TBTT 08. Checking the gift horse for fangs

[moonshadows]

Joshua opens the door tentatively. She looks up from whatever invisible matrix she’s poking at, her face breaking into a surprised smile. A brushing motion dismisses the work and she lets him sweep her into a relieved hug.

“What were you poking at when I came in?”

In his private quarters, the disguised warlord stills before the security screen and waits for his Champion to answer. “A kind of puzzle,” she tells her adoptive uncle, and he relaxes a fraction. If she’s keeping secrets, she’s at least keeping them from the man who brought her into his family as well.

“Our master told me to report here for a meeting,” Joshua says, glancing around her quarters. “I had no idea the meeting would be with you.”

“He told me that he’d ordered the Head of Historical Investigation to check on me,” she replies. “I guess that’s you?”

“Mmm-hmm. Created the position specifically for me. When he said I’d be rewarded for my service, I never thought that I’d actually be rewarded.”

“He keeps his word,” she says softly.

“But why would he go through the effort of making everything look like something terrifying, if he’s just going to turn around and do things like this? I’m not blind, I know he did this on purpose. Either he’s arranged it to be nice to you, or to be nice to me, or both of us, but he still did something nice and disguised it as some kind of poisoned apple command.”

The silence stretches. Finally, she quirks one eyebrow and breaks it. “If he came out and said he wanted to do something nice for you, would you believe he was genuinely being nice?”

Joshua runs his hands through his hair and starts pacing. “No. Yes. I don’t know. He’s built a reputation for ruthlessness, but aside from the killings he hasn’t actually done anything particularly horrible. I mean, I thought for sure he’d have you in some kind of prison-“

“No.” The one sharp word stops Joshua dead and he looks at her, curious about the vehemence in her voice. She shakes her head for emphasis. “No. He wouldn’t do that.”

Again, he stills. He told her only the bare bones – has she divined something more from them? Will she share what she knows with Joshua?

“I guess you’re too valuable to-“

“No,” she interrupts again. “He wouldn’t do that. To anyone. I know you investigated him – did you find any record of him imprisoning anyone?”

“No…” Joshua says slowly. “Come to think of it, he doesn’t seem to go for anything exotic in the way of punishment. Either you’re given a second chance, or you die.”

“An imprisoned enemy is only neutralized while he is imprisoned, and if he gets out, he’s a much more dangerous enemy.”

Joshua nods. “You have a point. It does make a kind of ruthless logic. And I guess if word got out that he was doing nice things, people wouldn’t take him so seriously and then he’d have to kill more people, and…Tessa, you do know what he is, right?”

She blinks at the change of subject. “What do you mean?”

Well now, wasn’t this interesting? He leans forward, eager to see what unfolds.

 Joshua makes a frustrated sound and starts pacing again. "I don't-...I can't-...That is, I don't think I should say anything else. He asked me if you knew that I knew."

She shrugs. "I doubt there's anything you could tell me about him that I don't already know." There is a pause as she watches Joshua pace, but her eyes flick to the ceiling. "I know you were testing him," she says in the language he grew up speaking, "and I know you're testing me now. I only hope I'm found worthy."  She smiles briefly, the hero-worship shining out before she smothers it. "How're Grandma and Grandpa?"

He sits up straight in surprise. For an heartbeat, he is impaled with fear that she knows everything, but no - the emphasis she'd used implied that she knew everything Joshua could know, not that she knew absolutely everything. He frowns then; how did she know she was under surveillance? Had he told her that? Yes - the second time he visited her, he had mentioned the guards watching her work an invisible matrix. He'd forgotten all about it, but apparently she had not. She'd sat on the knowledge, unbothered by it. He shifts uncomfortably, remembering unrelenting bars, but he can't afford the vulnerability of trust just yet. Not until he knows if this gift-horse has venomed fangs. Clever of her, to use his native language for her message so that Joshua would not understand her words, and he would be assured of Joshua's ignorance. He knew she could not have known that dialect before their first meeting, or she would have used it then. Her command of his native tongue would bother him if he didn't know half a dozen languages himself thanks to his demonic half. Clever, too, to speak in a tone that sounded like she was talking to herself. Yes...she would make a very valuable weapon...if he could trust her to not turn in his hands. He returns his attention to the screen, although he doubts anything helpful will be revealed now that she knows it is a test.

The conversation turns to domestic matters, the details of Joshua's new position and the move and how his parents are dealing. "Grandma" worries that she's not eating enough, she and Joshua share a chuckle over the fact that she doesn't really need to eat, but "Grandma" doesn't grasp that or care. Joshua makes a few weak attempts to find out what she's been up to, but she deflects them. At the end of the hour, he returns to his new job and she returns to the invisible puzzle she's been playing with.

After a few minutes, he switches the security feed back to the guard's station. It seems that Joshua can be trusted to keep his mouth shut, while Tessa... He rewinds the feed, replays that section. She not only kept his secrets, but she never did answer Joshua's question. Clever, his little tiger-by-the-tail, but he still doesn't know how long her fangs are, how sharp her claws - whether he's caught a kitten or a ferocious beast. He grins, anticipating her reaction when he returns from his trip. Soon, he will have his answers - one way or the other.