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Finnah's just arrived at work to open the store for the morning shift; she has her apron on but hasn't put her hair up yet. She lets in the customer who always takes half an angle to determine that he wants four buttercreams, again, and then nips into the back to tend to her hair and check the overnight progress of the rock candy.
This isn't the back.
But that -
No, he's too tall to be Mial, if this is a Mial prank it's a stupidly elaborate one.
"Okay, I give up," she says, "what the hell?"
isthisart
Linya hands her the pen catalog that Mial abandoned when he started playing the pens game. "Pick your color."
unmarred
Mark sighs.
"Bella, is it? Do you know the nature of the horrible disaster shadowing Solvei's life? I don't ask that you tell me, but do you know?"
"Bella, is it? Do you know the nature of the horrible disaster shadowing Solvei's life? I don't ask that you tell me, but do you know?"
onceandforall
"Hey, Solvei, do I know the horrible disaster shadowing your life or is he trying to get unauthorized information?"
gloriousdawn
"Ugh," sighs Solvei. "Okay, Mark, if you insist on being this way, you can talk to Sis."
unmarred
"You don't trust us. And yet, there is some sort of horrible disaster shadowing your life, and I want to help. And the reason you don't trust us is because of the horrible disaster, which I respect on an emotional level but think is tremendously counterproductive on a practical one. So I want you to tell us what your horrible disaster is so that we can get started on solving it for you. As I'm sure you know, instances of Miles are pretty good at solving things."
unmarred
Mark hisses softly under his breath. "I don't know that we have one, but I can extrapolate. Perhaps it would be relevant for me to mention at this juncture that I am a trained assassin."
isthisart
Linya glances at Bella. "Is Bella allowed to help explain or do you still require her silence?"
onceandforall
"Ghyslaine has magic powers, which we have somewhat incomplete information about but which might thwart an assassin, especially since assassinating her organic body will only inconvenience her."
thisvorlunatic
"...I'm still a little unclear on the exact nature of this horrible disaster," says Miles. "But, um, I don't want to pry if that would be intrusively personal."
onceandforall
"Ghys is Solvei's legal guardian and I doubt that you need all that many details on the ways this is unpleasant."
thisbrokenworld
"Mark has apparently already figured out that there's torture involved," says not-Solvei.
unmarred
"My creator had a somewhat differently-targeted obsession with Aral Vorkosigan, Miles's father," says Mark. "Hence the fact that I am a trained assassin."