I heard a knock at the door. Then it opened. Vanasha was there with someone else. "Hey Jo. There's someone who wants to meet you." She said gently. It was a man who looked to be a young adult, but the circles under his eyes belied his youthful looks. He had platinum blonde hair, light blue eyes that.. somehow had no pupils. And he had wings like mine. They were the same iridescent grey that I had been taught to loath. The same grey that had everyone glare at me the moment I entered a room. The same grey that I'd wished desperately would fade to black, or white, or honestly any other color. Working up my courage I responded with a "h-hello there." And then the man said, in a gentler voice than I would have thought possible at first glance, "Hello." "Ehrm... shall I leave you two?" Vanasha seemed to be awkward in this situation. I couldn't really blame her. "If she's alright with it, that would be preferable." Responded the man. Huh. Vanasha had seemed to be giving the orders before. Now she's taking orders? Then I realized they were both looking at me. They wanted ME to choose. There wasn't a statistically optimal situation, and nobody really cared about what some useless little kid's opinion was anyways. But it looked like I was supposed to answer regardless. ".....eerrrr.... I guess....?" Man, talking is hard when you're thrust into a situation you can't possibly grasp. "I'll take my leave." She responded shortly, and walked away without another word. That left me alone with the man, who knelt down to my eye level, not coming any closer than he already was to me. "So, you're Josephine then." And him saying that finally made something click. "Yeah. Are you Sir Taliesin?" Was this my father? The only parent I had left? "I am. It's nice to meet you." "It's a pleasure to meet you too." He seemed confused about me, though he was masking it almost perfectly. "...What are you reading?" He gestured to the open book closest to me. "The Scarlet Letter." He seemed slightly taken aback for a moment. "The Scarlet Letter? Isn't that a little... mature?" "Not sure. I liked To Kill A Mockingbird better, if only because so many fewer people died by the end of THAT, compared to the slightly less than everyone that dies in The Scarlet Letter." "Yeah. To Kill a Mockingbird was way better." "Though.. it took me horrifically long to realize that Arthur Radley was the one who killed Bob Ewell." I was so ashamed when I realized that, for the simple reason of how long it took me to figure it out. "You know, I didn't read those books until I was... 11 or 12. You're pretty young to be reading that stuff, so you're already doing amazing if you can understand it." Huh? What? Was he trying to be funny? Or tell me bad news and lead up nicely? "You're really smart." And I realized I probably said something out loud. "Hey, what's your favorite book you've ever read?" Okay, WHAT kind of questions ARE these? My opinion is that of a useless little child, it doesn’t matter in the slightest. Oh, wait. Statistically optimal answer… “..The most advanced book I’ve read so far was Traditional Logic 1.” “I’m going to be honest here that sounds incredibly boring.” I told him the truth. “It was.” “Did you ever read any books that weren’t boring?” “Yeah, but my instructors tried not to loan them to me unless they had to.” My eyes widened and I slapped a hand over my mouth. I knew I should never have said that. “What’s wrong?” Taliesin asked. “S-Sorry.” I recited what had been drilled into me from day one. “My instructors taught me and cared for me. the least I can do is not speak ill of them.” His wings slightly seemed to retract into his shoulders for a moment, before going back to normal. “Sorry to break it to you but that sounded very brainwashed.” He said flatly. I had never heard that word before. It was weird. I tried saying it myself. “Brain.. washed…?” My confusion was apparently obvious, since he clarified almost immediately. “Like… you weren’t saying that because you wanted to, but because someone told you to. You’re allowed to tell me the truth. You won’t get in trouble.” I.. I had no idea what to even say in response to that. In the past three days my world had turned upside down and backwards, and now my father was adding to that. Since he clarified himself, I decided I may as well do the same for my way of thinking. “…It’s just what I’ve been told since they took me…. I still remember that.” His face turned like he was repressing shock and confusion, before he asked, “Remember… what? You can’t possibly remember being taken… can you?” I told it as I remembered it. “It was warm, and then it was cold, and I hurt. there was a lot of sound, and a cloth wasp over my face. I woke up, according to them, two days later.” Sir Taliesin was incredulous. “You really remember that.” I continued with the deception they’d given me my entire life. “That was never how they said it happened. they said that they picked me up off the street and that you’d killed my parents. all I had to do was not ask questions about what they told me.” He seemed grimly amused. “They said I killed your parents? Heh.” I decided that since he hadn’t ordered me into silence yet, I may as well keep going. I felt validated. “I knew they’d taken me from somewhere else. I just didn’t know the whole story. Funny how they were willing to attribute something they did to you. Not surprising, just amusing.” “Did someone finally tell you the whole truth, then, when you got here?” He seemed just to be making sure. “Yes. What they told me wasn’t surprising, though. It made sense.” I.. what was this feeling? It was like, I felt I could tell him anything, even though I knew that I probably couldn’t and was just a nuisance to him. I kept going. “School was the main distraction I had, and the only reason my caretakers didn’t have me locked up 24/7.” He seemed incredibly sad, but he also seemed to be repressing that. Why he was sad, I have no idea. But he was. “I’m… sorry to hear that. What exactly do you mean by locked up?” “I was “born” in a bathroom and grew up in a small brass cage most of my life. There was a bedroll in the corner, though. I was taken there for mealtimes, sleeping, and almost every time I wasn’t doing school.” I said as much as a fact. It’s not all that bad. I was dry, and my life wasn’t in constant danger. “That’s terrible…” Was it? I had no idea if he was just saying that or not. “If you say so…” It was the only life I ever knew. “Have you talked much to anyone here yet? Vanasha didn’t say how long you’ve been here.” “It’s been about three hours since I arrived here, and about half that since I was shown the library.” We continued talking for a while like that, and I even introduced him to my pet, Crispin.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.