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After they spend the day with Carey and Killian, Magnus introduces them to Avi. He’s a tall man with tousled brown hair and green eyes, which Taako stares at for a long time because he’s never seen green eyes before. They’re pretty. He says as much, and Avi laughs, long and loud. “Thanks, kid,” he says, and toasts Taako with a flask.
He’d said it’s full of a “mystery substance,” Avi but Taako knows it’s got alcohol in it. At first that made him a little nervous, because adults with alcohol in them are not adults that he and Lup typically like, but either Avi is psychic or really intuitive because he notices Taako and Lup looking askance at it and tosses it to Magnus. “For safekeeping,” he winks.
Avi winks a lot. Taako tries winking back, and Lup laughs at him ‘cause he can’t get his eye to close right, but she can’t do it either so Taako laughs right back.
Avi takes them a good ways away from the house, which makes Taako kinda nervous, to something called a museum. They’re clearly sneaking in, and Taako doesn’t like that because he thought they didn’t have to do that anymore, but they have an adult with them so they won’t get in trouble, right?
But it’s daytime but inside the museum is poorly-lit, with flickering lights and the blanketing silence that comes with after-hours. Taako know this sort of silence from the times he and Lup had to hide beneath stalls in the markets so they could eat scraps after everyone else had gone home. Those were bad days, normally. They much preferred fresh food when they could get it.
For now, though, Taako pushes those thoughts away. He doesn’t need to think about those days anymore. He has the big house and the nice people in it and more spices than he has fingers and toes.
He does press closer to Lup, though. She’s warm and reassuring at his side and she makes the flickering lights seem not-so-scary.
Avi takes them to a large cylindrical machine, crouches down in front of it. “This,” he says, grinning broadly, “is a cannon! Did you kids know I lived on the moon once?”
Lup shakes her head.
“Well, ‘s a true story.”
“Can’t be,” Lup says. She’s so brave. Taako holds her hand tightly. He doesn’t like dark places. He’s always not liked dark places and it’s brighter in the cannon room but still dark and Taako doesn’t like it. But Lup is there and Lup is his light so it’s not so bad. “Nobody lives on the moon. There’s no air up there. Barry said so.”
“Barry’s right. It wasn’t the real moon, but a fake moon up in the sky. Have you kids met Lucretia?”
They shake their heads. “Well, she’s the one that made it. Her and Lucas, you met — guess you have then, huh,” Avi chuckles at the twin disgusted faces he and Lup pull. “Yeah, he’s a nasty boy. We don’t like him much,” he says, voice dropping to a whisper, “but don’t tell him that because he’ll throw a hissy-fit and then he starts doing bad science.”
“What’s the cannon do?” Taako pipes up.
“This baby?” The metal clinks as Avi slaps a companionable palm on the cool steel. “Fires people, kiddos! We load ‘em in the sphere, I hit this red button, and we send ‘em far away!” His grin turns sharp. “Some of them get lost and don’t ever come back! Not too many, though. We find most of them eventually.”
Taako holds Lup’s hand tighter, and without glancing over her shoulder — she’s shifted in front of him, a little bit — she squeezes back.
Taako starts to feel very bad about this.
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