Phei did not look up immediately.
He had been half-expecting this particular ambush for weeks. Ever since the second time he'd talked cheerfully dinged in her presence, he had known the fairy who already read his mail, his memories, his grocery lists, and apparently his entire anime backlog would eventually notice that something else was reading him...
She knew something about the system but not really what it was.
He was also, under no circumstances, in the mood to explain a video-game reward interface to an entity older than the concept of written language.
So, he lied. Beautifully.
"It's a… cosmic ancient reward thing," he said in the relaxed, slightly bored tone of a boy describing a mildly embarrassing rash. "When I accomplish something of significance, something rewards me. I don't really understand the mechanism. Came with my awakening. Tied to my bloodline, I think. Never really dug into the rules."
He delivered the entire sentence without breathing.
Without blinking.
