She breaks, but not in the way that would be expected.  There are no tears.  No rage. No insults hurled with no thought or consequence.
 
Instead, back fell the layers of decorum, shooing away the fury and the fire.  The stoniness – the passion – it quickly faded away into well-practiced placidity.  A comfort.  An act, perhaps. She wore it like a veil that kept her safe from angry sea of discomfort threatening to drag her under the surface. 
 
She released the breath she didn’t know she was holding, both pleased and disappointed at his answer.  She knew that Tembovu was not the architect of her undoing, nor was Kunja.  She was.  The blame rested upon her own shoulders – and perhaps some could be shifted to the system that had had only recently been dismantled in Dorobo.  All that she could hope that her own misfortunes would allow for something greater to rise from the ashes.  In the very least, she hoped her sisters would escape the fate of shame that had befallen her before she had fled.
 
The beating of her heart slowly fell back to its normal rhythm as the fire was sated, and then a new emotion crept into her eyes.  Regret?  Acceptance?  She took another great breath, dragging her eyes from somewhere near his hooves up towards his eyes.
 
“Thank you for telling me.  I know there were other ways he could have found out – the Korfi had many spies in Makutano – or so they had bragged.”  The fire was gone from her voice, the challenge gone from her stance, and the exhaustion of what had brought her to Helovia had begun to creep into the lioness.  But there was one statement that had given her pause.  ”I wouldn’t do that to you, Tsavo.”    

She went to speak again, but the woman who had made a career of words struggled this time. “I-I knew you wouldn’t – I never thought you would.  Not after…everything.  I certainly think more of you than to assume as such, Tembovu. But when it all falls apart you never truly know who to trust, do you?  You of all people know that, Tembovu.” She didn’t wish to insult the now-King.  She just wanted – needed – him to understand why she had come to him so impassioned. 
 
“I just need to be sure if I’m going to stay here… that I can count you among those I can trust.  That is why I had to ask, why I had to know.”  She hopes that that is an adequate explanation.  She wants to recoil at the idea of showing such vulnerability to the once-general, but she finds that she has little left in her to fight.  At least in this moment.  The fire will certainly return to the lioness. When he offer’s his condolences, a white hot pang of guilt sears her from the inside.  She holds his gaze for a moment before closing her eyes and looking away. “I appreciate that.  I do.  But it pales in comparison from what they took from you.  Because we both know who is to blame for all of this. And I don’t regret it, Tembovu.  Even now.  I never will.  I wish they all had further to fall.” There had been rumors – rumors that some members of the Council had fled.  The very idea that they were living somewhere with no accountability for their actions was enough to enrage and nauseate the lioness.  But she knew it was something she must let go of now.  There was little she could do unless one showed up here, seeking sanctuary in this strange land of cliffs. 

T S A V O