That bitch.
Arbiter Bitch, to be as polite as possible within her own thoughts, but a telepath had to develop a thick enough skin to hear the occasional coarse response, or so Zea reckoned. If not, she would have no further explanations for how this conversation had gone on so long. If Dro Thinh were so sensitive, it stood to reason that Zea would already be dead.
She was still a bitch. Being given responsibility as a punishment was not the kind of thing Zea would ever have considered. Even if it resulted in a pointless pissing match for the rest of Zea's life in which she just escalated the damage she could deal every time Dro lengthened her reach just to irk her, it would waste so very much of Zea's time. The thought did not appeal. Whether she agreed to try to rally the Temple caste on the side of Justice against Judgment or not, Zea would either be choosing politics to avoid politics or being forced into politics because she hadn't chosen it.
Dro Thinh was still insane, but it was a capable sort of insanity. Zea had to concede some grudging respect for the Arbiter's willingness to endanger the future of the entire nation of Thanatos for the sake of getting Zea onside one way or another. It wasn't nice to be wanted, but it was just slightly reassuring to know that Zea was not the only one in the world with absolutely no sense of scale when making sacrifices for a higher goal.
"Fate leads those who are willing but must push those who are not, and each of us land precisely where we are placed," she answered, retreating further into ever more orthodox Iniman doctrine. Every Thanati from the esteemed Arbiter to the least literate child knew that Inima laid the path; pretending otherwise was not only short-sighted but a little tacky and distinctly un-Thanati. "The choices we make to arrive in our places are merely the shadows cast by our future onto our present."
Zea closed her eyes in an outward show of humility, lowering her head in deference to the goddess that ruled believers and unbelievers alike. "This one is Thanati, and would never presume to believe that her choices decide her fate."
Dro was going to do what Dro was going to do, and Zea's involvement would be whatever Zea's involvement would be. All Thanati knew this, even if sometimes it was a comfort to forget. Zea looked back up again. Perhaps the wise and esteemed Arbiter might benefit from some Temple meditation herself, to get back to basics. She could sit with the little children.