[ 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?
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?