Xanthia

"I'll be your eyes, your ears and the knife in your back"

Xanthia does not laugh, but she does smile.

She has two kinds of smiles, both distinct from the other. For her first, she has perfected the art of softening her gaze from behind her goggles. She adds a touch of levity to her appearance by tilting her head just so, as if someone tugs on her ear. Finally, the coup de grace: a smile that spreads slowly but insistently over her face, reaching up to crinkle her eyes with deceptive fingers. The picture of open friendliness, an almost maternal warmth, a face that assures, “What you say matters.”
Everyone--bar those who know Xanthia--is deceived.

The second is a genuine smile. That is the first thing that distinguishes it from the other. It’s infectious; once the spread has started, she cannot stop it. Her eyes gleam, and her lips twist, exposing rows of shining, slavering teeth. Just as the first smile is carefully constructed for an audience, this one is secretive, to be hidden behind masks and in flickering lamp light.

It creeps over her face when she’s done something that’s simply delightful. When she’s given a riddle that even the Starfall Watchers’ top scholars cannot crack, unearthed a piece of information so deliciously unknown it makes her salivate, worked a knife between the jaws of someone’s rib cage until she could feel their soul crack.

For many, it is the last thing they see. She does not laugh. But Xanthia does smile.

Credit!

Drawn by Cipheres