Tangle in the Dark - Kassidor

“But we’re not,” she said, “We’re all ages, just likeanywhere, we just have geneticists very good at skin is all.”“Where are you from?” he asked.“I’ve got a place in East Danger Beard,” she said, naminga neighborhood of the city a week’s paddle away, “but I’mstaying in the Ring this year. And you?”“I’m from Wescarp, you’ve probably never heard of it.”“What basin?” she asked.“Zhlindu,” he replied.“I’ve heard of that,” she said, “but never been there. Howdid you get here? It must have taken you years.”“Yeah, it was quite a trip,” he tried to sound exhaustedfrom it.“Why’d you come all this way?” she asked.“I was with someone.”“Oh? Didn’t work out?”“Let’s just say she vanished from my life,” Alan said.She laughed a bit and squeezed him a little tighter. “Iknow what you mean,” she said, “I’ve had relationships likethat myself. What do you think ended it?”He felt like saying, ‘you’re awfully inquisitive for acherub,’ but then their default programming was to get a guyto talk about himself. “It was her work I think,” he said asmusingly as he could. “She’s deep into Yingolian crystals andjust couldn’t spare the time.”“Where’s she working now?” the girl asked.“She’s got a pocket eye and can work from anywhere, but37