[Liem surfaces briefly from his mortified reverie to puzzle over this question, wondering if, in asking it, D is referring to the scuffle that had landed Gen in jail. He has no idea just how much Gen actually told him about their interactions, but it doesn’t sound like he delivered a very detailed picture.]
No, his retribution was quite immediate. He secured Set’s cooperation, and sent him to retrieve the shard from me by force instead. I resisted Set only briefly before relenting and surrendering it into his keeping.
[Partly because Set was beating the stuffing out of him, but also because he had been so clearly wounded, in some deep and animal way, by what Gen was holding over him. And because Set hadn’t wanted to keep hurting Liem to get the thing he’d come for.
That, actually, is the only part of this whole story that still makes Liem frown. Set may have done many, many terrible things in his long life, but he hadn’t deserved the misery Gen had inflicted on him. Not from Gen.]
I don’t know why he didn’t just come for it himself. Perhaps because he wasn’t confident he could take it from me, and he knew that Set would be able to. A fair enough assessment, I suppose.
[Liem’s always been a slippery little guy; if Gen had come for him to take the shard by force, Liem probably would have just ditched him. But Set had been rather impossible to shake off.]
no subject
[Liem surfaces briefly from his mortified reverie to puzzle over this question, wondering if, in asking it, D is referring to the scuffle that had landed Gen in jail. He has no idea just how much Gen actually told him about their interactions, but it doesn’t sound like he delivered a very detailed picture.]
No, his retribution was quite immediate. He secured Set’s cooperation, and sent him to retrieve the shard from me by force instead. I resisted Set only briefly before relenting and surrendering it into his keeping.
[Partly because Set was beating the stuffing out of him, but also because he had been so clearly wounded, in some deep and animal way, by what Gen was holding over him. And because Set hadn’t wanted to keep hurting Liem to get the thing he’d come for.
That, actually, is the only part of this whole story that still makes Liem frown. Set may have done many, many terrible things in his long life, but he hadn’t deserved the misery Gen had inflicted on him. Not from Gen.]
I don’t know why he didn’t just come for it himself. Perhaps because he wasn’t confident he could take it from me, and he knew that Set would be able to. A fair enough assessment, I suppose.
[Liem’s always been a slippery little guy; if Gen had come for him to take the shard by force, Liem probably would have just ditched him. But Set had been rather impossible to shake off.]