Choose Omnibus (Choose: An Interactive Steampunk Webserial Book 3) by Moore Taven

Author:Moore, Taven [Moore, Taven]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2013-04-22T04:00:00+00:00

2. Hunger

F

or a long moment, Jinn said nothing. Remora bit her lip and backed away. As his employer, she was within her rights to order him to speak, but the temptation to do so was hollow at best.

As heiress to the Price fortune, she’d had many bodyguards. Jinn was hardly the first. He was, however, the first that she had chosen herself. Despite his carefully professional exterior, she felt closer to him than she had any of the many quiet, alchemist-gun-toting suits that had stood at her shoulder since she was old enough to get into trouble.

Perhaps, though, Jinn did not feel the same. A lump rose in her throat and Remora bowed her head. She would not pressure him further for a confession he clearly did not wish to give.

Her heart leapt at the sound of his voice, amplified by the narrow air vent. “All people are eaters of life. It does not matter if they be human, dresl, Shinra, or lowly cur in the gutter. We all consume others. The Shinra’ere do not . . . we do not . . .”

He exhaled in a frustrated rush. “My brother received the gift of wordplay, not I,” he growled, then tried again.

“When I was a boy, my brother and I were twins, as like as two sides of a sword. Our beds were patches of grass, as soft as downy feathers. One morning, I woke to find the grass under my body had withered and died during the night, while the grass of my brother’s bed remained vibrant. That was when my parents knew that I was to be Shinra’ere instead of Shinra’dor. I was sent to the agoge that very day, before the sun reached its full height.”

Remora gasped. “Sent away? What parents would do such a thing to their child?”

Jinn spoke quickly. “They did the right thing. Without gaining control of my hunger, I would kill everything I touched. Ten years within the agoge, Remora. Ten years before I was allowed near any living creature that was not another Shinra’ere or a dresl warrior. I learned discipline. Restraint. Martial skills.” His voice softened. “Not all of my agoge-mates were able to master themselves. The weak were culled to keep them from harming others.”

Remora swallowed the unpleasant word. “Cull . . . you mean they were killed? You were but children! Is that not excessive?”

“One of them devoured the lifespark of his best friend during an embrace,” said Jinn, his voice flat. “This is not the sort of thing which invites leniency, Remora. I tell you this so that you will understand how dire our situation is, so that you will leave me in peace.”

How terrible, to kill one’s own best friend. How horrifying, as a child, to watch not one but two friends die for that mistake.

Forcefully, Remora thrust the thought aside. Right now, she needed to focus on Jinn. “You have gained control, though. You are a Shinra’ere warrior, so that you are no longer a danger, is that not so?”

Jinn scoffed.

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