"What else do people . . . say about you?"

"Last question before she starts explaining."

She inclines her eyebrows in a way that will strongly hint to Teg that she's supposed to agree.

Her posture makes no objections!

"Like, that I'm a freak? Retarded? Unladylike? My parents did have me tested as a child to make sure there wasn't anything magical going on with me and it came back negative. This is bringing back some painful memories. It would be very Iomedaean of you to hold me in your big strong arms and gently stroke my hair right now."

"I am not into eating strange and wonderful princesses I just met and earning the ill esteem of my cult for years to come."

Tazich? You can hold her in your bosom, right?

The offer is clear.

Gods, she had no idea anything could fuck Katie up that much. Nothing could fuck her up that much.

She would be thinking about it more, but she's too busy being psychically crushed under mental hill-sized onyx stalactites and pulled apart by mental steel spiderwebs laden with nails.

Ugh. Fine. She'll get to Teg later. Shouldn't distract her from the explanation right now, anyway. She sidles up to Tazich, nonetheless not one to reject fat girl cuddles when offered. "Explain away."

[ She rewards Katie's petulance with steady snuggling, because she is irresistible. ]

It takes three seconds to clear her mind of . . . that.

And what a wonderful situation the fiendish runaway has put her in.

"Your mind," she starts talking before she's even started to conceive of a sentence, "is . . . articulated in, seemingly, slightly different places from a normal person's." She cringes and hopes Katie will register it as a prognosis rather than a falter. "Normal people have attachments. You know? Wouldn't do so well with being transplanted." Gods, "I'm not Chelish. But they do teach us anything up there about minds. Normally it wouldn't take any kind of special indoctrination for you to feel some kind of commitment to the place, way of life, people you come from, or for you to expect the same of me."

She realizes how much this all sounds like she's laying out a perfect case for Katie-as-spy and for multiple reasons wishes she could die.

"And, yes, normally you would have more of a sense of bodily self-preservation. And not be slinging so many adjectives at people who literally just princessnapped you last night."

There's something else she can't quite place, and now she looks like she's really deep in thought, because she is.

Katie rests cozily upon Tazich's fleshy bulk and nuzzles her absentmindedly as she listens. "I mean, I do miss the River Kingdoms, in terms of the physical environment at least. But being around like-minded women more than offsets it, if I continue to have access to Endure Elements, at least. I can survive practically anywhere as long as it's not too hot and there's a well-stocked library nearby. But hey, maybe we could move there. You guys don't seem to like Osirion very much, but you'd fit right in up there!"

"Leave the fact that we have actual", she rolls her hand in little wagon wheels and bares her teeth with the air of reifying the obvious, "stuff to do, aside. I'm not convinced there's really anything going on in the River Kingdoms. You haven't even seen what it's like for there to be stuff going on.

Are you like, comfortable talking about yourself more, or should we wrap up here?"

She's curious, but her mind is working slowly and she's not gonna embroil herself any further in this unforced. She stays quiet.

"Depends what you want to know. And what you're willing to provide in return."

"—okay forgive me if this is presumptuous but if you're asking what I think you're asking, I wouldn't be able to just trade that for clues to your spiritual correction even if I were returned to mortal life."

"I'm too cheap for you to own me", she purrs.

"Wouldn't be able to? Do you have, like, something else going on besides being paranoid about your vampire instincts? Fuck, have I been reading you wrong, I just meant to tempt you with something you genuinely wanted, not like, force myself on you when you actually don't."

Without really thinking about it, she starts tossing her sword in a wheel above her head and catching it by the hilt.

"That's part of what you seem to be missing. I don't even know you. You don't seem to think there should be a difference between people you know and don't know, and for most people, there is."

"Oh, yeah, that. Sorry, Tazich set unrealistic standards I guess." She surreptitiously squeezes her love handle to indicate gratitude. "Maybe I'm good at reading people. Maybe I'm just shallow. Maybe it's a little of both. But either way, I'm sorry for failing to consider that not everyone's like me." A minor setback. She'll have her eventually. Patience, Katie. Patience.

She enjoys the love handle squeeze and also it reminds her to surreptitiously extend her sword-tossing arm further away from the very delicate princess.

She isn't stupid. She doesn't miss the implication that of course Katie can't have gotten away with being like this with everyone, and of course it's not something about Katie at all, it's something about Teg. As usual.

But she can't sound that petulant, so she just says, "Sorry" with as much sympathy as she can muster.

She had just quietly paused the death fidget, and now she has to fight the urge to start it again.

It's exploitative of Teg to command more of Katie's time and attention by having more normal people problems that normal mortals who are not Tazich choose to have, like not being okay with fucking someone you just met for money.

"No, no, you're fine, I'm the one who should be apologizing. Anyways, seriously, what do you want to know?" Katie is maximally prepared to answer difficult questions right now on account of how soft and warm and snuggly Tazich is.