this is a fav...... tfw you.... when you............................................................. whatever this is,
“What are you doing here?” demanded the figure, who swayed inside with one exaggerated step and kicked the door closed behind them.
“What? Me? I got a note--” No, she shouldn’t have mentioned that. “--But really, it’s none of your business, so--”
“No, I know you got a note. I sent it to you.”
Stepping into the light, Sorina could see the figure more clearly now. A woman. A woman with broad shoulders and a full head on her. A woman in a white shirt, parted all the way to her navel and tucked into trousers, of all things. Sorina averted her eyes, and then, remembering these were the Courts and not the outside world, forced herself to look.
The woman, blonde hair cropped at her jaw, smiled. “Haven’t you heard of being fashionably late? You’re unfortunately on time.”
“You threatened me--rather explicitly. I didn’t think--”
“Eugh. Are you new? You must be new.” The woman stopped before Sorina. Sorina had to crane her head to meet her gaze. “How long have you been in the Courts?”
Sorina made a face. “Three weeks.”
“Here, take this.” A wine glass was pushed into Sorina’s hands. Had she been holding that all along? “Sorry, I didn’t realize you were so new. Jeez. Three weeks.”
Sorina stood rooted to the spot, while the woman slumped onto the nearest couch. The warm hues of the fire played across her fair skin. She kicked up one leg across the cushions and began to empty a bottle of dark liquid into her own glass.
Slowly, Sorina asked, “Are you G?”
“Gabrielle,” she sighed, upending the bottle when her glass was half full. “I thought sure--making a big play like that--surely you were, you know. You’d been here a while. Three weeks! What the fuck did you even do with that thrall? What could you have done with that thrall? Do you even know what to do with a thrall?”
Gabrielle laughed. It was a laugh that seemed to roil up from her stomach, loud and unabashed. “Oh, come on. This is nothing.” What the fuck. Gabrielle gestured to the sofa adjacent to her own. “Are you going to sit? This is really awkward, and you don’t have anything in your glass.”
“Oh right.” Gabrielle cleared her throat. “Don’t take the death threat personally. That was actually pretty tame, all things considered. I could have just, I don’t know, gotten in touch with the ascendant that thrall belonged to, and then you’d be having this conversation with her, and trust me, she’s awful. Trust me, you’d much rather be talking to me, and I’d much rather be talking to you...”
“Oh, come on. I said it wasn’t personal.”
“Sorina,” said Sorina, sitting across from Gabrielle.
“Sorina.” Rolling the sound around in her mouth, Gabrielle stretched toward Sorina, tipping the bottle over her glass. She said, “I have no idea where that’s from. Are you from the peninsula? Or across the sea?”
“I was named for my mother, and her mother was a bit of an eccentric.”
“Oh, excellent. I love a weirdo.” When Sorina’s glass was full--really full, not a happy one-third like she’d been taught--Gabrielle discarded the empty bottle on the end table next to her and clinked their glasses together. “Cheers, Sorina.”
