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[galvanising]

crystal // note // action

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[galvanising]

Who knows if they're even ginger. Sometimes people grow out of it. Or they could be bald--one of my brothers was older.

[exequy]

It would not be that hard to ask around in the right places about Vosses.

[galvanising]

And if I had wanted to do that when we were in Nevarra City, I would have.

[exequy]

All right.

[galvanising]

They're strangers, what would be the point? 'Hello, I'm the sister our parents gave away twenty years ago. You may remember the time I burned down our home? What have I been doing since then? Oh, you know, normal things. Studying, running for my life, killing a lot of people.'

[exequy]

I can see how that would be awkward. If you aren't curious and do not care if they are, there is no point, no.

Did you really burn down the house?

[galvanising]

[ Nell laughs, short. ] Yes, I think it would be 'awkward'.

I did. Or some portion of it, anyway. I don't remember the details.

[exequy]

Fitting.

[galvanising]

Why's that?

[exequy]

You have destroyed so many other buildings, it makes sense for you to have started that way.

[galvanising]

[ Nell snorts, but she sounds like she's smiling now. ]

Good point.

Why don't you want to see your family?

[exequy]

I do see my family. They won't go away.

[ Not the ones she means, obviously, and even he can't really say NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS after all that, so, shortly: ]

It's like when someone is kind to you, but it feels like they are trying to prove—they were never angry. They never let me see them flinch. I hate it.

[ That's the part of the big amorphous cloud of no that he can define, anyway. ]

And I could hardly look them in the eyes, after all the things I've done— [ not during the war, no; that was all the genuine feeling he can communicate for the week ] —with 'men and women of a certain age.'

[galvanising]

[ Nell's gearing up for a serious conversation of the sort they usually avoid, but then he goes and makes her laugh instead. ]

That would be awkward.

[ But he's not getting off the hook quite that easily, after prodding her about her own family this much. ]

How do you know they're like that if you don't see them? Isn't it possible they've gotten past it? They've had twenty years.

[exequy]

Eleven. They visited for as long as they could buy their way in. And we write.

I'll go when the war is over, if we're alive and allowed. [ So never. ] You can come. We can drink all of their wine.

[galvanising]

Sounds good. What are they like?

[exequy]

Are you serious?

[galvanising]

What, I can't be curious? You and Nikos are quite a pair.

[exequy]

That isn’t their fault. They’re—nice. They prefer to stay out of trouble. They like to dance.

[galvanising]

...were you adopted?

[exequy]

That would make sense, but no. We used to dance, too. Nikos especially.