Blood stained the hem of Rita's robe. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the wounds carved across Nivalis's scales; one patch of ice-blue armor had been scraped clean off, exposing raw flesh beneath. Nivalis could have healed it instantly, of course. She simply chose not to. She liked keeping the scars left behind by war.
Was Dawn SmokeTune's philosophy naïve?
Absolutely.
Living joyfully every day? Without Dawn-Cicada, Vineborne struggled to survive at all. How were they supposed to be happy?
Right or wrong wasn't what Rita cared about. Standing where she now stood as BS Adjudicator, she asked only two questions: Was this person useful? Was she dangerous?
Rita continued questioning Y128. "If she believes war will never end, why join the Divine Game at all?"
"Dawn SmokeTune only enters the Divine Game to collect games or knowledge from it," Y128 said. "You don't have to worry. No Vineborne will follow her to BS."
"How skilled is she really?"
