I twisted the lizard on my improvised barbeque. The scorpions were already cooked and I offered one to Rin.
She recoiled.
-"Get off that disgusting thing out of my face."
I wasn't going to waste good food and my mouth closed around the tasty morsel.
-"Shooo...griin..." I forgot to remove the stinger and my tongue was numb.
Hard to carry a conversation with impaired speech, but I was curious.
"Why didya Sauua swap ya in ya face?"
I added a mock slap to my own cheek.
Rin was enjoying my predicament.
-"Don't forget the other scorpion. Root willing, you could end up mute. That would be an improvement."
My eyes narrowed.
-"Sho sho uunny."
After adding a few more branches to the fire, I started to sharpen my knife.
Rin turned around, her face deep in concentration.
-"Your elemental affinity and your Origin... You wouldn't perchance be an Incarnation, wouldn't you?"
I froze.
-"Sho aa eshetiv."
My heart was trying to climb out of my esophagus. Incarnation. Sealing Designation. Two sides of the same coin.
Rin got that wicked gleam on her eye. She knew she had me by the short and curly.
-"I propose an exchange, as Magi we are."
I signaled for her to elaborate with one hand. The other closed around the knife.
She stood up and walked till she was standing in front of me.
-"You do everything I say, as a good henpecked husband that you are going to be, and I, in exchange, can show you some runes to get around your issues of elemental affinity."
She put her arms akimbo and lowered her face to gloat directly into my eyes.
"What say you?"
-"Tho eaashy."
She growled and grabbed a fistful of my clothes.
-"Care to repeat that?"
In no particular order, I swept her feet, pressed my dagger into her throat, and shoved the scorpion into her mouth. I pinched her and as a reflex she bit on the stinger, numbing her own tongue.
-"Tho eaashy."
