[The words are ground out, tense like Kratos is tense, not through any fault of Yuan's. The fitful tremble is at least in part an attempt to keep from trying too hard to escape, meager though it is. Not much of a resistance.
[It had been like this in Iselia, too, with the cracking weight of the whips on his back and Lloyd's grounding hand over his, and the hard coil of the seal up his spine. Then, he'd been able to resist more; to breathe through it, remind himself that acting against the whip-masters would only make things worse, focus on Lloyd's young face and know that it was for him. Still, if Colette hadn't arrived when she had ...
[The seal doesn't care about his health. Only his life.
[Kratos shifts again, an aborted semi-resistance, as Yuan resumes. Those shifts become less frequent as Yuan progresses, until they subside entirely; though Kratos never relaxes. The whole way through, his heart beats against the seal's watchful readiness, despite the brewing ache in his muscles and the throbbing pain in his wrists. He cannot relax, like this.]
no subject
[The words are ground out, tense like Kratos is tense, not through any fault of Yuan's. The fitful tremble is at least in part an attempt to keep from trying too hard to escape, meager though it is. Not much of a resistance.
[It had been like this in Iselia, too, with the cracking weight of the whips on his back and Lloyd's grounding hand over his, and the hard coil of the seal up his spine. Then, he'd been able to resist more; to breathe through it, remind himself that acting against the whip-masters would only make things worse, focus on Lloyd's young face and know that it was for him. Still, if Colette hadn't arrived when she had ...
[The seal doesn't care about his health. Only his life.
[Kratos shifts again, an aborted semi-resistance, as Yuan resumes. Those shifts become less frequent as Yuan progresses, until they subside entirely; though Kratos never relaxes. The whole way through, his heart beats against the seal's watchful readiness, despite the brewing ache in his muscles and the throbbing pain in his wrists. He cannot relax, like this.]