THOTH & MORVEREN
Thoth’s coffee-brown eyes narrow with instant dislike as soon as the stranger starts to speak, although he’s unsure whether to take more offence to the tone or the words. The dialogue is rude by anyone’s standards, he was sure, but the second question has a particular sting to it. Weren’t you taught to respect your elders, or any manners for that matter? Teaching manners is the job of a young child’s parents, and Thoth has none of those left. It’s only in the past year or so that he’s come to find himself in a permanent home environment – his upbringing has never been stable enough for him to learn the boundaries of discipline. His father had lost interest in him while he was still very young, and he had spent his early years being shunted between his mother and his guardian, Joel, who took him whenever his mother’s job rendered her unable to care for him. Since Joel left he was passed unofficially over to Joel’s long-term partner, Nimueh; and since his mother died only a few years before, his legal guardianship had passed over to the King. The implication that no one had ever bothered to teach him manners has a nastily truthful ring to it, therefore – since, as far as Thoth could see, only a handful of people in his life had actually cared about him at all.
Doesn’t want anything other than to look, yeah right. If he is an Auran spy then maybe he doesn’t want anything other than to look around the security of the castle, to see how easy it would be to bust inside. Thoth is about to reply hotly when the sound of quick footsteps reached his ears, and he half-turned to see a girl rushing over. She’s older and taller than him but not as much as the stranger, very pretty and dressed all in mourning black. Thoth vaguely recognises seeing her around the castle. They’ve never spoken, which in Thoth’s experience is a good sign; most of the other kids in the castle who do speak to him never have anything nice to say. The girl doesn’t seem that bothered about Aurans or security. Probably doesn’t even know, Thoth reflects bitterly.
The stranger is so rude back to the girl, Thoth’s temper frays a little. He bites his tongue and forces himself to keep it in check. Shouting won’t solve anything.
“I’m not letting you in,” he snaps back, folding is arms stubbornly across his chest. He resists the urge to tell the boy that nobody cares how he got hurt, and half-turns towards the girl. “The guards can let him in and escort him to the medical bay. Unless you have healing powers, in which case you can heal him now and send him on his way.”
He presents Alistair with an impressive scowl reminiscent of Joel. After a moment, he grudgingly adds, “I can ice that to numb it if you want.”
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