"Is that what we're calling ten years of your life? A building?"
My pestle catches the crack in the mortar and skips. Iscoop the petals back. "It was wood and stone. Wood burns. Stone doesn't. I kept the stones."
"You kept a broken bowl."
"The bowl survived. Iron and stone and stubbornness. That's what—"
"What's this?"
I look up.
She's at the corner of the worktable. Reaching for the leather wrap.
"Kestria—"
"What's—"
She picks it up.
"—don't—"
The leather falls open in her palm. The tooth rolls into view. White. Sharp. Dark red at the root.
She lifts it to her nose. The casual sniff of someone double-checking a cured hide.
Her face changes.
"...why the fuck is Keer's tooth on your table."
"Kestria."
"This is Keer's tooth, Mel."
"I know whose tooth it is."
"This is a wolf tooth. From his mouth. Why is it here."
"He was here last night."
"...okay?" She turns the tooth in her fingers. Squints at me. "Did you punch him? Like, really hard? Because I smell him everywhere, Mel, his scent is all over this dwelling, very pungent—" she sniffs again, closer to the tooth, "—wait. Too pungent. That's not just—Mel. Mel, what did you guys—"
"WE HAD SEX."
She freezes.
"HE GAVE ME A SEX TOOTH."
The tooth hits the table.
She's already three steps back, hand wiped down the front of her tunic like she can scrub it off. "OH—oh, oh no, oh no no no, Mel—"
"Kestria—"
"That is my brother's—"
"I KNOW—"
"You handed me my brother's sex tooth—"
