Was it really just time, or was she suddenly so different that he didn't care any longer. It seemed so selfish in her head. A worry she always had. Was she being selfish? Or was it fair to think a friend, no, someone who was ever so much more than just that, to tell her what was going on. What had happened. How were they going to answer for everything if he didn't say things.
"You're telling me the broad story, and none of the things I obviously would want to know, or would need to know. You're glancing over everything that's lead up to this point. You had every chance to tell me a hundred things so far, Skandra, and haven't. You didn't tell me where you were going. You didn't tell me what happened to the stone. You're not telling me what happened in my own temple! Mine! You're always telling me that the world is ending, or that something greater is in the works but I have no idea what's been going on. Except what I've already heard about. The deadlands spreading, the feel on the wind. The fact that someone took the stone in the first place to lure you out, or to have you killed. I don't even know if that matters. And that thing that attacked us in the free cities. That thing, that I didn't know what it was." Aeotha drew a breath.
She touched her own temple, and looked at him. Should she have been expecting anything more?