 Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?
Brandon's sister certainly cared about him, perhaps a little overmuch. But could he really blame her? After all, the slightest distressing news would leave him worrying about his siblings for days (even about Charlie, who didn't even like him). It was slightly silly to call her overprotective when he was just the same way. And of course, he was unused to being cared about, so being sent three sneakoscopes in three years made him feel loved.
The first lesson question was about sneakoscopes, actually. Brandon knew a good bit about them, seeing as he had quite a few. He took notes on everyone else's answers, fighting back the urge to correct or elaborate on their answers or at least point out that Solomon was talking about the wrong artefact. Nobody liked a know-it-all, he reminded himself. And he was being too critical of everything these days. "I don't think it necessarily detects bad will or lies only... it goes off every time my little brother tries to prank me. But it's intended to detect untrustworthy actions, including but not limited to to lying and dark magic. Unfortunately, it doesn't reveal the source or nature of the untrustworthiness." So it was impossible to tell whether his brother was plotting his demise or whether his sister had simply been lying about liking their stepmother's cooking. "It's a bit stressful to have them around, honestly. Untrustworthiness is around everywhere, in many different degrees." It was like a rememberall- useless if you didn't know why it had been activated. It certainly didn't help his paranoid feelings. |