>>6251096

“No,” you reply, and gasp at your own words.
You just refused her.
You refused the same woman who pulled herself together from a pile of scattered bones and splattered organs, and paraded her would-be killer around like a macabre banner… for at least a cycle.
Rosandra’s gaze turns annoyed.
It’s clear that her store of patience, always low, is perilously running dry.
“W-Wait!” You add, trying to reason with her. Perhaps a pointless endeavour, but, you won’t just hand it over. What if she wants to take it away forever, or to destroy it? She already thinks it is heretical, but it had served you well since the very beginning.
She must understand this. “It has been given to me by the Head of the Order of Saint Kishirra. How can it be heretical?”
“The same man is currently detained, such is the will of the Amaranthines.”
“D-Do they decide when something is heretical or not?”
“We already had this conversation under Her sun, Argia Candente,” she sighs.
You did. At the mansion, when she first pointed out how Ansàrra has seemingly changed Her mind about the representations of Saint Bragia.
“I wouldn’t give it back to anyone else, but Master! It was his gift to me, you can’t just take it away out of wistfulness. At least… at least let me keep it until the Trial of Gold. After all, if I were to be judged guilty, it would follow me in the pile of cinders.”
She entwines her fingers together, taking a deep breath, like she were trying to explain things to a children. She leans closer.

[cont.]