Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-25389303-20191221164519/@comment-5999656-20200105055128

There could have been any multitude of things for Zanipher to say at that moment. Egotistical people always wanted to have the last word, and she had a veritable menu of scathing comments she could have shot back at Diaboli. But somehow, in the wake of her words and his reaction, none of them seemed necessary.

A dragon could learn to hide its fangs, but it would never cease being a dragon. She'd taken far more verbal abuse from Diaboli in the last few minutes than she would have from anybody else. Pushed, belittled, demanded from, eventually she'd bared her true nature like a sharpened claw. And it felt good to strip away all pretenses of moral high ground and wave her true goals like a war flag. A rare glimpse of honestl from a criminal who made a livelihood from selling lies.

In the tainted underworld they walked, no one deserved anything any more than anyone else, Zan believed. Instead, it was all about who took more for themselves, and what methods they used to get there. Sure, she tried to do it with a bit more finesse than everyone else. But Zanipher didn't deal in dreams. She dealt in money and power.

In her heart, Zan didn't want to fight Diaboli. She didn't really want to fight, in general. But there were things she couldn't budge on. So there was no regret in her heart as she watched him get crushed, and walk away. As for a last word, well, there was nothing left to say.

At the very least, Zanipher thought, as she turned to look back over the city expanse again, he'd given her some valuable tidbits of information - more than enough to plan her next move. Information she could sell - now that was something Zanipher found useful. It hadn't been something she had expected to get.

Then again, that was all she really wanted all along.