Page 13 of Speak No Evil

Today I’m extremely grateful for choosing the apse well away from Vrahs and Thorne’s...

Debauchery.

I sink into the soft leather sofa in my sitting room and stare through the rain-blurred window at the soaked front grounds. Grounds that not so long ago, Jade traipsed across to give Vrahs an ultimatum.

Vrahs.

And Thorne.

I can’t keep myself from thinking about them. Of the depraved things they might be—

I surge off the sofa, pacing around it in a wide circle, to rid myself of their ever-long presence in my mind.

In a city built by outcasts for outcasts, nothing hurts more than being excluded. Vrahs and Thorne have always been closer. Always used an easy shorthand I wasn’t privy to.

It’s my own fault.

Centuries ago, when they were fucking regularly, they’d always asked if I wanted to join. I declined every time because I knew they were only asking to be kind. They weretryingto include me.

No one wants their inclusion to be an effort.

I wanted to be included as a default.

The difference is a fine line, but between the two ends lies a cavern.

Every time they asked, I declined until eventually they stopped asking.

Which I then used as evidence they didn’t truly want me there to begin with.

It’s something I’ve only recently discovered about myself. The passing centuries often beg a certain amount of self reflection. And the same pattern was starting anew with Jade.

My initial reaction was to push her away.

Whatever the ill-conceived reason, I caused the rift between Vrahs, Thorne, and me, and despite knowing that, despite possibly not feeling that way any longer, I cannot fathom behaving any other way toward them.

It’s too ingrained in me now.

Jade helps lessen it, but the feeling that I’m a cumbersome tag-along is always just under the surface.

I end the thought with a punch to the back of the sofa, then march to the small kitchen adjacent to my living room.

A cup of tea would set me right.

As I open my specialty tea tin, a loud scream comes from the main kitchen side of the basilica, startling me enough to spill the loose tea from the tin.

I roll my eyes, scooping the fallen leaves into a tea ball. Vrahs’s godforsaken voice carries like the winds.

“Keep it down, miscreants!” I bellow back. They likely can’t hear me, but yelling always feels good.

Another scream, but this time it’s Thorne. “Ryker!”

The hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up at Thorne’s pleading call.

Something is very wrong.

I drop the tea tin to the counter and run out of my apse. Now would be a fantastic time to break Vrahs’s rule and use a portal inside the basilica, but with my magic still needing time to replenish, that simply isn’t an option.

I run through the halls of sameness, and along the way, Jade’s fat orange cat joins me, keeping pace right at my side.

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