The Way Back (Champions of the Crystal Book 4)

Chapter 19.2

"You know, you don't have to pick all that back up again," Sabrina said. "I never really appreciated being called that."

"I know. Khediva says that's why I did it. I figure if it was my purpose to annoy you sometimes, I must have had reasons. And you must have had reasons for allowing it."

"Bad habit?" Sabrina suggested.

"I need some bad habits, to make me seem human again," Scotty said earnestly.

That got a small, surprised laugh. "Khediva again?"

"No, that was Tirqwin. He says they're helpful social cues. Like when you twist your hair, like you're doing now, that means you're feeling insecure or unhappy."

Sabrina's hands dropped abruptly to her lap, out of his view. "I wouldn't base my entire take on human psychology on what Tirqwin and Khediva know about it," she advised.

"You're the resident expert, but you don't like to talk," Scotty shrugged.

"It isn't that. Sometimes I talk a great deal too much," she grimaced. "I just...have a lot to think about right now. To deal with. Give me some time. I'll get better."

"We don't have a lot of time."

She looked him in the eye for the first time since he'd come in, but said nothing. After a moment he began to fidget, tapping his fingers against the coffee cup in a restless gesture that secretly delighted her. He could not have learned that from Tirqwin or Khediva. Though I guess he could have gotten it from Ford, the Master of Restlessness, she admitted.

"I, uh," he began, then fell silent again. After a moment she heard his foot tapping the floor.

What else can I get out of him? Those fidgets...they're not conscious memories, but somehow they're still there, some kind of instinct maybe. Maybe there's still something—

She made herself stop thinking that. She'd been dreadfully disappointed too many times, thinking she'd found a sign of her brother in this new person. She had to stop looking. It was only hurting them both.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Why don't you just spit it out, Scotty?"

He stared at her in confusion over the rim of his coffee cup, which he'd picked up while she argued with herself. "No!" she said, just in time. "I meant, why don't you just tell me whatever it is you're trying to avoid telling me." Literal as a Praxatillian. About as far from Scotty as you can get. See?

Her nonrational voice told her rational self to shut the hell up. Scotty swallowed a gulp of coffee and said, "I've decided to try downloading the memories."

Sabrina nodded and looked down at her hands. After a minute, Scotty said, "Aren't you going to, uh, argue with me? Or something? They said you would argue with me."

"On what grounds? They are your memories; you have the right to try to regain them. You're an adult; you've certainly been told the risks. I can't imagine what it's like to be you, and it would be presumptuous of me to imagine I could or should make or influence your decisions."

"That," he grinned, "sounds like something Khediva made you memorize!"

"Nope. Pure me. Though," she admitted with a rueful half-grin, "it did take me quite a while to refine it last night."

"Did you know?"

"It was inevitable, wasn't it?"

"I guess so. But you still don't like it."

"No. How could I? We've come this far, done this much, so we wouldn't have to mourn you."

"Him. And you already are."