Nox exhaled slowly, his pale eyes drifting toward the ceiling as if searching for the right words in the shadows above.
"Seems like if I don't tell you now," he said quietly, "Julian never will. So I'll tell you."
The women around the table leaned in slightly. Even Veronica, who rarely showed interest in anything that wasn't directly useful, was listening with uncharacteristic stillness.
Nox's voice dropped, becoming softer, more distant.
"Julian used to be... very quiet. Almost never spoke. You could put him in a room full of people and he'd just stand in the corner, watching, saying nothing." He paused. "That wasn't because he was shy. It was because of his parents."
Fey's eyes narrowed. "Abusive?"
Nox nodded once.
