The figure unraveled itself and spoke, “Captain Bolivar told me to find you. Cherill got the clothes.” Desi pushed a large sack across the floor toward Rio.
“Thank you,” he grinned.
The strange girl stared at me for a moment with her uncomfortably large eyes and then moved into the kitchen. Rio sat at one of the benches, and I hesitantly lowered myself onto the one opposite. The bag of clothes remained on the floor.
“Tell me, m’lady, what is on your mind?” The half-blood smiled.
“That’s a difficult question to answer,” I murmured.
Desi emerged from the kitchen. She dumped a plate of bread and cheese in front of me before striding off. I nibbled the bread cautiously, finding it stale but not entirely unpleasant. My stomach rumbled happily as I began to fill it.
“Then I’ll make it more specific: how long have you known this dragon-kin?”
I paled. “W-what do you mean? I don’t know him any more than-“
“Lying is a very unbecoming habit, Miss Taimi.” His eye narrowed. “Why don’t you just use this chance to tell me what you know?”
Picking at the bread in front of me, I realized I really did not know much. His name was Levent Itzallion, he was collecting some sort of relic for the King of Estelhein, and he had no wings… My stomach sunk. The truth was going to come out sooner or later.
Slowly, I related the events in Readimina that led to my exile and tentative companionship with the kin – taking care to avoid mention of his lack of wings for the sake of the kin’s pride. Rio listened attentively, his face more serious than I was accustomed to.
“…And we said our goodbyes. I headed for the cheapest inn I could find, but then, I guess you know the rest.”
A sheepish smile crossed his face.
“I am sorry about the rough treatment, m’lady, but we had no idea what to expect after our encounter with Mister Itzallion. He had proved himself to be quite a difficult individual to subdue.”
I had not heard the details of the kin’s capture, but this had confirmed my earlier suspicions.
“I imagine,” I said.
“And so you still have not seen what the kin acquired in the cave?”