love is a liar’s weapon

[ There's a risk in telling Sylvain this, much as it barely scratches the surface of any truth. Claude's distributed a number of cover stories himself over the years with each one meant to misdirect more than the last. A tapestry of lies, all repeated enough to seem true enough, and something he'd started to slowly unravel over the war. But not anything Sylvain would know - it's not even something Hilda knows though he once again pushes away that familiar ache that's lingered since that realization hit him. Telling Petra had lessened it in some ways, and he has to consider what Felix told him when he'd found him in the inn for what it might mean elsewhere. What a strange predicament it is to be in of trying to protect some other version of yourself.

Still. All of that aside there are some things difficult to answer, and when Sylvain asks his next questions Claude's smile turns deliberately enameled in place. ]

Kinda think Derdriu being in the Horizon answers that one too, don't you?

[ He could leave it there. It'd be easy enough. To start brushing it away Claude reaches over for the wine but once the bottle's in his hands he does nothing more than roll it between his hands, still thinking as he looks down at it. ]

It did in some ways that I wasn't expecting. Mostly thanks to the Deer and Teach more than anything else.