[ Alina doesn't feel bad mocking that particular convention of the Little Palace. The peasant fare was supposed to keep them humble, but it got muddied in all the luxury of everything else. Things might have been easier if people said what they meant and wore their intentions plainly rather than the scheming and lying to her, but she supposed it's infinitely harder to enslave young women to do your bidding with that strategy.
She is thankful for the light conversation, even if his thumb can't stop finding the line of her scar. She can't ask him to stop, that would be too suspicious. She's not sure she wants him to stop either. Each pass is a reminder of his presence, of how they find each other again and again. She looks down at their hands, half expecting him to be able to reveal her scar again. ]
Well it's a good thing I'm locked up down here or else I'd be able to set them right with a couple of stories of you back at Keramzin. [ Ribbing him is a wonderful distraction from their current situation. She just wishes she had a happier sign to share with him. ] Mine's, uh... a noose. The Hanged Man. [ Delivered flatly. Matter of fact. Like it's nothing to be worried about or read too much into. Then, hurried as if to assure them both: ] It's just supposed to mean outsiders according to the guard. [ Although he was far less polite about it. ]
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[ Alina doesn't feel bad mocking that particular convention of the Little Palace. The peasant fare was supposed to keep them humble, but it got muddied in all the luxury of everything else. Things might have been easier if people said what they meant and wore their intentions plainly rather than the scheming and lying to her, but she supposed it's infinitely harder to enslave young women to do your bidding with that strategy.
She is thankful for the light conversation, even if his thumb can't stop finding the line of her scar. She can't ask him to stop, that would be too suspicious. She's not sure she wants him to stop either. Each pass is a reminder of his presence, of how they find each other again and again. She looks down at their hands, half expecting him to be able to reveal her scar again. ]
Well it's a good thing I'm locked up down here or else I'd be able to set them right with a couple of stories of you back at Keramzin. [ Ribbing him is a wonderful distraction from their current situation. She just wishes she had a happier sign to share with him. ] Mine's, uh... a noose. The Hanged Man. [ Delivered flatly. Matter of fact. Like it's nothing to be worried about or read too much into. Then, hurried as if to assure them both: ] It's just supposed to mean outsiders according to the guard. [ Although he was far less polite about it. ]