Intoxicating Desires | T. Al Ghul ✔

[26]

Talia stayed at the base for the next two weeks, doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. The lesser attention she drew to herself, the better it would be for her.

Later she asked her father permission to go visit her siblings in Cape Town and also take Veruna with her. Ra's had been busy those days already so he didn't think much of it and granted her his permission.

He hadn't yet heard any further rumors about Talia and Veruna so he assumed it had probably been a misunderstanding and relented a bit, knowing that even he couldn't afford to have Talia on the opposing side. He knew his daughter was growing distant from him and he had to mend their relationship so he decided to give her a slight free hand just to make her believe that he trusted her and as a result, she should do the same.

Talia on the other hand took that opportunity and made use of it the way she wanted to.

Right next day she and Veruna along with five other assassins acting as their guards set out for Cape Town.

She had sent a letter to her brother, knowing that it would reach him probably a day before they would and give him time to prepare for the unexpected visit.

As expected, Dusan received the letter a day prior to the group's arrival. And so he began to make sure the quarters for housing the assassins coming from the primary base were adequate enough and everything else in their base at Cape Town was running smoothly.

Because he thought perhaps Ra's was sending Talia over to keep them in check just like he had done so with the League's strongholds in other cities. But he did not intend to tell Nyssa that and make her further anxious upon Talia's visit.

"Why is she coming here?" Nyssa's crisp voice shook him out of his thoughts and he turned to face her, seeing that she looked thoroughly annoyed by the idea of hosting Talia and her squad.

"Because she can," he replied, adding in a softer tone, "she's our sister."

"Your sister," she interjected, her emerald eyes looking away from him, "all she has been to me is a rival who succeeded in showing me down."

Dusan sighed wearily, knowing the next couple of days would be hell for him if the two sisters kept at each other's throats. "Nyssa, she's not that bad, trust me. The reason she has been cold towards you is that you kept on making her think that you would leave no opportunity to steal her rank."

"I did nothing of the sort."

"You claiming the title for the Head of the Demon Fist was enough implication."

Emerald eyes pierced through his light silver ones, "why should I not have? Is only Talia allowed to take every prestigious title because she happens to be Father's favorite?"

He shook his head, trying to get her to see sense, "there's no such thing as favorites for Father. He treats us all the same; I've seen it with my very eyes."

Nyssa was about to fire back a retort but paused seeing that slightly sad expression on her brother's face.

"He doesn't trust her either and he degrades her too just as much as he does with us," he told her, "I would say we are better off living away from him because now we don't have to go through that daily."

"That can't be true... He clearly favors her more than he would ever favor us. Just because she has been the perfect heir, the perfect daughter and the only one out of us who could be fit to be his successor."

"You are overthinking," he gently patted her head, just like he used to do so with both Talia and Veruna back when they were children, "come, we have to welcome her and show her that we're there for her. She's coming to meet us after all."