12-12-2024, 07:49 PM
Nhysa listened to the explanation whispered into her ear with interest. He would not see the way her lips tipped up at the edges.
The Custody had placed her on sabbatical since her injury, offering only simple jobs and the most permanent identity she had had in a long while, while Li had not accepted any roles that would take him away from Moscow and his dojo. There was an unspoken desire between them to remain in the other’s orbit, one Nhysa had never properly considered. She was the sort of woman who took what she wanted for as long as she wanted it, and did not consider the future, only the needs of the present. As such the ways in which they had grown to accommodate each other’s lives had happened entirely organically.
Yet her lifestyle did not encourage or support emotional entanglements. It did not promote a future, not of any kind. In the past, she had even taken marks as lovers as a means to get close to them. Their deaths at her own hand never affected her, even when she had enjoyed their time together – for she often enjoyed the intimacy of their ends as much as the intimacy of their lives. That night at the Almaz, when Nhysa had chosen to take Tan Li as a lover, she’d known that should the Custody ever instruct for him to die she would do it without question or regret. Only now, as he murmured those words into her ear and she felt her own reaction, she realised that this had somehow changed.
To the question she shook her head. “See how he is standing? He is keeping us in sight, dear one. He is already suspicious, and I would not put you in danger, lest he think you a threat because he sees we are together.” Not that Li could not take care of himself, but he was certainly the softer of the two of them, and Edwin Dean was not the literal sort of monster Li would have no conscience defending himself against. For now their mark did not know he was being tested, which meant it was all very real for him. Nhysa had seen the details of his military background. “We’ll bide a while. See what he does.”
For now she was content to watch. The woman's body language suggested he may have shared the near miss with her when he removed the drink. They began to move again, the woman in red once again taking the lead.
“Have you thought on what you will ask from me?” she said to Li, referencing their game, and the boon he had won for himself by figuring out her mark was Edwin.
The Custody had placed her on sabbatical since her injury, offering only simple jobs and the most permanent identity she had had in a long while, while Li had not accepted any roles that would take him away from Moscow and his dojo. There was an unspoken desire between them to remain in the other’s orbit, one Nhysa had never properly considered. She was the sort of woman who took what she wanted for as long as she wanted it, and did not consider the future, only the needs of the present. As such the ways in which they had grown to accommodate each other’s lives had happened entirely organically.
Yet her lifestyle did not encourage or support emotional entanglements. It did not promote a future, not of any kind. In the past, she had even taken marks as lovers as a means to get close to them. Their deaths at her own hand never affected her, even when she had enjoyed their time together – for she often enjoyed the intimacy of their ends as much as the intimacy of their lives. That night at the Almaz, when Nhysa had chosen to take Tan Li as a lover, she’d known that should the Custody ever instruct for him to die she would do it without question or regret. Only now, as he murmured those words into her ear and she felt her own reaction, she realised that this had somehow changed.
To the question she shook her head. “See how he is standing? He is keeping us in sight, dear one. He is already suspicious, and I would not put you in danger, lest he think you a threat because he sees we are together.” Not that Li could not take care of himself, but he was certainly the softer of the two of them, and Edwin Dean was not the literal sort of monster Li would have no conscience defending himself against. For now their mark did not know he was being tested, which meant it was all very real for him. Nhysa had seen the details of his military background. “We’ll bide a while. See what he does.”
For now she was content to watch. The woman's body language suggested he may have shared the near miss with her when he removed the drink. They began to move again, the woman in red once again taking the lead.
“Have you thought on what you will ask from me?” she said to Li, referencing their game, and the boon he had won for himself by figuring out her mark was Edwin.
![[Image: nhysabanner1.jpg]](http://thefirstage.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/nhysabanner1.jpg)