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“I eliminated them,” Rogue replied to my thought.
“You did? When?”
“Early on, when I began preparations for you to return with me. I knew you didn’t like them.”
I hadn’t—and it touched me that he’d been so considerate, yet again—but I also worried what “eliminated” meant. “So, you…sent them away?”
He slid a look at me from the corner of his eye. “I converted them into more of the Black Guard, which you also don’t like, but you at least have no need to interact with.”
“It’s not that I don’t like them—I worry about intelligent beings having no agency of their own. Even if they are Cylons. Besides, you shouldn’t fuck with technology. That shit never turns out the way you expect it to.”
He clearly didn’t think I was funny, but at least he seemed less pissed. “If you’d like to speak to one, I believe I can demonstrate that they are neither intelligent nor beings. At least,” he amended, “not in the way you think of that idea.”
Hmm.
“I appreciate it,” I said, “if I haven’t told you already or enough. All the work you’ve done to see me happy here. All the things you’re still doing.” With my thumbnail, I rubbed the band of the diamond ring, so the gem moved in glittering glory. None of Rogue’s magic clung to it. But something else did. Another flavor of magic I didn’t recognize.
“There is very little I wouldn’t do to please you, my suspicious Gwynn. Please try to remember that the next time you fret over my motivations.”
I decided not to ponder the vast gasp between “very little” and “nothing.” I knew full well he chose his words as carefully as always, leaving room for the ever-present option that he might not have any choice in acting against my happiness.
“Where did the diamond come from?”
The falter in his demeanor would not have been visible to the casual observer, but I sensed it in the tremor of his muscles, the bare hitch before he replied.
“I didn’t magic it up, as you put it.”
“So you told me.”
He glared at me, full of offended pride. “I swear to it. You laid the parameters for the quest and I—”
“Just slow down and back up there, Prince Charming. I did not lay out a quest—certainly not intentionally—so relax. I can recognize your work as easily as you identify mine, so I know you didn’t make it. Also I believe you went to some kind of extraordinary lengths to get it, even though I can’t imagine where you found the time.”
“So why are you asking?”
“Because of the way people look at it.”And because I told you it should be a sacrifice to obtain and I’m worrying what it was.
His thoughts had gone as quiet as mine and I ate, anticipating that he’d either refuse to answer or would duck the specifics in some way.
“From the dwarves,” he said finally and very quietly, like an admission of guilt.
I tipped my head and studied him, looking for clues. “I guess I don’t know the import of that. What did you exchange?”
“That much I cannot say.”
Had sworn not to then. Not that I could have pressed. Already my long-passed Grandmother had started up a lecture in my mind about how tacky it was to try to find out the value of a gift.
“You went while I was with Starling?”
He flicked a glance at me. “You think I would have left you alone in the practice arena?”
No, I hadn’t thought so. Still, I liked knowing for sure. “Just seemed like not much time.”
“It didn’t take long.” He sounded amused and I wondered why. “And, as I told you before, I wanted you to have it before this event.”
“Why did the welcome feast have to be tonight?” I asked, dipping a slice of sweet bread into bowls of butter and honey. It tasted like wildflowers made liquid. Heaven. But nutritious? Hmm.
“It didn’t.”
