"I really don't need this, but thanks," Eknie said, sipping the herbal tea Ted had prepared for them.
"That was quite a show you put on up there," the cult leader said. "Are you all right?"
"Sure," Eknie said with callous nonchalance. "She's dead, isn't she? And I got my point across. If I can't have you…"
Ted noted that he would have to go to amazing lengths to even talk to other women with licentious goals on his mind. This was a challenge, not a detriment at all - Ted liked difficulties in his life, they made him feel hypercompetent.
"I get your point, too. There's a reason I didn't push you into the maw of the sun god back then, you know," he said and dipped a little cookie in his tea.
The cookie got too moist and crumbled in an anticlimactic display of liquid triumphing over solid matter.
"I know," Eknie said, but this time she didn't look away.
