"People oft see the version of us they wish to and there is nothing that we can do to stop them," he doesn't sound bitter in the slightest, but there's a weight to the words that suggest it's not merely some repeated platitude. "For the people who are glad to see peace, a symbol of the link between our people will be welcome, whether false or true in truth."

He considers the rest of her words for another moment, clear that he's not entirely finished.

"I rather think it is," he says, after the pause, to her summoning Shiva as a thing to be celebrated, "I doubt there are many others who might agree with me, but you did what you did in the fullness of your beliefs. You were willing to sacrifice everything for a cause you believed in and you are still ready to use such a power to secure the peace you longed for, even at great cost to yourself. Even when we were on opposite sides of this war, your commitment and fervor were never in doubt. Such things are precisely what are needed to save this nation and preserve the peace."

"There are things you have done to Ishgard and her people that are not to be celebrated," he adds, a bit more darkly, but he is an honest man, for all that he can play the political game, "Take what victories you can."