Shady

Rana nodded, glancing down at the book. "Well, thank you very much for letting me borrow this for a little while. I look forward to reading it."

(Ohoho) “That’s… fair,” Rana acknowledged, dipping her head. “I was quite fortunate in that regard for it to be my native tongue.” (Can’t remember if I told you but that’s ...

Rana smiled, and it was genuine. “I can’t imagine trying to get a whole education in a second language. That must have been so difficult.”

“Fascinating,” she said, committing it to memory. “It’s an interesting language for sure.”

“Makes me feel better for not knowing the word, then, if it doesn’t exist.” She smiled playfully.

“No doubt.” Rana leafed through it. “Would it be alright if I took this back to my room to skim after the tour? It’s alright if not! My interest is ...

“That’s what counts.” Rana nodded. “We can’t control what our ancestors did; just how we choose to move forward.”

“Well, that’s good anyhow. No hard feelings then?”

“Oof.” She winced. “Bold move. Especially if she was in his territory.”

(What was the offense? Poorly worded question my bad. What did she write about that offended his ancestor enough for a murder?”

“Fair point. What finally did her in?”

"Sounds like a risky choice," Rana said with a nod.

Rana very gently cracked the volume open. "What was... were... their... topic?"

Rana subconsciously brushed her fingers along the spines of the books, then pulled out a large leather-bound anthology of poetry and looked down at it, admiring the ornate cover. (I ...

"Ooh, nice." Rana didn't even realize that her legs started carrying her straight towards the poetry almost immediately.