[ He hums, because it’s her turn, and he’s considering enforcing his made-up rules instead of answering. But he doesn’t. ]
His name was Vincent Suchet. He was an art dealer. He had a crooked front tooth and he liked raspberries and he was always making plans. Every time you talked to him, a new scheme.
[ She might want to know who Byerly was in love with, too, but that’s Byerly’s and Alexandrie’s story to tell. ]
Did you ever know anyone your own age, before you came here?
[ She's ready to ask him more, to try and ferret out a story about Vincent, but Bastien has a question, too. It's a trip wire, and it's one she doesn't want to answer. Bastien would likely let her say so, but he's said more about himself than she'd expected. She wants to do him the same courtesy.
So, after a breath: ]
Other prostitutes. And I had a friend, in Cumberland.
[ How long has it been since she thought of Kiden? ]
[ Relief, then - she learned the idea of relief fairly early on in Kirkwall, and it's a sensation she's felt over and over since. Bastien doesn't ask about Kiden, or about what she means when she says other prostitutes, or what she thought of Cumberland.
She loves him for it.
And, tentatively, the first thing she can think of that is about nothing they've talked on: ]
I have read every book in the Gallows about the Black Fox. I wish we had more.
[ He’ll remember, if she ever does want to talk about it, or if something ever happens to make it necessary whether she wants to or not, or if she’s ever sent back to Cumberland for Riftwatch, or if he ever hears the name Kiden in a rumor. If the ghosts and spirits that love to bother them all ever bother her about this.
But for now: moving past it, gasping in a hyperbolic but genuine way. ]
You have? Oh, I can get you more. I have some of my own you can borrow—only a few, I only keep the best ones. If you want more after that, we can go shopping.
—you like them? [ Probably more important, but he got excited there for a second. ] The stories?
The first real book I ever read was about the Black Fox. The people who taught me to read, they started with children's primers, then poetry and their friends' pamphlets—but then they finally asked me what I wanted to read, and, [ he does a snap-and-point, invisible but audible, ] Black Fox.
I like the ones about how Black Fox and Karolis became friends.
[ Many versions, but if she's read the books, she knows the gist: a bounty hunter sent after the Black Fox, who nearly killed him on several occasions, until he was instead so impressed by him that he gave up his profession and joined Remi in a joyful life of crime. ]
And I liked the ones where he trained the young Duke Bastien de Ghislain, because we had the same name, you know? So it was like I was in them.
[ It's almost true. ]
Your fairy tale book—was one of them the Bone and Velvet Boy?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
His name was Vincent Suchet. He was an art dealer. He had a crooked front tooth and he liked raspberries and he was always making plans. Every time you talked to him, a new scheme.
[ She might want to know who Byerly was in love with, too, but that’s Byerly’s and Alexandrie’s story to tell. ]
Did you ever know anyone your own age, before you came here?
no subject
So, after a breath: ]
Other prostitutes. And I had a friend, in Cumberland.
[ How long has it been since she thought of Kiden? ]
I do not wish to talk about them.
no subject
[ Unhesitating, unbothered—though of course it always bothers him a little, when there’s a stone he’s told not to turn. He loves turning stones.
But people are allowed to have boundaries.
At least when he likes them and hasn’t been sent on a mission to turn that particular stone. ]
Something else, then. Your choice.
no subject
She loves him for it.
And, tentatively, the first thing she can think of that is about nothing they've talked on: ]
I have read every book in the Gallows about the Black Fox. I wish we had more.
no subject
But for now: moving past it, gasping in a hyperbolic but genuine way. ]
You have? Oh, I can get you more. I have some of my own you can borrow—only a few, I only keep the best ones. If you want more after that, we can go shopping.
—you like them? [ Probably more important, but he got excited there for a second. ] The stories?
no subject
[ Rescuing ordinary people from ignoble fates at the hands of the powerful - it's an appealing throughline for Laura. ]
If I may borrow yours, I will.
no subject
[ He'd be delighted. ]
The first real book I ever read was about the Black Fox. The people who taught me to read, they started with children's primers, then poetry and their friends' pamphlets—but then they finally asked me what I wanted to read, and, [ he does a snap-and-point, invisible but audible, ] Black Fox.
no subject
[ She can understand the instinct, that is to say. ]
Which is your favourite story?
no subject
[ Many versions, but if she's read the books, she knows the gist: a bounty hunter sent after the Black Fox, who nearly killed him on several occasions, until he was instead so impressed by him that he gave up his profession and joined Remi in a joyful life of crime. ]
And I liked the ones where he trained the young Duke Bastien de Ghislain, because we had the same name, you know? So it was like I was in them.
[ It's almost true. ]
Your fairy tale book—was one of them the Bone and Velvet Boy?