"We're not going to tell her what happened are we?"

"Sorry, but we certainly will. Don't worry. Mom is going to be too busy screaming at Niya to remember forbidding you to come here again."

"Way to throw me under the bus, brother."

"So I won't get into trouble?"

Guli ignores Niya. "You should have seen the things she painted on the wall outside the tearoom. I'm not sure mom will be able to register our existence for the next day or two."

He makes a confused face. "Why'd you do that, Niya?"

She Does Not Want to get into the explanation with her baby brother. So she lies. "I had a vision."

"Did you really?"

"Dal-Lila appeared to me and gave me my life's mission: painting a giant mural of Dracula on the side of the tearoom. Who am I to refuse such a request?"

"...you're lying. Right?"

"Don't be blasphemous, Niya."

"You don't know! Just because I'm no Dal-In-Training that doesn't mean I can't have a Dal given higher purpose. You're just jealous."

"Please don't tell mom that. She'll get even madder."

"I'm worried that the next time you pull something like this Tiuten is going to get hurt."

"He was supposed to stick to the main stretch! He's twelve years old, not five. We shouldn't coddle him."

"It's our job to protect him!"

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that after you leave?!"

"I don't know, but I bet I still going to do a much better than you while you are around!"

Some people are noticing this discussion.

Tiuten shrinks in on himself.

"This was one time. And also not my fault. How was I supposed to know he'd go wandering off?! We went to the market by ourselves all the fucking time when we were his age, younger even!"

"Yes, because someone kept escaping and going to the market anyway. And someone also had a sibling to keep track of them instead of going completely alone!"

"Like you weren't complicit. You only ever got upset when we got caught!"

"Well, most people mature after their age hits double digits!"

"Well excuse me for being upset about having a crazy overbearing mother! Maybe I would act more mature if she actually let me make my own decisions! I am not a pawn to be bought or sold to further her ambitions!"

"Excuse me when I think that is no reason to cause our baby brother to come to potential harm!"