Shady

"Au contraire," Pratik countered with a playful smirk. "I have in fact bathed my knees in the fountain of youth quite recently."

"Oh, uh, right. Sir. Sorry. Sir." Tadaaki cleared his throat. He needed to stop clamming up this hard. If he couldn't even talk to this man, what was he going ...

"Eh, there's plenty of time for that later." Pratik shrugged, looking back at the shelves on their current level. "Shall we keep wandering, or would you like to go have ...

"Me?" Tadaaki stared at him with wide eyes.

"Truly." Pratik looked up. "Wanna go to the third story?"

"No sir." She shook her head. "It was just us. mother died giving birth to me and she and my father were only children themselves."

Pratik offered a wry grin, then kept walking. "Man. This place just keeps going and going."

(Ah, sorry, no that was vague, she still has no idea... I may have skirted that line a bit too close my bad lol more just a 'I can't go ...

"What are you talking about?" Pratik asked, looking at him with faux-innocence. "We were just talking about whether the prophecies are reliable or not -- and you said they were. ...

"No, sir." Ky shook her head. She'd practiced that lie many times in preparation for coming here, since she'd been expecting it -- though it was one of the hardest ...

Pratik nodded, actually fairly pleased that Rickard had let himself have an opinion, however brief. "You're not wrong... but it also is not my place to criticize him... though I ...

"My father and I lived alone, maybe a day and a half ride from Lytias," she said. That was a big enough village that she thought it'd be plausible for ...

"Agreed," Pratik decided to risk. It's not like Rickard would have the courage to go tattling to Gaius. "I think... he's viewing it more as an academic pursuit, than a ...

"Near the coast," she said. Gods. This was turning into an interrogation. Which. She'd been expecting. And yet. Well. Somehow she wasn't expecting this . It was exhausting. And frightening. ...

"Austraka, sir."