milliways_bar | (no subject)

River listens intently.

She likes stories.

"My teacher -- Cort -- was the best. 'Twas nearly always him who took home the goose. And yet it was Vannay, my tutor, who taught us riddles."

A small smile, as he thinks of Joe. "I've never been good at thinking around corners."

She frowns. "Brains don't have corners." Patiently, "They're wrinkly."

"Not literally," he says. Roland has seen his share of human brains. Spilled on battlefields, mostly. "And you cannot think literally if you mean to solve a riddle. Is it not so?"

River looks sulky.

That's probably a yes, and it's annoying.

Roland studies her for a moment.

"Vannay taught us things from books. History, and geography, and things gunslingers should know. How to think around corners. Cort taught us the rest -- the way of the gun. What we would need to survive on our own, and as part of the Tet of the Gun. Fighting. How to shoot."

She tilts her head and looks at him.

After a moment, "Don't need to teach. You learned."

"Had to teach," he says. "Eventually. When I drew Eddie and Susannah, and Jake."

A long pause.

"There are times when I wish Cort were here."

He's never said that to anyone outside his tet. He's not sure why he says it now.

There's a short silence.

She smiles a little. "Bar would confuse him."

Roland considers.

"Perhaps at first, as it did all of us. But I think he would settle in well, after he grew used to it."

Cort often went to Gilead Low-Town, after all, for carousing.

This makes sense.

She looks at him, after a little bit. "No students."

It might be a question; it might not. It might be about Cort, or about Roland. Hard to say, sometimes.

"Not here, for me. Not any more." A pause. "Jake passed his trial, as I passed mine."

She wraps her arms around her knees, and looks at him.

"All grown up now."

It's a sad smile, now.

"You say true."

She nods.

Solemnly, "Say sorry."

Roland looks at her for a moment. The smile fades.

Quietly: "No reason to be. It happens."

Her gaze wanders off again. The fire is interesting.

After a while, she tells it, "You like it. Teaching."

Roland nods. "I do. Didn't think I would, but I do."

"Good at it," she comments mildly, to the fire.

"I do well enough, it seems." A small smile. "Though Eddie could still be a bit better. Doesn't clear leather quite fast enough."

River looks at him sidelong. "Talks too much," she says solemnly.

River likes Eddie.

"That he does. Though at least he doesn't have a hat."

She looks thoughtful.

"He could."

"So long as he isn't as tender of it as Cuthbert is his, I care not." Dry.

She tilts her head back against the chair and looks at the ceiling.

"Joanie likes it."