"What do you mean?"
The words came out before Raizen decided to say them. The casual tone he'd been maintaining - the determined-but-patient interrogator - was gone. Replaced by something raw.
The lizard didn't respond.
"Hey." Raizen crouched. Brought his face closer to the toilet seat, closer to the small black shape curled against the warm stone. "What do you mean, "be careful"? What's wrong with the flowers?"
The lizard's tail shifted. The membrane along its fin caught the lantern light and made it flicker across the stone wall. One eye opened - barely. A sliver of pale gold beneath a heavy lid.
"They're not just flowers" it said.
"They are flowers. I watched them get made. Someone grew them with-"
"Someone grew the shape with Eon. Yes. That's how it's supposed to work, dummy." The eye opened a fraction wider. The pupil was round, soft, unfocused. "The shape is a flower. What's inside isn't."
Raizen's jaw tightened. "What's inside?"
