[semi-open post: It's a kindness that the mind can go where it wishes]

[greentara]

Dark is winding its way to an end but Constance has been tolerating it well enough. She is used to eating sparingly and spending long amounts of time indoors, getting lost in threads of research and exploring the corners of the mansion. Having discovered three wooden crates filled with interesting looking papers, she promptly moved them into the room she has co-opted as a meditation room, not wanting to either lose them or bring any dust or debris into her own room.

The room is small and sparse, lit with a small brazier and a handful of candles. There are tatami mats covering the floor, bordered in a light green color that complements the cream wallpaper. A small wooden table holds some meditation supplies and a Tibetan mandala hangs on the wall but otherwise there isn't much else. Some marks on one of the wooden columns indicate that knife practice has also been an occupation of this room.

The brazier is lit and Constance unwittingly has a piece of cobweb stuck in her hair at the moment as she sifts through a handful of papers.

Comments

[greentara]

"His charm is a thin veneer. I'm glad you saw through it. He did an exceedingly terrible thing to me at a very vulnerable time of my life."

[onthewillowsthere]

He frowns. "What did he do?"

[greentara]

Constance is not easily embarrassed in the slightest but her mind still shies away from how naive she was to trust Diogenes. It feels so long ago -- and she has since exacted her revenge -- but she was so gullible. The lush literature that he brought her, the beverages that he made her, the long conversations into the night... She looked forward to his visits and lapped it all up, like a starving child. She frowns.

"I was a naive fool. He took advantage of that and emotionally manipulated me in order to take revenge on his brother. He told me that he loved me. He did not."

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad watches her carefully. He can tell that she's having emotions, possibly even a mixture of them, but he finds her face difficult to read. Her words, though, are clearer, and he understands the humiliation of believing an overture of love or friendship, only to discover it was a trick.

"I'm sorry. That was cruel."

[greentara]

"I wanted him dead." Her tone is grim but the sentence is in past tense, anger faded from when she had stalked him across Europe in a rage.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Why do you feel differently now?"

[greentara]

"Thinking he was dead for half a decade helped. He fell into a volcano." It shouldn't be amusing, not after the years of trauma that Diogenes caused, but Constance has always had an odd sense of humor. It is a touch amusing.

[onthewillowsthere]

Perhaps he would feel better if Luo Binghe fell into a volcano. Perhaps that is the secret.

"Because of you?"

[greentara]

"Yes." She pauses for a moment, considering. "There's another reason my hatred for him has abated. He has more fear of me than I do of him. I hold all the cards in my hand."

[onthewillowsthere]

"That is a powerful feeling."

[greentara]

"It is." Her lips twist slightly. "It still does not make him more likeable, though."

[onthewillowsthere]

"No. He was arrogant and--" He falls quiet, trying to find the right words to describe Diogenes' air of smugness, the sense of being toyed with. "His vibes were unpleasant."

[greentara]

Constance lets out a quiet, surprised laugh. "I'm sure. He is unnervingly skilled at charming the individuals that he wants to charm and getting under the skin of those that he doesn't. Qui mentitur ore duplici... he is a duplicitous snake."

[onthewillowsthere]

"That is unjust to snakes."

[greentara]

"My apologies. He is, as a close family friend Vincent would say, a scumbag."