I lean forward. His point being that she killed them as revenge. Now that does on the surface sound reasonable. The problem being that could have blow back onto him for allowing it in the first place. What kind of person would see a child having assassins sent after them and still just leave said child alone. So either a bad play... or hes getting at something more.
"My former comrades are indeed all dead. You killed some of them yourself, didn't you, Nephis? It must have been difficult."
So far that seems to be the angle in this still all of this is foolish in a way. A new supreme rocks up and tries to take over? That will only ever look like their power hungry. Now heat seeker, their reaction to becoming a sovereign was the right one to not ruin their reputation.
"It is quite a heartbreaking story, don't you think? A girl who was orphaned young survives the horrors of the Dream Realm, becomes a Master, and finds a new family as an adopted daughter of her late father's friend, the king... only to be forced to rebel against the king and destroy her new family with her own hands."
He puts on a sad look, then he leans forward looking right at changing star
"Of course, there is a different story as well... equally as heartbreaking, but far more sinister. It is the story of an orphan girl who survived the horrors of the Dream Realm out of pure hatred and spite, warmed her way into the royal family, gained the trust of her adopted father, the king — and then conspired to kill him and take his crown as her own."
Heat seeker scoffs.
"You done? Good. He was insane, focused on only making a perfect blade. Not just was anvil insane, he was incredibly abusive, to all of his children, ravensong may have been better with her kids but seishan having been sent to the forgotten shores in the first place shows a level of willingness to put her children in danger. Not to even mention all of his mismanagement that we've been trying to fix. So even if she did join knowing she's going to kill him one day, wouldn't everyone agree that it was clear exactly where it was going? That was even more clear after Antarctica as well, their mismanagement caused countless problems. Like the fall of falcon scott or hell all of central Antarctica. I know you haven't been around for a while old man, but all of the time neph was apart of valor had been showing clear, and I mean crystal clear, that the great clans couldn't be in charge like they had been"
there's whispering, many people are very focused on the two sovereigns parenting. I feel somewhat bad for the song sisters and morgan. Maybe even mordret because he's watching and I know it. Asterion clears his throat
"That would be true if there wasn't other motivations, like say, to avenge her clan, of course."
Theres more whispers
"What, did you think that the illustrious Immortal Flame clan just flickered out of existence all on its own? No, naturally not... in fact, it was methodically destroyed by the very people who used to fight side by side with Broken Sword and Smile of Heaven."
He goes to speak again but he's cut off
"let me guess, your going to mention the fact you helped kill broken sword with ravensong and ironheart. Spare everyone here it all asterion. You helped kill a man, and let his clan fall into ruin, watched as assassin after assassin was sent to kill her barely doing a damn thing. Too busy running around with anvil kid, or had you already thrown him away? To put it clearly for everyone"
they stand up
"You've shown nothing but the same foolish and toxic behaviors that both of the two sovereigns had. How can anyone trust you when you've shown nothing but power hungry behavior. And hell just trying to make her look bad doesn't mean humanity should go to her, I am still here and you have nothing against me."
They flop back down tapping their foot looking right at asterion.
"First off, nothing against you? How about you abandoning your parents"
Changing star leans forward with a frown
"abandoning isn't the right word, they still send their parents money and a short message once a month. Even now that their unable to go into the waking world for long. Just because there isn't active communication doesn't make it abandoning"
he nods slowly
"fair enough. Theres not much to say about them, they do tend towards being far too open. Still I'll address another point."
He leans forward a smile still on his face
"you did not intended to save all of humanity right?"
He looks around at everyones faces.
"Everyone single mundane human in the dream realm has a first seed of nightmare in their soul, only stopped by the will of a sovereign, yet changing star still tried to kill them. That risked countless people's lives. The truth of the matter is that your goddess ruthlessly gambled with the lives of hundreds of millions of people to pursue her personal goals. She manipulated and misled you to pursue those same goals, as well. She happened to win... but what if she didn't? What if she won't? What else has she lied about, and how many lives will she gamble away next time?"
Heat seeker scoffs.
"Wow. A lot of words for 'I think she could have fought both sovereigns with only one other saint and won without becoming a sovereign herself' because thats sooo reasonable"
changing star glances over at heat seeker
"You accuse me of gambling with human lives... and I can even understand how it could look that way, from your cowardly point of view. But I never did such a thing. I never risked the lives of those people. After all, I knew with absolute certainty that I would win — that I would attain Supremacy and cut the Sovereigns down, becoming the master of all the Citadels that belonged to their Domains."
He chuckles, it really does not make him look good to do that in this conversation
"Oh? Such a bold claim. However, I do wonder... how could you have known that?"
Heat seeker yawns
"because we had spent ages studying becoming supreme. Let me frame it like this for everyone here. She gambled her own life on becoming a sovereign, not humanities. Either she would become a sovereign and win or stay a saint and die."
There's a long silence before Asterion laughs shaking his head
"oh dear, its seems I've lost. To a attack dog as well."
He slowly stands up brushing himself off. A attack dog? Bold words
"i seem to have given everyone the wrong impression. My apologies. I am not here to explain myself, shine a light on my goals, or assuage your fears... why should I care about what you fear? Why should I mind what you think? I have already seen your thoughts and tasted your fears. I was not impressed."
His face is emotionless, all of it was playing to him. A simple game.
"No. I am here simply to straighten the facts. After all, shouldn't people know the truth before they form an opinion? Oh... but I don't really care about your opinion, either. Still, you should at least understand one thing."
He looks around at everyones faces, most are dread, i try to make my face not show my feelings on the matter
"i am not here to prove that I am better than your goddess."
He looks at changing star, not both of them, changing star
"i just want you to know that she's no better than me."
His face gains back its emotions
"In fact, we are exactly the same, she and I."
Soon after the meeting ends. I get into the clans PTV
"so young caster, how did it go?"
I try to keep my posture, always my least favorite part of this all.
"Badly, for asterion he did not make himself look good."
It starts up and we get to moving, I look out the window
"looking back his angle seemed to be a smart one, and one that in theory would have worked, but... its like it didn't fully account for heat seeker in any way shape or form. Was it a lack of clear information on his part, or something else?"
He hums quietly
"it does make sense, more is known about sovereign heat seeker, but they have made less public appearances. And in those they don't tend to speak."
I nod slowly. It doesn't line up. It just doesn't. His arguments have a deep understanding of changing star, but little with heat seeker. Now it could be disregard, but.... its feels something more. Like him trying to, subtly, say that their not important enough to address. Even still that doesn't account for everything. I just don't get it, there's something else there.