Quispi do you not trust me? Finch asked meekly as the elder bird wiped his face clean, Did you mean you only do because you have to?
I don’t have a reason to distrust you Quispi said bluntly, tossing the napkin in the nearby trash bin, walking over to the waiting Edward through the maze of chairs and tables, But I don’t have a reason to trust you. So for now…sort of.
Sort of… Finch said, going silent for several minutes. Edward was babbling on about something, but neither of them could quite catch it, too engrossed in their mental back and forth, Is there something I can do to help you feel more…
You try enough
Do I? What’s happened since we got out of that place Finch said We went to my family home. We stayed in my room. We were looked after by my uncles. We haven’t done anything for you
“Uh…Quispi? Quiiispi? Arx to Quisper?” Edward said, shaking his hand in front of the man’s face. He had dead stopped in the middle of the cobble sidewalk, the pulsing light of the crystal lamps above flickering across his face “you two doing alright in there?”
Quispi you forgot to walk
“Uh…” Quispi muttered, blinking and rubbing his face, “We’re fine”
“That doesn’t look fine” Edward said, watching as the man rushed to catch up with him on legs far too short then the stride his body tried to take at first.
“He forgot to walk” Finch said
“I thought you were walking” Quispi muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets as he trudged on behind him, the man’s long blond ponytail hitting against his shoulder every few strides, “so…Do you work for Echo too?”
“Work for? Yeah I’m part of her court” he said, looking down at him, “Why?”
“Do you…have that compulsion thing?”
“The compulsion thing…” Edward said, pondering for a moment, “Oh! No I don’t have the subservient compulsion. Not a lot of us do” he said, “Alder had what seemed like it for awhile, but it turned out to just be some holdovers from some…past issues he grew up with” Edward said, “We haven’t seen any with the compulsion since I joined, which really is sorta weird. Usually they’re driven to seek her out. Why?”
“I heard stories about it” Quispi said, drumming his fingers against his leg, “not good ones”
“I’d imagine. The Void side of things can be cruel. And past guardians have been….less the reputable with their Court. But Echo isn’t like that”
“How do you know?”
“She just isn’t”
“How do you know you’re not just biased?” Edward frowned, looking ahead as they continued back down the path to the house, through the thick shrubs and the well-worn cobble street winding off the main road, cool springtime air wafted through the trees as the methodical rhythmic click of Edward’s heels on the stone echoed into the silence.
“When we first found out” Edward said, looking down at Quispi, “That my brother and I were part of her Court…We were scared. Scared that whoever the new guardian was would be as cruel as the ones we had lived through as kids. We were the first two who awoken to our roles in the game. Back then things were…Simpler. Void had yet to start the first war, he was only a myth to most people. Asema was still consoling Atticus and Lucas about their father’s disappearance. They were just kids back then…And Echo…She tried so hard. She…wasn’t supposed to be this guardian. Echo herself was a myth…but that was probably before your time”
“before my time” Quispi said, gritting his teeth with indignation,
“Echo isn’t like other beings. She wasn’t born. She was…created. She understands more then most people what being controlled dose to a being” Edward sighed, “When we first met her, she was…Childish, but formal. Too formal. Like she’d forgotten how to deal with people somewhere along the way. But she was kind. She understood what we were dealing with ourselves. Pulling the family back together after the hunts finally started to die down, dealing with loss, dealing with the sudden relit biases against us”
“I’m not like other beings, and people still hate me” Quispi said, wrapping his arms around himself.
“Oh trust me Echo has her fair share of hate against her” Edward sighed, “Some people think it would be best if there was no guardians. They don’t understand the gravity of the situation…and I can’t blame them. It’s mostly shorter lived species. Whose members who lived through the wars have long since died. They forget. They forget so very quickly…and honestly it might be for the best. They don’t need to live with the proverbial boogeyman over their shoulders. People who can tell what you are, are those who most likely remember what it was like to have primordial dark-kin running around. And it’s only recently we realized…well…realized that the kids of those beings were sane. They don’t look at you and see an innocent kid born into a bad species, they see a monster born out of stupidity and recklessness. And as unfair as it might be, you have to work to change that." Quispi watched the man’s face as he spoke, age evident in the deep creases on his brow as his face tightened, fangs catching on his bottom lip every few words as he tried to keep himself from getting too emotional. Edward pinched at an earring and fidgeting as he looked down at them. “Why do you have such a negative opinion of her?”
“I—“ Quispi stared, silently up at the sky, tracing familiar star paths with his eyes, “My family was…afraid of everyone. We were afraid we’d be sent back to the Hive after my parents worked so hard to get themselves out. And the harpies didn’t care who was there so long as we contributed to the larder….”
“Where is your family?” Edward asked, “You’ve been here the entire time, don’t you want to go back there to see them?”
“They all died” Quispi said. Finch could feel the edge the words held.
“How?” Quispi refused to answer retreating back into himself as he pushed Finch forward, “too much?” Finch just shrugged, following his uncle towards the manor’s gate, “why don’t we all bunk in your room tonight”
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