by Graybeard » January 12th, 2012, 11:16 pm
[OOC: Wasn't exactly intended as a Discworld reference; the Chinese curse is of uncertain origin but certainly pre-dates Discworld. Anyway...]
"Are you... thinking of retirement?"
"Good question," Layla confessed. The concept of "retirement" didn't exactly exist in that form in the Gewehr. Either you worked for them, either in their "cover" jobs in Kugelheim or out in the wide world on regular jobs, or you didn't. There were a few exceptions; Layla had heard of an old woman who'd lost a hand while doing a high-profile hit, and was now taken care of by the big shots, and there were probably others. But by and large, Gewehr members did things for the guild until they left it or they died ... or sometimes were killed after leaving.
Still, the way she'd been thinking ... "I guess so," she said. "At least becoming a lot less active. For one thing, I actually enjoy making wine." (That was true enough.) "For another thing, I don't want to expose Zachary to the kind of risks I'd have to take, to keep my hand in. I'd like to give him a better life than that. Oh, I'm not complaining about the way Mom raised me!" She felt a need to get that out there. "But I just couldn't imagine not being there for him if he needs me ... and if anything ever happened to him, I couldn't live with myself."
And whoever did it wouldn't live, period, she thought as the carriage pulled up in front of Galina's laboratory.
----
Because old is wise, does good, and above all, kicks ass.