Mother of Learning. Arc 3 Incomplete

Zorian’s eye twitched, resisting the urge to march straight into his room and throw Kirielle out. In reality, he was lucky to have a room to call his own at all. Imaya still hadn’t found anyone willing to rent the other room in the house, and Zorian was grateful for it, since it meant he could keep the room for himself. Unfortunately, his ability to keep Kirielle out of it was completely nonexistent. Kirielle had no inhibitions about coming and going there whenever she pleased, and Imaya was even less inclined to stop her than their mother had been back in Cirin. She seemed to find Kirielle’s behavior ‘natural’.

And the little imp knew it! She knew she could get away with just about everything, since Imaya liked her better than she did him, and she exploited it to the hilt. That’s why, when Zorian loudly entered the room, she completely ignored him. She was lying on his bed with an open book in front of her, her feet comfortably resting on his pillow. As he watched her, she reached towards the plate of biscuits Imaya had brought her, intent on scattering even more crumbs over his bed sheets.

«Hey!» she protested. «Those are mine! Get your own biscuits!»

Zorian ignored her and studied the plate full of biscuits he had snatched away from his demonic little sister. «You know, originally I just wanted to get your attention and stop you from making an even bigger mess than you already have, but they do look kind of tasty…»

«Nooooo!» Kirielle wailed as he opened his mouth, threatening to swallow a handful of biscuits at once. She seemed reluctant to leave his bed to get them back, though. She probably knew he wouldn’t allow her to claim her spot back easily should she ever relinquish it, clever little imp that she was.

«Tell you what,» he said, closing his mouth and putting the biscuits back on the plate. «I’ll give you your biscuits if you get rid of all the crumbs you put on my bed.»

Kirielle immediately swept her hands over the sheets a couple of times, pushing all the crumbs to the floor in front of the bed. Her task done, she flashed him a cheeky smile.

«Ha ha,» said Zorian humorlessly. «Now go get a broom and do it properly. I’ll eat a biscuit for every minute this mess remains in a room.»

He punctuated his words by shoving one of the biscuits into his mouth. They were quite good actually.

Kirielle let out a cry of protest and jumped off the bed in a huff. She unsuccessfully tried to retrieve her plate of biscuits, but when she realized she couldn’t make him give it back (and when he ate a second one) she instead ran off to get a broom and a dustpan. Apparently she also complained to Imaya, because several minutes later she showed up with another plate of biscuits, ‘so he didn’t have to steal from his little sister’. Whatever.

Sadly, even after he recovered his bed from Kirielle’s clutches, she still returned to his room. Currently she was sprawled over his chest, having collapsed atop of him when he closed his eyes for a second.

«Why are you still here, Kiri?» Zorian sighed.

Kirielle didn’t answer at first, being too busy climbing over Zorian’s body like he was an inanimate object that didn’t feel pain and discomfort. Once she lay firmly on the bed with him, having wriggled sufficient free space for herself, she spoke.

«I’m bored,» she said. «Your puzzle broke, by the way.»

«It didn’t break,» Zorian said. «It just ran out of mana. I can make you a new one tomorrow if you want.»

«Okay.»

A short silence descended between them and Zorian closed his eyes to take a little nap.

«Zorian?» Kirielle suddenly prompted.

«Yes?» Zorian asked.

«What’s a morlock?»

Zorian opened his eyes and looked to the side, fixing Kirielle with a curious expression.

«You don’t know what a morlock is?» he asked incredulously.

«I just know they’re these white-haired blue-eyed people,» Kirielle said. «And that people don’t like them very much. And that Kael is one. But mother never wanted to tell me what the deal with them is.»

«She didn’t, huh?» mumbled Zorian.

«No,» confirmed Kirielle. «She said a young lady like me shouldn’t talk about those kind of things.»

In the interest of avoiding an argument, Zorian refrained from making a snide comment about whether or not Kirielle qualified as a lady. Not even a derisive snort. Someone should give him a medal for self-control.

«Basically,» Zorian said, «they’re a race of underground humans. Though most of them don’t live underground anymore. The disappearance of the gods hit their civilization hard, and the other denizens of the Dungeon have largely driven them out to the surface. Ikosian settlers sort of helped the process along by kicking them while they were down and burning down a couple of their more prominent settlements.»

«Oh,» Kirielle said. «But that doesn’t explain why people don’t like them. Sounds like they should be angry at us more than we should be at them. And Kael doesn’t look like he hates us.»