Val spoke bitter words, hurt words, and Katja accepted them as what she deserved, merely nodding as they were thrown at her. "You are right; it is not your responsibility to speak for them. You have no need to apologize - I should not have put you in this position," she murmured. She let the silence collect for a moment as she maneuvered vague plans and thoughts into coherency, allowing it to coalesce into something more communicable than the bone deep feeling that was Freyja's hand upon her, before speaking again. "I cannot give them to Ebony without putting you at unnecessary risk," she repeated yet again. "But perhaps if the yearlings... your siblings... are willing to give their parole and accept an escort... if you are willing perhaps they could choose to come stay here. Yfir would retain them as members, but they would be allowed to choose to live in Ebony. An exchange if you will - training for them from among your people and less taxing of Yfir's resources for whatever it is that we can provide you."
Somehow this didn't much feel better than having hurt Val to begin with, and it didn't entirely sit well with Katja. Regardless of the fancy words she could dress it up in, it still felt like she was dropping her problems onto Ebony instead of dealing with the consequences herself. This way, Virgil would have no reason to go after Valeriya and Ebony to get them back - it would still be Katja's choice of whether to give them their freedom or not, not Val's - but it might make it easier for the Xanilovs to swallow. Still, it wasn't entirely a comfortable offer to make... for either of them.
OOC: If this doesn't 100% make sense to someone I can explain it OOC better I think, I'm just really tired and the words aren't coming easily today. XD
