"People hate Father, they hate him, for how smart he is, they hate him for his pride…" Aymara's voice trembles, raw and frayed, her fingers digging into the bedsheets until the fabric groans. "I mean I do have to admit, he is irritating in a few areas…" She swallows hard, as if confessing a betrayal, "…but he's an innovator, in a world where knowledge isn't treated with respect—not anymore, not now that it's spilled into every gutter and alley like cheap wine." Her laugh is bitter, sharp enough to cut glass.
Xaltal stands rigid by the door, his silence volcanic. When he finally speaks, his voice is a guttural scrape of steel on stone: "Assassins exist. They lurk and reek of rot. Your father carved miracles from scrap metal and arrogance. Never doubt that." He turns to leave, the click of the door latch echoing like a guillotine's drop.
The cold slams into Aymara the moment he's gone. Her scream dies as a hand clamps over her mouth, leathery and reeking of grave soil.