( Benedikta looks ... surprised, at that revelation. She hadn't known Cid went to her after their fight because she'd likely been fucking dead — but it would be so very like him, wouldn't it, to save his sentiment to the last. A handful of emotions flicker across Benedikta's expression, then — confusion, denial, heartbreak, rage — before landing on something smooth and sharp.

The truth of it? Yes, she is. Benedikta is afraid that someone might have cared for her in a way that actually mattered at the moment of her death; someone who knew her before Waloed, before Barnabas, before fear drove her into the tangled web of someone else's vision for the world. )

Cid is nothing to me.

( A lie. An obvious one, at that, because if there's one thing it's hard for her to hide it's the shattered mess of her heart. )

You are nothing to me.

( She sucks in a hissing breath through her teeth before taking a step towards him, her expresion cold. )

I will find a way to take Garuda back from you, and when I do? I'll kill you for what you did to me. To my future.