Khaiya closed her eyes and drew in a slow, deep breath as the monster came unglued. She expected to be struck again or worse, but that would have hurt less than hearing him speak of her dragon that way. She felt lost, disconnected; when you spent so long inside another creature's mind, one as intelligent and wise--if not more--than a human, and they spent as much time in your own mind...
Their sudden silence was crushing. Empty. She felt like a piece of herself was gone.
She opened her eyes again, and though they were red and bloodshot, they were dry of tears. She was dehydrated, and besides, right now she had nothing else to give. She only felt exhausted. Almost too exhausted to care. So as before, she maintained silence, because she had no answer to give him.
The truth was, she had killed goblins, but not many. They simply weren't her branch's primary concern. When they raided a town, they dealt with the infestation, but they didn't go out of their way to track them, as they simply weren't a huge issue in these parts. Telling him that, however, would be pointless. She'd still killed them, and she doubted he'd care what the reasons were when he was one of them, and clearly just as deranged. Trying to reason with the enemy was like trying to reason with a rabid beast, and whatever he had planned for her...she doubted saying, "Oh, I only killed a couple when they were razing a town..." would change matters in a way that would benefit her.
Instead, she looked at the scale he held, and felt her chest tighten. Her breath caught as she recognized it, recognized the red with the swirls of green and black, so like the gem he was named after.
Her breath came out a shudder.
Seeing that scale made it all feel very final. Very official. She stared at it even after he set it on the table, and swallowed again past the lump that wanted to choke her as he described Jasper's death.
And she hadn't been there for him. Hadn't even gotten to say goodbye...
She shut her eyes again, and shook her head at his question.
