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Xuan was incredibly short-sighted. What if he had been caught? She would’ve been left alone, trying to get him out of jail.
“Set the table, please.”
She looked at the dishes in her hands.
“Why is there a candle on the table?”
“It’s a vanilla-scented candle.”
Xuan, as ever, dodged the real question.
“We can’t live like this. You know that, right?”
“Wine?”
Xuan ignored reality. Phuong was their pessimist. He was the idea guy… some ideas were better than others.
She looked at the spread on the dinner table.
“Looks good,” she said, her shoulders slumped. The money was already gone. She couldn’t magically make it reappear.
They sat down at the table, and, though they were paupers, ate like kings.
5
Drink
Gahariet
Gahariet and Olivier were sitting at a bar, but they were having a lot less fun than usual.
“I didn’t bring you here to obsess about what the Yore seer told you. Seriously, just let it go. There are so many angles, and it’s probably not a legitimate prophecy. We’re out to have fun. So drink.”
Gahariet nudged a beer towards Olivier.
“But what if it’s real?”
“We’ve chased this around and around. Some of the Yore like to tug our strings, because they still resent our invasion of their planet. They don’t have much power, so they do what they can to mess with us.”
“Not all of them.”
“True, some of them are real seers. But ever since our mother died, you’ve been too superstitious. Even when the seer actually can see the future, it can be changed with your choices today. Stop worrying and just chill.”
Olivier looked up and met Gahariet’s eyes, one corner of his mouth creasing in a lopsided smile.
“When have I ever steered you wrong?”
Olivier was the more free-spirited, emotional one, while Gahariet was the steadier of the two, the boring one, the responsible one.
“Never,” Olivier admitted.
“You don’t have control over what your future brings, so let’s just hang out. Let’s go downstairs.”
Olivier got to his feet. Gahariet followed him down a short flight of stairs to the secret lounge.
Normal people came to the bar and had a great time. Below the festivities, there was another level for the nobility and royalty.
Down there, the wine was free. It was cheap in comparison to the membership fee to be let into a place that most people didn’t even know existed.
