(There is much he could tell Ralston, if he wished to. It's not outright forbidden. He could speak of the German knight-magicians who'd been granted, centuries ago, land and titles in Latvia. The long line of Countship that had passed from father to son. The valor of forefathers shown on the Eastern Front. The cousin who conspired to take the life of the mad monk whispering in the Tsarina's ear. The allegiance to the Whites in the wake of the Revolution.
(The young boy, raised in Berlin, raised in Paris, watching his mother trade her few remaining jewels for food. Hearing the murmur of others who spoke his tongue - his tongue, not the tongue of the cities he lived in - who murmured of life back in Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad. The shedding of vanity to be found back there, the rejection of indifference, the rejection of elitism and the capitalist scramble. After the war, the offer of citizenship, of return. The journey back.
(What he found there. What he is now.
(But he is not one to bare his heart.)
"About our new partnership?" he asks instead, eyebrow arched. "Or about your next job?"
no subject
(There is much he could tell Ralston, if he wished to. It's not outright forbidden. He could speak of the German knight-magicians who'd been granted, centuries ago, land and titles in Latvia. The long line of Countship that had passed from father to son. The valor of forefathers shown on the Eastern Front. The cousin who conspired to take the life of the mad monk whispering in the Tsarina's ear. The allegiance to the Whites in the wake of the Revolution.
(The young boy, raised in Berlin, raised in Paris, watching his mother trade her few remaining jewels for food. Hearing the murmur of others who spoke his tongue - his tongue, not the tongue of the cities he lived in - who murmured of life back in Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad. The shedding of vanity to be found back there, the rejection of indifference, the rejection of elitism and the capitalist scramble. After the war, the offer of citizenship, of return. The journey back.
(What he found there. What he is now.
(But he is not one to bare his heart.)
"About our new partnership?" he asks instead, eyebrow arched. "Or about your next job?"