Continued from here
“Seriously about the posts, though.” she said making notes to swing by a hardware store soon. The look that her master was giving her made her want to question further, but he obviously wasn’t going to give her any more answers, oh well.
She followed his lead up onto the porch, and then slipped out of the boots she was wearing. “I thought I told you about the Sunhawks.” she said as she fished a feathered ear clip out of the pack and clipped it to her left ear. The red and gold feathers falling to her shoulder. “It was the cabal I was fostered by in Chicago.”
Seriously about the posts, though.
He wasn't sure what the question was, or if she was fishing. Well. You couldn't tell your Apprentice everything their first official day.
"Some," he answered her statement as he opened the door. For a moment, he pondered his options: remove his own dirty boots, or be incredibly casual about some really Vulgar spellwork. Then, he had the epiphany as she removed her boots. I have an Apprentice.
"Would you get me a beer and an orange from the fridge? You can grab whatever you want, too."
Her answer hadn't been what he'd been asking, maybe, but it also didn't thrill him. There was going to be part of her training, and formative time as an Awakened that he hadn't been involved in. Objectively, it was a good thing, but it didn't mean he liked someone else teaching her. He watched the feathers slowly rotate.
"And then, tell me again."
She game him a look, to counteract his non answer before rolling her eyes, putting the pack down and sock-feeting across his floor. She poked around in his fridge before calling out to him. “How often do you eat out?” she asked pulling an orange and two Coronas out of their places. She tossed the Orange to him and then walked over hand handed him the beer.
“What exactly do you want to know about them. It was an Arrow/Guardian centric cabal, and we did a good amount of things...”
What should I be telling him? How much does he really want to know?
"A lot," West answered, catching the orange and sinking his teeth into the rind. The near sour strength of the rind flavor swept away the Travel-taste of Portal'ing, and mixed with the citrus-y aftertaste of uncloaked magics. He answered without any hint of remorse or embarrassment; he could go anywhere.
Why would I eat at home?
He slipped the bottle into the opener naile to one of the porch posts and popped the cap, holding it out in his third and fourth fingers to trade with Vaeltia's unopened one.
"Tell me what you think of Guardians," he compromised. He could count the number of Eyes he liked on one hand, but did his best to keep his tone neutral.
She traded out the open bottle for the closed one and palmed it for a moment before taking a swig. At his question she sucked in a breath in obvious annoyance and slight anger.
“Guardians...” she said with a forced smile, “they can be backstabbing spawn of hell.” her free hand began to clench and loosen as she fought to control herself.
West took a long pull on his own beer, and started peeling the orange. He was meticulous about getting all the rind off the crescents, a contrast to his earlier biting of the unpeeled orange. It wasn't the flavor, but the texture that bothered him.
"You know the difference between Arrows and Guardians?" he asked rhetorically. "Guardians have no honor. No code. No moral compass. They hide behind the axiom of ends justifying means, but that's bullshit."
He waved half of the orange at her, if she wanted it. He felt a little guilty about trash-talking another Order, but she was his Apprentice. Sooner or later, she'd have figured it out anyway. It wasn't a secret.
"But, go on."