Free A Girl and Her Monster (Rune Breaker) by Landon Porter

look, making her know where his loyalties currently lay. “They're hiding other things as well. Nothing dangerous to us, in Taylin's case, I'm certain.”
    The etching stopped. Grandmother sat the urn aside and laid the rod in her lap. The kindness drained from her eyes, leaving only steely seriousness. She pointed to the dusty ground in front of her. “Sit.” She ordered.
    She'd said or done something wrong, Taylin knew. Even not knowing exactly what it was, she felt terrible about it. So she dropped slowly into the posture she normally took when allowed to sit; crouched on the balls of her feet, elbows on knees.
    “All the way.” Grandmother said firmly. Almost without her own consent, Taylin complied. The halfling woman fixed her with an appraising look and clasped her hands in her lap in front of her.
    “Now. You have come to me asking that I trust my family to your hands. Every one of the nir-lumos; who you would call 'halflings', you see here is my child in spirit before the Green Maiden and the One Dice Rolling. They are precious to me in ways that your most precious possessions will never be to you. And that is why I will brook no secrets from you.”
    She leaned forward, making it clear that in no uncertain terms that between them, size was no object. “I respect that some things cannot be said, but now you must look me directly in the eye and answer truthfully: is what you conceal a danger to my family?”
    Taylin considered this seriously. She hadn't considered it and wanted now to be sure that she wasn't endangering anyone.
    Her origins were simple enough; everyone that would know to come after her was dead. The question of her true nature was a bit more murky. Never had she attacked anyone who wasn't clearly identified as an enemy, even as far gone as she'd ever been. The real question was Ru.
    There were no illusions that Ru enjoyed violence and destruction; that he was cruel and manipulative. But at the same time, he wasn't a rampaging, indiscriminate monster. He knew how to choose his battles and after the initial confrontation, seemed to accept that Kaiel and Bromun were off limits for his aggression.
    Something deep inside, a voice she refused to accept as a part of her, added that he was also fully restricted by the link. A single word, or thought from her and he would be forced to obey. She fought down that voice, wrapped it in chains of will and resolved not to even consider that.
    But it was true. Could she honestly say that she wouldn't use the link's control of Ru to protect others like Bromun's children?
    Very slowly, she raised her eyes to Grandmother's. The elder halfling's hair wasn't the only thing lightening with age. Her eyes, once likely the same near-black brown that the other halflings showed, were hazel. “Yes, Grandmother. My secrets are not a threat to those you care about.”
    Grandmother looked up at Kaiel, who nodded almost imperceptibly. Suddenly the kindness and warmth returned to her all in a rush. One small, work-calloused hand reached out and touched Taylin's forehead. “Then I welcome your help, Taylin. And if you protect my family well, I promise to share with you Sylph's gift and make you whole once more.”
    By Taylin's reckoning, everything had happened all in one day, And over the course of that day, her entire world had been swept away in a storm of welcome chaos. She had gone from the broken agony of punishment to lung burning weariness in her desperate fight to escape, to the euphoria of a powerful healing spell and the desperation of suffocating in stale air. Even the giddiness following her discovery of where and when she was couldn't top what she was feeling now.
    It was finally all too much for even she who was born to withstand the harshest treatment and conditions. She fell forward on her arms before Grandmother and was wracked with incapacitating sobs of joy.
    The cascade of positive emotions was so great that it startled Ru out of his own explorations.