Roofrats 11

"Yes. I... sorry," Weft said again. "It's my fault, getting you in the way of those people.

"Although you're right, incidentally. That one was extremely pathetic."

"Which was good luck for me; I was paying so little attention anyone not as pathetic could have stabbed me in the back. Save for your presence. Anyway, first I didn't have to talk to Wirin, second I could have believed her and diverted you rather than giving her away, so, not your fault."

"Well, thanks for saying so." Weft bowed his head and seemed lost in thought for a few seconds. There was a chirping from a bird in someone's upper window. A passing taxi honked.

Weft blinked and looked up. "You know, I don't think he'll be back or causing any more mischief, which means my assignment's finished," he said. "If you're still interested, my offer's still open to show you some less distasteful sights of city life."

"Sounds great! I think you mentioned parks; something relaxing would be nice. Or what did you have have in mind?"

"Whatever you like," Weft replied automatically. "Let me think... there's a nice area in northwest Fisis, not far upslope from here. A big park, and some clubs and shows along the boulevard."

He remained frozen in place, not intending to head off unless Nico approved the idea.

"Sounds good!", she got up, leaving the remnants of the stew to finish congealing. Servings tended to be big for her, anyway. After knocking on the counter to get the proprietor's attention she beamed and said enthusiastically, "Thanks a lot, it was very good," ignoring his slightly bewildered look.

Weft walked alongside her. He'd quite deliberately suggested an area in the opposite direction from thos idiot criminals' turf. As they continued the monk gradually became more animated, pointing out sights, things of interest or just particularly colourful moving objects.

Nico had generally kept to the opposite side of the city herself.

She followed Weft and his explanations with interest and the occasional joke. In a slight lull she remarked, "It's nice to see you have more freedom or responsibility than I thought." Realising her thoughts had been jumping a bit, she added, "I mean, your 'I don't ask questions' hadn't given me the impression you could decide when your assignment was over."

"Oh, I didn't decide on my own," said Weft, whose pupils had dilated a little bit at the thought. "I got told. I... am responsible, though, or try to be. Doubtless I fail a lot of the time. We're not expected to be perfect, only to try our best."

Watching a small bird flying past, Nico didn't catch Weft's expression. Her own showed a flicker of disappointment which got quickly buried under keen interest.

"Ah, I remember you and Suitov had a telepathic link back at the party. Does your order use that, too?"

"Tele- no we haven't," Weft said, bemused. "I mean, he can talk without moving his lips, like most magicians, but... that's a party trick. Not like how I keep in touch with my elders."

Nico looked up at him with tilted head and slightly raised eyebrows. "Oh? What's that like?"

Weft explained "Well, we keep in contact through prayer."

"Is that different from formulating sentences in your head, and someone else being able to 'hear' them in their head?"

Weft paused, turned to face Nico and touched his tongue to his top lip, searching for words.

"I have to get into the right state of mind. It sometimes takes patience. It's like... well, it's surrendering your will to the Divine. A lot like meditation. Nothing spooky like telepathy."

The problem with getting answers is, you come up with three new questions based on each...

"What's spooky about telepathy?"

"What, wouldn't you find that spooky?" asked Weft, startled. "Things in your head that you didn't invite there?"

Nico gave him a surprised and slightly suspicious glance, before looking ahead and considering a moment. She relaxed again quicklly and explained, "I meant the cases where the one doing the putting-things-there did the equivalent of knocking on your door and asking first. I agree the thought of someone putting things in my head without my permission, or even with me noticing they come from outside, is less than pleasant."

She left out the "reading people's mind" angle because Weft had only mentioned the other direction, and she didn't want to complicate things further at this point.

"Yes," said the monk, who wasn't sure he'd followed all of that and had therefore defaulted to 'client knows best' as the safest option.

In addition, he seemed to have rattled Nico without meaning to. Perhaps she had a vested interest in telepathy. He hoped she wasn't selling one of those 'pick up men by hypnosis' courses. Weft found those degrading.

A fifil, probably Instar's closest equivalent to a chipmunk, stole a pot of tuna houmous from next to an old man who was dozing on a bench. It retreated up a tree with this, turned the little paper pot upside down and shook it. Fish goop splutted upon its branch and was mostly licked up.

Weft swiftly made sure Nico wasn't on course to walk directly underneath this messy eater.

In fact, she had stopped to watch the animal. The way it used its frontpaws to handle the pot put her in mind of a squirrel, but the long snout obvioiusly didn't hold rodent teeth, and the tail was shorter and thinner. The fur was a medium, slightly reddish brown with lighter dapples.

A bit belatedly she worried the man might blame her for his disappeared food, and continued, walking on the opposite side of the path.