Roofrats 6

"Only if it's religiously permissible. We don't go round killing just anyone," he said, widening his eyes briefly.

"What is religiously permissible?"

"It's sort of complicated. Some things would go against the divine plan, or against the order's interests or the interest of the city, so we wouldn't do them. Luckily I don't have to worry about any of that. I'm only a low-grade assassin. My elder brothers do the thinking." He smiled. Yes, imagine if I was in charge. Disaster!

"You don't ask for reasons," Nico remembered.

Weft's smile broadened. "Yes, that's right. I'm lucky."

Nico sighed softly. "You trust your elders a lot. Can you tell me something about them?"

"Yes." Weft paused, then realised that had been a general request for information. "Oh, right. Well, I was raised in the order, and so were all the members. Most of them aren't like me. They do peaceful work: diplomacy, filing, paperwork and all sorts. They're good people, I truly believe that, and they know what they're doing."

Nico smiled wistfully. Theoretically a construct like that might even work, but she did not believe it was quite as perfect as Weft seemed to think. Well... "When or how did you decide this would be the right role for you?"

"When I was through adolescence, I had the choice to leave. Everyone gets that. I didn't, obviously. I knew it was the best chance I had to do some good with my life. And I think I really have." He looked happy, completely unaware of Nico's train of thought.

"How many do leave, about?"

"None while I've been here."

She would have been surprised - pleasantly, at that - if leaving had been normal. It was a bit of a dilemma. Weft had seemed likable right from the start, and so far nothing that would change that complete had come up.

So, was there a way to not say right away that she thought his order's methods disgusted her? As far as she could tell, he had been very honest, so she really did not want to lie directly, but that was rather harsh. After a little consideration, she settled for a shrug and, "I have trouble trusting organisations."

Weft smiled ruefully. "It's fine. I'm used to us being misunderstood. A lot of people don't want to come near me, never mind have a conversation. You don't seem afraid or judgmental, and that on its own puts you above most I've ever met socially."

Nico smiled, her eyes nearly closed. "First impressions are important. and you left a good one."

He blushed. "I was just fooling around."

"Exactly."

"I still like that fisher bird costume you wore on that occasion," Weft ventured.

"The mask was... Well, I liked it a lot. I gave the mask to someone for safekeeping, and hope to pick it up again, rather than reselling it."

"Do you travel much?" Weft asked, jumping topics capriciously.

"Quite a bit, yes."

"You must like it, then."

"It keeps things interesting. I get restless if I fall into a rut."

"Doesn't your family miss you?" asked Weft, thinking of his own large one.

"No, no family to miss me."

Weft's face filled with sympathy. "That's -- awful."

Nico shrugged. "One thing less to worry about." She meant it.

"I can't imagine not having people around who love me... I -- sorry, that was insensitive. Stupid," Weft said, shutting himself up.

"No problem." After a thoughtful pause she added, "Well, I have a handful of very good friends, and meeting them is always a good thing."

"I suppose you can make friends wherever you go?"

"Mhm, nearly, I guess."

"That's good," Weft said, at a loss for anything else.

cooperative post by Mutt and Anke

After a short pause, Nico asked, "And do you get around much outside the city?" It occurred to her that judging from the way she talked about it, the idea that Offwhite was the center of the universe had already rubbed off on her on some level. Heh.

"More than I'd like these days," said Weft. "It's a bigger, more confusing universe than I'd ever imagined."

Nico's eyes misted over. "Yes. It's wonderful."

"Wonderful?" repeated Weft. The skin down his back twitched involuntarily, and he ran his right hand twice through his hair.

"You don't think so?" Nico asked innocently.

"It's not for me to have an opinion about," sighed Weft. Nevertheless, it was possible to guess what his uncalled-for opinion was.

Her eyes slowly went wide with surprise. "Whyever not?"

He ducked his head a little, possibly misreading her body language. "It... it just isn't. You know. I don't know much about such things anyway. It could be the divine plan."

Although most gods they had talked to didn't admit to knowing much more than anyone else about these occurrences.

Nico sighed, then stirred the remains of her food for a bit. They certainly scared him good, when the thought of showing an opinion of his own makes him twitch like that.

"Did you say earlier that there are gods living in this city?"

"The divine is all around us and versed in all things," Weft said, slipping into catechism. "But yeah, there are prophets and elect and avatars, and gods show up in the flesh from time to time. I've performed tasks for a few--not that that's a boast. Most of my brothers have. I'm a botcher, really. Um, so, yes. The gods. They're real. I've never met mine, or any of them, directly." He may have been a little uncertain about that last statement.

"But if you were going to ask, I can't introduce you to any. You'd have to go to a shrine and do things the normal way."

"Nah, I tend to not try to get on gods' nerves." Usually. "What's an elect?"

"Another kind of blessed being. One of the least troublesome. They don't make themselves as public as prophets, and compared with avatars they're much easier to--" He paused, a little warily.

"Kill?" Nico suggested, sympathy, distaste and, despite herself, amusement mixing in her expression.

"Sometimes. Rarely. I meant 'stop', really. They don't go bad as often, or hurt as many people if they do."

Weft still seemed wary. He wasn't allowed to lie to make himself look better, and in this case he may have wished it otherwise. He could probably have grown to like Nico.

So much you could ask about, what to pick? To give Weft a bit time to recover, Nico decided on a rather general question. "How often is 'often', as far as avatars - you menat avatars, right? - going bad is concerned?"

"It's happened once to my knowledge during my working life." Weft didn't want to give her time to probe further and quickly added "So what's your view on religion? Is there much where you come from?"

"Honestly, I mostly keep out of it. Gods can be pretty varied in different places, but in my experience the majority are scheming, selfish, cruel, or otherwise objectionable." She grimaced. "And them generally being rather powerful makes it unwise to say so to their faces, or equivalent."

"I suppose if you think of them as people, they could seem that way. It's not, though; that's like... trying to judge a person by animal standards. Gods are far, far removed from us, and have plans we can't possibly know.

"Just like I don't think an ostrich pulling a cab knows that the driver's saving up to buy her husband a new watch. Doesn't know what time or money is, let alone watches..."

Weft paused. "Oh, listen to me, talking like I'm some kind of pundit," he said bitterly, picking up his crochet again. "What were you saying about different places?"

"Did I? Oh, that some do have gods who are wise and have the good of their people in mind, I think. I tend to keep out of the way of those, too, to avoid bugging them."