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“Come, hero, lend an old Ascian an ear for a moment, would you?”
Emet-Selch beckoned Eleonora over to him leaning against the base of one of the ancient trees. She stared at him. She squinted her eyes, looked away, furrowed her brows, scrunched up her nose, and slowly tilted her head further and further the longer she thought. “...Very well,” she said, returning her head and face to normal after a long and awkward silence.
“Did you really have to think it over quite that hard, my dear? Have I not earned your trust yet? Even after plucking your friend out of the Lifestream?”
“What? Oh, I just had to make sure I knew what you were asking first.”
Now it was Emet-Selch’s turn to furrow his brow and tilt his head. “And pray tell, what else did you think I was asking of you?”
“You’ve heard my accent, surely you realized this isn’t my first language? Though I have been speaking it for some time now, there are certain, er…phrases…that I must think about a bit harder still.”
“...Did you think I literally wanted you to hand me an actual ear?”
Eleonora blushed and spiked out the scales at the base of her tail defensively. “No! That would be ridiculous! No one would ask that! …So I had to figure out what you were actually saying instead!”
“Are you sure it’s only that? You may simply have a very literal mind,” he said with a little shrug.
“I–w-well…!”
That mischievous grin she knew was trouble creeped up his face. “Tell me, what do you think it means for something to be ‘above board?’”
Eleonora thought for a moment. “A reference to ship decks, yes? So it refers to something happening on the deck as opposed to below it.”
“Mm, close enough.”
“I know what these phrases mean! Or if I don’t, I can figure it out from context!”
“What about the idiom ‘to call a spade a spade.’ What meaning to you glean from that?”
Eleonora looked confused. “What is a spade? Would there be a reason to call it something else?”
This looked to amuse Emet-Selch greatly. What if I say, ‘Ferula est ferula,’ instead? You did say you learned some Garlean.”
“Oh! To speak plainly on something!” Eleonora was proud of herself for that one. “Quite unlike what you are doing!”
“Well, that’s the fun now, isn’t it?”