Grief:
âFaulty? Aw every time Iâm starinâ death in the face I mentally flip this baby and always come out winninâ. Luckiest coin I ever pulled from anybodyâs ear.â
He flips it once, turns his fingers, and itâs gone. He liked his visits too. Push came to shove though, and there was a line pushed that he couldnât accept being pushed. Victor, in his own balances of inaction and focus, did nothing about it, so⌠he did. One of these days itâs going to come up how Nina died, but for now, he was content to let Khan not dwell on it.Â
âTime ainât just that. Itâs its own body nâ system beyond what people with pencils nâ pens get to wink at. Nah. Ainât gonna be tsunamis and the like just cause your old man tried to peek into possibility. Funny thing about time is itâll sort itself out as another facet of nature. Kind of like openinâ a door to a smoke-filled room. Itâll just disperse.â
He muses on it though. It could be used for any number of those disasters, sure.
âGuess thatâs a faulty picture for a Kain. Really messes with that divine right of theirs, donât it. Good news beinâ that youâre human. Somethinâ the rest of your family ended up not beinâ.â
He knows Victor shut off from the world after Nina died. AndâŚ
âHe ainât paid attention to you when you were there, nâ ainât paid attention unless you were gone. Wasnât like you didnât try. Ainât up to you to carry the emotional baggage of your dad. You already did your part. Old manâs dead now. Fâ you were sixteen Iâd offer a drink and to toast to the good memories, however few.â
He sighs. From him, itâs just a bunch of words. Informed ones, but words.
âBut Andrey would piss on that idea for now. Speakinâ of, what the hell is âa thingâ?â
âWell, when Iâm sixteen, I do have a bottle. Andrey made it, and I ended up with it at the Market, actually.â
Griefâs right. All of his familyâs dead and he shouldnât have had to carry the burden of his fatherâs mourning. Heâs still angry about it. Heâs angry about it, and will be angry about it for a while.
Heâs just not going to dwell.
But then he asks about what âa thingâ meant and Khan shrugs.
âWell... Notkin didnât say a lot, other than that you had a thing with Andrey, but the way he was talking, it sounded like...â
He lowers his voice a little bit out of respect and knowing that people like to listen into things at inconvenient times.
â-well, he made it seem like you both have a relationship. I mean the kind of relationship where you kiss... and things.â
âHe said it was a badly-kept secret too.â
As if that helped.












