The Veil - Chapter 14 Part 3

A/N: So, I wrote this part without a real goal in mind, and it just kind of came out this way, not to mention that it was thirty minutes until the deadline, so I'm really worried about the focus in this case, and if all of the actions/thoughts/conclusions are actually logical. It could very well be that they're not.

               Qui felt fire run scald her veins, and she knew her hands would be trembling if they weren’t firmly on the desk.

“Now,” Obi was saying calmly as he picked up a ledger, studying the lines of numbers written. “While I would normally never meddle with a man or woman’s business I was paying them for, I reserve the right to slip Lekan lessons of my own. I’m sure you’re doing just fine in the few days you have, but a double lesson would never hurt.” He reached for spectacles she hadn’t noticed and balanced them on the bridge of his nose, taking up a fountain pen.

Her anger was mute as she stared at him, unable to comprehend that he was dismissing her. No one dismissed her. If anything, she was to storm out of her own accord. Her hand moved before she could comprehend what she had ordered it to do.

Obi’s glasses flew to the floor as his head jerked to the side under the force of her hand. When he slowly faced her again, she could see her hand print against his dark skin.

Silent, Obi stood, unfolding himself until he towered over her.

Somehow, she had forgotten how large he was compared to her. While his bone structure was thin, he was muscled and very tall. Unwilling to back down now, especially when she had asked for it, she glared up at him, her veil ruining the effect in this instance. If he could have been victim to it, he would have been frozen. “I am your employee, not your servant. You will speak to me like you would any equal.” She locked her knees when she felt them tremble at his dark stare. This time, she had made a mistake.

“Miss Taliop,” he hissed, “You now have my full attention. What silly arguments do you have to bother me with?” The cold condescension dripping off of his words in place of the fury lurking in the tightness of his jaw and the stiffness of his arms as he carefully folded them close against his chest.

Her pride kept her from ducking her head, and her stubbornness kept her from backing down. “What if your techniques and mine conflict with each other?” she demanded. “Then Lekan would only be confused.”

A cold half smile lurking on his lips, he drawled, “I’m touched by your concern for my nephew, Miss Taliop.”

The way he refused to call her Qui’in as he had just a few moment ago made her nervous. People didn’t change their behavior unless they had a reason, and she thought Obi might be mocking her, giving her the respect a proper woman deserved through her title.

“I am!” she cried before she could stop herself. “I think Lekan is young and bright and stupid. He’s too stupid to trust because he never uses common sense and is always making stupid mistakes, and he’s too smart to give up on because he’s got the potential to learn from everything he’s done. Someday, he’ll be great. It’s a crime to try to end his life before he gets a chance to live it.”

Blinking, Obi’s face thawed, and he turned away, the green linen clothes he wore for casual encounters rustling as he linked his hands behind his back. Looking out the window, he said, his voice so much softer than the icy words he’d thrown at her, “I was very much like him when I was a boy. Sometimes I wonder how my brother could make someone so different from himself. My brother was shy and quiet. He didn’t have to learn how to keep secrets like I did. He was… is a secret to me. He didn’t do well in crowds, but he was so smart and I loved him as a child. I worshipped him. Even when I discovered that, yes, I fed off of people and impacting them and allowing them to impact me, I sought to be more like him. I just never understood him.

“I think he hated not being able to talk to people, and he saw in Lekan fearlessness.” He laughed. “The boy just needs a good shot of terror, really.” Clearing his throat, he faced her slowly, his eyes far away, and continued. “I think he was afraid to harness Lekan’s courage, and it grew wild. Anything unpruned is useless.” He shook his head slowly as if to clear his head, waving his hand as if dismissing what he had just said, and when his eyes fell on her veil again, they were bright instead of hazy. “What I meant to say through all of that hogwash is that I understand Lekan. I grew up, and I’ll admit, in my old age, I’ve stumbled across a disdain for large groups of people, but I remember how it was. I hired you for help. Surely you understand, to demand that I not try to give what I can to help Lekan survive as well is callous.”

Qui felt his embarrassment through his cool façade. He had just opened himself up and given her a tour of his private thoughts. She was almost embarrassed for him. “If you understand him,” she murmured, tilting her head, “why can’t you teach him?”

Smiling wryly, he picked up a decanter from a cabinet beside the window and poured two glasses of bourbon. “I wouldn’t dare tell Lekan I related with him. Not to mention, the boy is twenty six. When I was twenty six, I was shooting at men and getting shot at. He’s too old to be acting as he does, and we’ve gotten into enough arguments that I know I can’t tell him much without having it rejected.” He slid one glass across the desk and sipped at the other, sitting down again. Leaning back, he seemed strangely at peace. “I can trick him into learning things though, and I’d like to continue doing so.” The tilt of his eyebrows was mocking, but it was a kind mocking instead of the cold words sharpened to wound. “If you don’t mind?”