["Liem" could have insulted her even worse and even more cruelly when he refused her, he could have accepted her desperate little attempt to maintain an intimate tradition with a smile... and none of it would have mattered whether he sounded in-character or not. There was only one thing he could have said to convince her in that moment that the creeping hint of wrongness was all in her head, that she was seeing things...
But "Liem" doesn't ask her when she had learned to read.
Hayame is not the most skilled actress, but she has the benefit of distance and the cold, cold fury that washes over her in that moment she truly realizes that this is not Liem. She does not know how, but it is not. Was it magic, simply wearing his shape like some sort of illusory skin? Was it actually Liem's body, possessed by someone else from a distance? She hoped it was not the latter, but even if it was...
She'd already killed the man once. If she had to do it once more for his own good, to expunge some sort of devil, then she wold simply see it done. But one thing was for certain... whoever this was had no honor, no scruples, and she could not expect them not to have other tricks and traps prepared, other magic at their disposal. She'd already been taken advantage of by those stupid fucking spells, by invisibility and Fear, and she won't let it happen again. She can smell the hint of flame and smoke before it even becomes visible... But she doesn't give a damn about supplies. Supplies can be regathered.
With a twist of her lip and a quiver in her foreleg, rage passing as humiliation and rebuke, Hayame... bows her head just slightly, fingers curling into impotent fists.]
... If that is your position, then.
[She will excuse herself, turning in a whip of long mane and tail to beat a hasty retreat before he can see her looking hurt again-]
1/2
But "Liem" doesn't ask her when she had learned to read.
Hayame is not the most skilled actress, but she has the benefit of distance and the cold, cold fury that washes over her in that moment she truly realizes that this is not Liem. She does not know how, but it is not. Was it magic, simply wearing his shape like some sort of illusory skin? Was it actually Liem's body, possessed by someone else from a distance? She hoped it was not the latter, but even if it was...
She'd already killed the man once. If she had to do it once more for his own good, to expunge some sort of devil, then she wold simply see it done. But one thing was for certain... whoever this was had no honor, no scruples, and she could not expect them not to have other tricks and traps prepared, other magic at their disposal. She'd already been taken advantage of by those stupid fucking spells, by invisibility and Fear, and she won't let it happen again. She can smell the hint of flame and smoke before it even becomes visible... But she doesn't give a damn about supplies. Supplies can be regathered.
With a twist of her lip and a quiver in her foreleg, rage passing as humiliation and rebuke, Hayame... bows her head just slightly, fingers curling into impotent fists.]
... If that is your position, then.
[She will excuse herself, turning in a whip of long mane and tail to beat a hasty retreat before he can see her looking hurt again-]