Shady

"Yeah." She nodded. "He's even more scared of nobles than I was... he even tries to be scared of me but I won't let him. It... that doesn't make sense." ...

"Right," she agreed. "...but we were cold and confused, and Ms. Miller started snipping off toes and we..."

Ky shuddered, thinking about that. She remembered that . "...we were scared we were next."

"Oh, yeah! There's Rickard -- he's wonderful. So smart and kind and... and... just wonderful. And super humble. I don't know how you can hate yourself as much as he ...

"...I don't remember much about that night," she admitted. "But I do remember someone being patient with me. I'm told I was acting a fool."

Ky nodded. "...that's good to hear."

Ky thought for a moment. She still didn't know. "Tasia is eager to learn how to read. I'm not sure who's helping her out with it but it seems she's ...

Ky smiled at that. “You’ll love him a lot.”

Ky looked at him skeptically. ‘Big old sweeties’ didn’t become highly ranked military officials. He was probably the torturer of the Keep. Maybe not on his own. But if Ash ...

“He really, really is,” Ky agreed with a nod. “I care for him a lot.”

“I don’t know,” Ky said tersely, annoyed, but not at Tomhas. “If you’re willing to curse a good man to be a goat for six hundred years in a temper ...

“Yeahhh.” Ky cringed. “…Apparently he lied and convinced Tadaaki that Aleth and I had changed the cover story on him and didn’t tell him. That’s all Lord Ash told me ...

“Apparently,” Ky said. “Like I said, I had no idea it was happening. Or really what was said. He claims he never intended to hurt either of us, but whatever ...

“He, strangely, was being really encouraging to me since he saw I could use it. And talked about how he didn’t have any friends. And how he’s actually a lot ...

“Or something,” she agreed when a nod, still blushing and glancing away from him. “… very luckily he was very recently well-fed. So… it allowed for talking rather than mauling. ...