Show Me Your Ways

Artorias' ears folded back to his head while he listened to Sirius explain how Iris' story was a cautionary tale of the dangers of abusing power or becoming consumed by it. Power was a fine line to walk, it seemed. Stray too far over the edge and you became a tyrant enslaving those beneath you, abusing them and destroying them. Reserve yourself too much and you appeared weak, unfit to lead. His warning felt like a slight contradiction to his earlier statement about how having strength meant you could do whatever you wanted, but maybe it was meant more as a caveat to that claim. Strength to do what you want, but the wisdom and morality to know what you should do with the power given to you. Artorias began to worry. Would he be able to know where the line was in his reign?

Sirius dismissed Iris, who left with the formality she had arrived with. "You too, Iris," he replied with a tip of his head to her before the smaller servant girl disappeared back to her duties. Left with Sirius once more, Artorias listened in quiet contemplation while the Warlord explained his past, how his parents had served for the Ashen Empire, and once they had fallen in battle he had been enslaved and given to one of the Emperor's daughters. "Your parents served the empire as soldiers, and in return, they enslave you when your parents are killed in service to them?" he asked, reiterating the Warlord's own story with a tone of incredulity. His eyes narrowed, brows furrowed while he tried to work out the sense that made. It didn't. "The Empire must have changed a lot between then and now—or I really don't know what the real Ashen Empire is like. They didn't seem that... sinister when I was there." Stuffy and cold, maybe, but not malicious.

"Artorias Carpathius"