He's silent longer than perhaps he himself expected.
"...I don't ask their names anymore." Then, slowly. "But I know them. They don't say them when they bring them, but that's the trouble, isn't it? When you see them grow. Know them since they were barely hanging off your hip."
They're a large village, but an agglomeration of thousands, all the same. Hardly a citadel of countless, empty faces. The pretty, the skilled, the accomplished earn a reputation.
And then they are culled.
"Used to be, we brought them for... you know what for. We all knew what for. Now we bring them to him." Bitterness weighs his tongue. "Spirits know what he does with them."
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"...I don't ask their names anymore." Then, slowly. "But I know them. They don't say them when they bring them, but that's the trouble, isn't it? When you see them grow. Know them since they were barely hanging off your hip."
They're a large village, but an agglomeration of thousands, all the same. Hardly a citadel of countless, empty faces. The pretty, the skilled, the accomplished earn a reputation.
And then they are culled.
"Used to be, we brought them for... you know what for. We all knew what for. Now we bring them to him." Bitterness weighs his tongue. "Spirits know what he does with them."