[ This. Oh, this Akua knows too well. These words do not need to strike just Hayame, because they strike her true as well. Yes, of course, she had no man that she wanted to love her -- but Catherine, oh -- she knew the longing. That ache, and she'd once told Catherine it was a poison so sweet she craved the taste of it. She knew the longing, and wishing to be better, regret that festered and bubbled, and that she could never find the redemption she so desperately craved.

That she wanted it made it all the worse, doesn't it?

Her lips peel back in a snarl. ]

You ignorant, arrogant fool.

[ This doppelganger did not attack Akua, perhaps she knew, that the Praesi mage was far more powerful, an arrow could do nothing to her -- this was no Named archer, she could stop a normal arrow as quick as could be -- but her eyes searched now, through the passageways of reflection and mirrors, and looked for the right option.

Was there one? She tugged her hand downward, and pulled a wall of the mirrors back, to reveal the ones behind, her golden eyes searching. ]

You will never know what it is, to be welcomed among friends, and I pity you for it, don't you Hayame?

[ She moved closer to her, and in one swift motion ripped out the arrow, and pressed her other palm to the wound to cauterize it. ]