[The angry lash of her words draws a sharp scoff from Liem, his lips pulling back to reveal those monstrous teeth, still bearing hints here and there of Amos’s blood. This is why he had not told her. This is why he had said nothing — because he had not wished to be put on trial for the crime of simply existing, as though what he was was enough to presume his guilt.]
Do you even wish to belong?
[He snaps it, impatient.]
You could seek the company of others like you if you wished — those from other worlds and other lands. They would accept you, if you let them.
[But Springstar’s centaurs are not her people. They are not jinba. She sets herself apart from them because of her own choice — because she is not one of them. And in that very same way, Liem is not one of the many human people to inhabit Kenos, though he looks like them in many ways.
But the difference between them is that Hayame has her own heritage to be proud of, and to return to if they succeed in finding a way back home. Liem does not. Liem has only ever lived among humans, though he is not one of them — but unlike Hayame, who looks half-woman and half-mare, but is related to neither… Liem truly is half-human. He looks like them because both of his parents were human, once upon a time. His sister was human. And in a kinder world, a world in which his father had never been hunted as prey and raised into something foul, perhaps he would have been born as one too.]
I told Set — because he is beyond such concerns. The wickedness and depravity of men are well familiar to him. But, [he adds, tightly,] I should point out that he never accused me of eating people.
no subject
Do you even wish to belong?
[He snaps it, impatient.]
You could seek the company of others like you if you wished — those from other worlds and other lands. They would accept you, if you let them.
[But Springstar’s centaurs are not her people. They are not jinba. She sets herself apart from them because of her own choice — because she is not one of them. And in that very same way, Liem is not one of the many human people to inhabit Kenos, though he looks like them in many ways.
But the difference between them is that Hayame has her own heritage to be proud of, and to return to if they succeed in finding a way back home. Liem does not. Liem has only ever lived among humans, though he is not one of them — but unlike Hayame, who looks half-woman and half-mare, but is related to neither… Liem truly is half-human. He looks like them because both of his parents were human, once upon a time. His sister was human. And in a kinder world, a world in which his father had never been hunted as prey and raised into something foul, perhaps he would have been born as one too.]
I told Set — because he is beyond such concerns. The wickedness and depravity of men are well familiar to him. But, [he adds, tightly,] I should point out that he never accused me of eating people.