Page 53 of Fathom

Barathice made her way to the far end of the table and flounced down into a chair.

I sat down in the seat Eun had offered, and he gently pushed it in for me, the heat of his body brushing against my shoulder as he passed behind me to take the seat beside his father.

“Leija, this is my father, Rictar, my younger brother Ric, and my younger sister, Eunadi,” he said.

“Lovely to meet you all,” I offered, keeping my voice friendly despite the turmoil of my feelings and the thick tension hanging in the air like humidity before a storm.

A hand reached around me, setting a delicate cup of leafy greens on the silver plate in front of me. I glanced up to catch a servant retreating, her posture low, her ears tall and straight.

“Thank you!” I called softly.

She froze mid-step and turned her head slightly, one long ear flicking back in apparent surprise. Her eyes widened before she dipped her chin and scurried off.

“You don’t need to thank the staff,” Barathice said, voice dripping with disdain. "Are you some kind of idiot? It's just likeyou Eun, to pick some pathetic little thing who thinks it needs to waste its breath being kind to the help."

"Oh goodness, you're right!" I said with a giggle. "Being a decent person is exhausting. I don't know how you manage to avoid it so effortlessly."

The entire table was silent for a moment, all eyes staring at me.

"Little thing has some bite to her, does she?" Rictar said. "Surprising."

“I’m surprised at the salad,” Eun said, changing the subject. “Last time I was here, there was nothing this green.”

Itwasa very small salad, balanced in a glass that looked more suited to champagne. Across the table, Eunadi plucked a leaf delicately between her fingers and popped it in her mouth with a contented hum.

“We’ve adjusted our menus to widen the family’s palate,” Rictar said. “You gave us a lot to think about.”

“It’s important to be able to eat anything served at a public function,” Eunadice added. “At the very least for the optics. You were right. We were limiting ourselves, and we should have listened to your suggestions.”

I couldn’t catch every word. I filled in what I didn’t know with what made the most sense. It was like listening to a show without subtitles, guessing meaning from tone and rhythm, from body language and the occasional familiar phrase.

Eun’s shoulders slowly relaxed, his hair softening downward. “I didn’t know.”

“You’ve refused all communication,” his father said, his voice unreadable. “How would you?”

“You made it clear when I was last here that there was no room for change,” Eun said. “You said if I left, I shouldn’t bother coming back until I was willing to do my duty.”

"I'm not a duty," Barathice scoffed as she crossed all four of her arms. "It's not like I wanted to marry an ugly, hairless alien like you."

I plucked a piece of salad from the glass and took a bite, this time keeping out of conversation and focusing on the food. It was crisp and sweet, a little like watercress and sugar snap peas had a baby. A perfect palate cleanser, and something to do with my mouth while the family worked through this mess. I'd defend myself if someone took another shot at Eun or me, but it wasn't my job to figure this all out. This was on Eun. As his wife, I would support him in dealing with his family, but I couldn't fight the battles for him. Especially when they were gross battles.

"That's a good point, sister," Eun said. "No one has ever explained to me why you wanted someone as strange-looking as me in the first place."

"I already explained that to you," Rictar said. "There are attributes about your species that would be beneficial to our family in the long run."

"Like what?" Eun demanded. "What attributes?"

Did Eun not even know what he was?

"Like the fact that you have good ideas about how to present ourselves in a changing society," Eun's mother said. "It wouldn't have occurred to us what an impact eating prey food at a function would have on the press. The articles have been positively glowing."

“Yes, well,” Rictar grunted, waving a hand as if that settled things. “Exactly.”

“The family’s image is important,” Eun’s mother said, her voice measured and honeyed with the kind of patience that felt like a blade. “And you made quite the splash in the news when you left. I assumed you saw the pieces that came out about us. Ieven ran that fundraiser last month, for a prey-focused orphanage. You must have heard about that.”

There was a beat of silence before his father leaned in, elbows braced against the edge of the table. “Listen, Eun,” he began, his tone shifting into something rehearsed. “We took time to think about what you said. We’ve made some changes. We don’t need to be stuck in the old ways. I can read the writing on the wall, prey species outnumber us now, and public sympathy matters. You struck a nerve when you left. People listened.”

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.