Kinnek looked at Vergis over the rim of his coffee cup. “They’ve stung your daddy too, or have you forgotten how you brought him a little bouquet of nettles when you were little, and he took it without so much as flinching?”
Vergis slumped in his chair. “You know that wasn’t intentional.”
Charles, who was sitting next to Vergis, patted him on the back. “I know. You did nothing wrong. You were so cute with your nettle crown.”
I nearly spluttered my own coffee all over the table. “You wore a nettle crown?”
Kinnek hummed. “Good thing there aren’t any pictures, isn’t it, Muffin? Why, if there were pictures, think what could happen.”
Charles bobbed his head. “Yeah. Think about all the things that could happen if you factor in a high-resolution laser color printer that handles wide format like the one I have in the office. You’d never be sure when someone might take a digitized photograph and turn it into a big poster, frame it, and hang it on the living room wall.”
I did not envy Vergis, who was now glaring at both his parents, to no visible effect. I picked an apple from the basket and handed it to him.
“Do you want to try? It doesn’t matter if you believe in the superstition, but the peeling can be a contest, right?” I shrugged. “I’d participate, but?—”
Inkiri clicked. “No, Sadir, please. Let me peel the apple. Charles likes his knives sharp.”
Charles didn’t even look up from buttering his slice of homemade sourdough. “Makes no sense to have a dull knife.”
“Then why did you teach me how to stab a person with a butter knife?” Vergis took the apple I’d offered him and bit into it.
Charles shrugged and held up the utensil in question. “Case of emergency kind of thing. If all you have’s a butter knife, you’d best know how to use it for the stabbing.”
Which, apparently, was a thing some people taught their children out here in the wilderness. I didn’t have time to follow up on that though, and it was probably better if I didn’t. Fellisse started asking anatomical questions about butter knives and stabbing at that end of the table.
Inkiri had angled his apple so I had to look, and when I did, he started peeling it. Round and round, the peel came off in a perfect ribbon. He made it look easy. When the whole thing was one big, long apple spaghetti on his plate, he looked at me proudly.
“Like this?”
I leaned closer to examine the thin peel while Inkiri moved on to slice the apple just as neatly and deftly as he’d peeled it. “Yeah. Are you going to toss it now?”
Inkiri narrowed his eyes. “Maybe not. I already know your initial. I don’t need it.”
I smiled, my cheeks turning the warm shade of billet beans. “Well, you really know how to handle a knife, that’s for sure.”
“That’s a pretty basic skill, no?” Lissir had exchanged his tea for coffee.
“Uh, well, I’m not good with knives.” I glanced around the table, hoping someone else would say they weren’t either, but that was wishful thinking among these bagua. And Charlie knew where to put a butter knife and make a corpse, so there was that.
Lissir clicked. “You are lucky. Inkiri is very skilled with knives and swords, and you can be very skilled with magic.” His eyes widened. “Vergis, isn’t there a word? When a senfesmen has very skillful people in it?”
Vergis had been mostly listening to the anatomy discussion, but he looked up. “You mean a power couple?”
Lissir nodded. “Yes.” He fixed me in his fiery gaze. “You and Inkiri are a focus of power.”
Fellisse chuckled. “Just the two of them? Come now. All of us are skilled, and we have two koa. We are a power sentenmen.”
“Please don’t include me in your machinations,” Vergis said, which led to Charles putting an arm around his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Vergis. Me and your dad are okay with you growing up and finding a sentenmen.”
Kinnek clicked in the bagu way. “We are. Especially since you decided to do the right thing and bring them here.”
Vergis sighed. “I need more coffee.”
Which made Nokim shoot to his feet. “I’ll make you a latte with fresh almond milk!”
While he did that, Inkiri leaned closer to me. “Sadir, do you want to toss the peel?”
