He listened. Did she understand the weight of that? Oh, Glenn Burnie always listened. That was what he did. That was what set him apart from all the rest. Then, however, he listened on his own terms. From the moment she had entered his house, this conversation had been on her terms. It did not mean that he responded how she liked, no, but he certainly listened that way. He let her move to and fro. He would retreat a step but not bar her path after him. He let her breathe his air. He let her move his skull. Here, now, this once.
It was cold, perhaps, for the truth was often so, but it was willing, far more than the truth usually was.
Eventually, though, he must speak again. Again, it was no word she wished to hear. "Reward is a dangerous way of putting it. You'd play into her hands. Debt is better. Be exacting in your language. Ask for less than you think you deserve but more than she'd want to give. She deals with change and the perception of change. That's what you don't want. Find something tangible. Something indirect. Make sure to get the words exactly right. You'd do well to check with me first, but you won't, I imagine." What had he asked of Finn over the last many months? What boons? Often, he had escaped the lure by showing his own vulnerable underbelly. He was nothing but vulnerability. Wynsee was not much different, in her own way, but she was far less at peace with it. Her war may have been self-deprecating, but it was a loud, clamorous thing, and to make demands based on it would doom her without question. "All those stories of wishes gone wrong? That's history to her. If you want a starting point to converse with her for whatever reason, that would not be a bad one." It was a fine enough one for him, though he hardly thought Gloria wanted to get into a deep discussion about the fallacies inherent in an oral, story-based history then and there. Maybe later. "If you have a legitimate debt, she'll pay it. Just take care." Reiteration, rote repetition, was the way Wynsee had been taught as a child. There was little harm in reemphasizing here. Yes, he listened, always, but there was a cost to the unburdening. The calculation, the formula, in how he would see you always changed with every new piece of information scurried away.
It was only with her final question, as she focused on the fire and the finery, that Burnie allowed himself to smile. As he had noted many times recently, internally and externally, he was, after all, only human. "No one ever asks me that, Gloria. I realize you do it, in part but only in part, out of spite and loss and frustration and fear and as a burr to press into my heel and force me to walk with until you are satisfied that I have shared in your pain, but that makes it no less direct and no less appreciated. It will make my answer no less earnest and only a little more frustrated." He was a known entity. She did not come here for embraces or even apologies, not realistically. Information and ideas? Far more than she wanted of either? Whether that was her intent or not, it was the reality of this moment. The floodgates had been opened thrice: once by events she was only beginning to see the broadest hints of and the most indirect and visceral ways, once by her arrival, and now finally by her question. The water poured forth and what man-made fire could stand to it?
"It comes down to what you want, what you need, and what responsibilities you have that neither you nor the world can possibly bear to shirk. I would have you balance these things, and if necessary, I would invest my own means into this fateful endeavor. First," and here he had to almost physically restrain himself for his index finger very badly wished to rise up to assist in punctuation, "there is the matter of your mission here; is it complete? Second is the matter of your child, which is, of course, tied to the first. You put yourself at the mercy of another, unknown entity with plots and plans and desires of its own for reasons clear and unclear. A child is a burden and an end of freedom, but in this case, where you've left her seems a burdensome constraint as well. Those matters dealt with, we can get to what you want and what you need. You need safety from Meeda's people. You need opportunities to grow, to develop your acumen and skill. You likely need to face some of those things you ran from. You want personal connections, but ones on your terms, perhaps? Better rough than real if real could hurt you? I don't know. What is it you want, Gloria? Knowing full well that to get it, you'll likely end up utilizing my means, as a friend or a supplicant, that being your choice, as opposed to that of Ruann, to whom you have no real choice at all."