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Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 2:19 pm
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Migel had been quiet since the Touching. Well, quieter. It was hard to tell with him.. Still, some things had left him deep in thought. And the effort he made to be sociable and project his usual facade had lessened somewhat in recent days. Ostensibly waiting for Cesare to get out of chores, he leaned against the wall near the entrance to the Lower Caverns. He was thinking about his parents. Or, rather, he was wondering when it was that he ever stopped thinking about them.
The loss he felt so powerfully at the time, that the Banshee egg had dragged out of him, had all but faded in the turns since. Why did he never think of them? They were his parents after all. He had loved them once, he was sure. He remembered missing them when he first got to the hold. He used to secretly observe the day they died, though he'd always been too shy to tell anyone about that, afraid it would make him seem tiresome and ungrateful. Yet at some point, their memory had faded beyond the back of his mind. Unreachable to all except that darkly colored egg.
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Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:02 pm
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Off his game, and indeed deep in thought, Migel didn't notice the person moving towards him until they were relatively close. Closer than he would like, anyway. Yet if he was startled by her approach, it would take a careful eye to spot it. In any case, he relaxed at soon at her realized who it was.
If there was anyone in the Weyr he should be worried about standing close to him, it was Shahera. Still, somehow, it didn't bother him. They'd shared something like a master student relationship at the courtesan hall. Only she had been a journeyman at the time, and he an apprentice assigned to work with her. They both knew things about the other that no one else did. Not even Cesare, with whom he usually shared everything. Yet the rules of their craft were clear. There were some things you simply didn't talk about, for everyone's safety.
He didn't say much (on the best of days he didn't say much) but he leaned into her arm at the nudge to let her know he 'heard' her and that he was fine and was just trying to find the words.. If he'd wanted to be alone, he could have told her that too without ever saying the words. This kind of silent communication was something they'd both mastered.
"Some Touching," he said after a moment. Hesitating, he eventually asked her; "Did... Did you touch the dark blue egg?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 6:01 am
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"I guess you're right." he said. There was no way he would ever get an answer anyway. And even if he did, so what then? If the ghost of his parents came and told him to quit what he was doing, would be just up and leave? Unlikely.
Migel glanced over at the other assassin. Very sneaky, bringing her into it. How could he say no? "I don't mind the company." he said, giving her a lopsided grin. It was true, anyway. But he still wouldn't call it 'good'. He leaned his head back against the wall and smiled. "I don't really mind where I'm standing either." The truth was, he liked the dark and ugly world they lived in. The same world as everyone else, only some chose not to look at it with clear eyes. But he liked the danger and the intrigued and the challenge. At least he had a purpose. Still, he doubted if it was the one they would have wanted for him.
"What about you?" he asked. For a while he had a theory that no one with a normal childhood would go on to become an assassin, but Shahera seemed to buck the trend by being amazingly well adjusted. Probably the most sane assassin he'd ever met. "Did your parents know what you did at the Hall? Did they approve?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 6:23 am
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Shahera returned Migel’s grin. “And you will mind it even less once he arrives.” She knew some of what was going on between Migel and Cesare. Not much, only what she had observed, but enough. “Well, then.” She said, as if that settled matters. “If you like the company and where you stand, what does the rest matter? The whole world will never approve of all that one does. There is too much variety in it.”
Shahera looked back out at the crowd. “They knew some of what I did, the parts I wanted them to. That which I knew they would approve of.” Perhaps it was because of her parents, and their studies in cultures, that she was so adjusted and yet an assassin. She knew the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly of the world, by the time she was ten. They had never kept things from her. If she asked they answered. She had read their papers. She had inquired about it all. For all that she had been a very active child, she had also been a curious one. “Sometimes one must protect the ones you love. Even from oneself.”
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Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 7:17 pm
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Migel turned back to watching the entrance of the cavern, hiding whatever was given away in his expression from view. But he lifted his shoulders a little shyly in response. She wasn't wrong... he thought, trying to suppress a smile. Scarily perceptive that one. In fact, he was sure just the sight of his friend would dispel any lingering doubts he had. Just seeing him was enough to remind him why he was glad to live in this world. Every scheme, every gambit, every ploy they pulled off filled him with the same sense of excitement, wanting to see how much they could push things, how far they could go.
He didn't know what to say in response to Shaehera's conclusion, so he just nodded. He wasn't sure if he believed it or not, but debating philosophy was never his strong suit. He'd have to think on it more before he could figure out his own mind.
"I can't help but feel like a bad son. I guess it doesn't matter though." If it took his parents dying for him to be standing here now, at this Weyr, with these people, if it took them dying for him to stay by his side, then he couldn't wish it back.. no matter how harsh that sounded.
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