His first words to her were, "You're keeping them." Not so much as a 'How do you do?'.
Jane grimaced and prepared her argument, "You saw Xene. I will be worse. Know this."
Artemus was not suitably cowed and reminded, "The result will greatly improve my research on the genetic basis behind powers. By the way, I'll need a DNA sample of your mate. Get some skin, blood, or hair off him, if you can, or you can tell me who he was and leave it to me."
Jane could imagine how that latter option would go. She almost wished it on him, for the mess he'd made. Jane crossed her arms and insisted primly, "I am too valuable to the cause to so indispose."
"You should have thought about that before you ran off with a human," Artemus said coldly. "Wirewick, you needled me over wedding a Seeker and violating subtype taboos, but at least I stuck to my own species. I would expect this nonsense of Xene, but - wait! She already did."
"We used a condom," Jane protested sulkily.
"You put your future in your hands of something that only works a mere 99.6% of the time? For shame, Jane. Now, I have a rather tall stack of books that you will need to read." Artemus paced over to his bookshelf, which was now dotted with children's books in-between the imposing technical tomes, and started making his selections.
"I could have an abortion. You couldn't stop me," Jane reminded, seething. How dare he quote statistics at her?
"You could explain to Megara, in person, why you decided to deny me a research opportunity, too," Aretmus replied cheerily. The stack of books was indeed growing.
"You could also say it never happened. Stop trying to punish me. You like having functional armour, do you not?"
"Punish you?" Artemus laughed. "Punishment was the way all of you treated me for my Seeker bride. I can and do maintain my own armour. Just get used to what you carry being more valuable than you are, for the time being. Lorelei never had a problem when we asked her to haul gold ingots."
Jane grimaced and prepared her argument, "You saw Xene. I will be worse. Know this."
Artemus was not suitably cowed and reminded, "The result will greatly improve my research on the genetic basis behind powers. By the way, I'll need a DNA sample of your mate. Get some skin, blood, or hair off him, if you can, or you can tell me who he was and leave it to me."
Jane could imagine how that latter option would go. She almost wished it on him, for the mess he'd made. Jane crossed her arms and insisted primly, "I am too valuable to the cause to so indispose."
"You should have thought about that before you ran off with a human," Artemus said coldly. "Wirewick, you needled me over wedding a Seeker and violating subtype taboos, but at least I stuck to my own species. I would expect this nonsense of Xene, but - wait! She already did."
"We used a condom," Jane protested sulkily.
"You put your future in your hands of something that only works a mere 99.6% of the time? For shame, Jane. Now, I have a rather tall stack of books that you will need to read." Artemus paced over to his bookshelf, which was now dotted with children's books in-between the imposing technical tomes, and started making his selections.
"I could have an abortion. You couldn't stop me," Jane reminded, seething. How dare he quote statistics at her?
"You could explain to Megara, in person, why you decided to deny me a research opportunity, too," Aretmus replied cheerily. The stack of books was indeed growing.
"You could also say it never happened. Stop trying to punish me. You like having functional armour, do you not?"
"Punish you?" Artemus laughed. "Punishment was the way all of you treated me for my Seeker bride. I can and do maintain my own armour. Just get used to what you carry being more valuable than you are, for the time being. Lorelei never had a problem when we asked her to haul gold ingots."
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(Yes, I read this, and my reaction is to feel sorry for Lorelei instead. I weird.)
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But it's a bit personal for you. ;)
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