Chapter 75: What’s a syndicate?
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Silas had adopted a slow walking pace out of consideration for her... Smaller strides, but upon hearing her latest words, he’d appeared to slow down even further.
Seeing his reaction, blood turned faster in her veins, rushing up towards her face, "My apologies!" she blurted, "I shouldn’t have said that," her eyes traveled the furthest away from his gaze while maintaining the path ahead of herself into clear view.
"But you did," he started, "I can’t read your mind, so I am going to need you to elaborate on your words," as calm as it was, his tone left no hints that he was offering her any other options but to answer.
Clutching at her pendant as per usual, Arabella combed through her mind for the reply that would be satisfy him the most. Although, the pounding of her heart gave no sign of relenting, beating so fast, so loud that its thumping against her eardrums became too distracting.
"I am not pushing you simply for the fun of it," his voice broke her out of the monotonous cycle that had her enclosed, "Words are often the only way we are able to communicate our thoughts and solve our predicaments because the alternative would be violence, and that is quite unacceptable for the quality of life we strive to preserve here in Umbraria. That is why we speak our minds but always make sure to use words worth standing by beforehand,"
"Yes, of course," once again, Arabella hastened to break the silence that came after his statement, but that time around, she did not stop there, "Fleeing my home the way I did came with great consequences and I can never step foot back in Lustris without suffering them. I only meant that by your own logic, I am a criminal as well and should be treated as one," she brought her gemstones onto the floor before herself.
"What makes you think you are not already being treated like one?"
Through his collected demeanor alone, Arabella failed to grasp whether his question was meant to answer her or raise a storm of new queries.