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"Goryhell" Mustang bursts out laughing "Are you insane, Darrow?"

Augustus frowns "Virginia, control yourself"

"I aet your place"

"And you forget how Claudius looked, dead on the ground Leto too Do you want that for the rest of us?" She regrets the words as soon as they leave her lips

"Shut your ers clutch the edge of the table till it creaks "You’ve been unhinged since you let that Bellona boy between your legs Walking in here like a Pixie po a sideshohore and live up to your na, cal grinds her teeth together, but stays uncharacteristically silent Pliny’s lips curl in a rather pleased soodmen, if she’s already tired of war," Pliny says, softly placing a knife in a wounded ene in horizontal diplomacy with the Bellona, her staes at Pliny Daxo pulls hi who is first to speak over the uproar

"I can defend oodman But from Pliny, such insults are to be expected After all, I would be bitter too ifmercenaries learned how to properly sheathe their swords"

Pliny stares angrily at her as she rises, continuing, "I left Mars to pursue knowledge in the Sovereign’s court I did not abandon ested And I’m not sorry I left and ood only at one thing, and that is bickering Yet you quickly coreement upon me as an item of ridicule Curious Is it because you see me as a threat to your power? Or is it simply because I’m a woman?" She peers at the few scattered woet yourselves This Society was founded by men and woht, however: I would have avoided this war In fact, I tried Why else do you think I allowed Cassius au Bellona to court ain froustus lets slip the smallest, barest of smiles, a twin to the first His love is the most conditional I’ve ever seen How quickly he can call his daughter a whore, then smile as she reclaims what power she lost in the room Suddenly, she matters

"Then what do you think of erous It spreads the ithout ensuring our benefit It is iain, war is inherently io"

"You know Octavia better than I," I say "How far will she go?"

Mustang is quiet for a moment "If we have a victory and sue for peace either froth or weakness, she will accept the overture…"

"You see!" Pliny beaest a neutral location And on that day e go toin her power to kill all of us"

Pliny looks back and forth between us, realizing how easily he’s been played

"So there is no going back? Win or die?" I ask flatly

"Indeed, Darrow," she says with a smile "Win or die"