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I sneer at him.
“You know, it’s funny you mention that,” I reply. “Seems a friend of mine’s gotten a lot of orders for Lowtown. One of them, what was it?”
I pause to recall, mostly for dramatic effect.
“Old, grizzled fellow? Walked with a cane. Seems he’d gotten a bit too loud about his dissent toward our kind.”
Kaisax’s skin has gone paler than usual, and he seems to be unable to come up with a retort.
“I heard he begged for his life, actually. Most of them do. Barely put up any fight at all.”
Kaisax utters one word in response.
“Ah.”
“Are you a coward, brother? Because it seems like you’d have no trouble taking care of a taura, but you still brought in hired help to deal with thesecattle.”
“The humans aremine.” He growls, his upper lip curling to expose his teeth to me.
“Pardon?”
“I said that the humans in Lowtown aremine,” he yells, not concerned about all the humans from Lowtown watching him. “Stay away from them!”
I smile, maintaining my composure but folding my arms in response.
“That’s a fascinating take,” I say, pretending to be unaffected by his tantrum. “Is there anything else you’d like to say?”
“You’re a smug one, little brother,” Kaisax replies, still in an ill temper. “Watch that that doesn’t get you killed.”
“And what doesthatmean?” I ask.
“You’re in a dangerous line of work,” he says dismissively. “You’ve gone through a lot to get where you are. Mother and Father aresoproud of you.”
He chuckles.
“We all want you to stay safe,” he adds. “But if you keep getting close to Lowtown, you might just cause a revolt. And those can beverydangerous. A lot can happen in that confusion.”
I nod, smiling. I can’t be too certain, but I think my brother just conspired to kill me for almost no reason… not that this is a new development.
“I’m very sorry, brother,” I say. He seems surprised, almost unnerved, by the pleasant tone. “This conversation has been wonderful, but I do have other business to attend to.”
I extend my hand as a gesture. He takes it in his and tries to crush it.
“Stay safe, Thali,” he says.
At this point, the crowd has already moved on. It was a bold move, stopping the flow of traffic to watch my brother like that. He once had a human executed for looking at him the wrong way.
It seems he takes his job of maintaining peace and order extremely seriously.
I watch him walk away from me, and I spit on the ground where he stood.
There was a time before his injury when we actually got along. Sometimes, that feels like eons ago.
I laugh before remembering why I was actually here. I make sure that I’m not being watched before moving swiftly through the crowds, weaving in and around them to try to find Brielle’s familiar locks and garb.
I’ve often thought about the ways in which I wish to defile her – how much I want her to beg for me. Part of me resents her for it.
I bump into an elderly woman on the way forward, and she gives me a questioning, almost hateful, glance. I say nothing and continue walking.
