Page 38 of Thief of Night (The Charlatan Duology #2)

[DRAFT] Transcription via AI from recording by Madurai Malhar Iyer

Malhar: How do you feel about needing to consume blood?

Red: What do you mean?

Malhar: Remy aside, you mostly drank it from Salt’s victims, right?

Red: You could call them my victims.

Malhar: How many were there?

Red: That depends on what you mean. There were people he had me kill for professional reasons. Then there were people with quickened shadows or people with shadows he thought he could quicken. Those who he could experiment on. Those who wouldn’t be missed.

Malhar: Did he learn anything?

Red: Eager to do some experiments of your own?

Malhar: No, of course not!

Red: Sometimes torture is an end unto itself.

Malhar: I can see why you’re skeptical of researchers.

Red: Because I’m an experiment?

Malhar: Tell me a story, Red. Help me see your life the way you do.

Red: What do you mean?

Malhar: About those times. Help me understand what it was like to be there.

Red: There was a woman, near the end. Her name was Rose.

She and Remy were together. She was good for him, I think.

Sometimes I thought that every time he made me better, he made himself worse.

She made him want to keep his emotions. But she had a powerful shadow and Remy wanted to escape, so when Salt wanted Rose, he got Rose.

Malhar: Could Remy have protected her?

Red: I don’t know. He didn’t try. And I didn’t care. I just wanted Remy to mean it this time, to leave.

Malhar: Why would this time be different?

Red: His mother was dead. And Remy thought that Salt had a hand in it.

Malhar: Did he?

Red: It’s possible, but it’s also possible that the answer was simply that addicts overdose sometimes.

An accident, like falling down stairs and breaking your neck.

Either way, Remy felt guilty for not being with her—for not trying harder to get away from Salt.

But after she was gone, he decided Salt had nothing over him anymore.

Malhar: And you were glad?

Red: Usually when Remy felt sad or guilty, he would give that emotion away to me. This time was different. He kept it, and he planned. And he continued being charming to Rose, even though he could have guessed it would doom her.

Malhar: Was he the one who kidnapped her?

Red: By then she was so used to going places with him in an anonymous black car with a driver, lying to the people around her about where she was going, that she practically kidnapped herself.

Please don’t think that I believe she bears any responsibility. No one expects evil like that. Even people who have known cruelty aren’t used to someone having no end to what they are not just willing, but eager to do. Salt was always worse than anyone imagined.

Malhar: Even you?

Red: Me, most of all. Remy tried to pay for his escape with Rose’s life. I never thought he’d pay with his own blood.