Chéri did not actually asked the first question, so an answer, understandably, did not come. Chéri nodded. The man had assured them that he was sure and with confirmation, after they had contradicted Malachi so many times, they could do nothing but comply.

In front of Malachi, looking at him from above, oddly enough, Chéri felt less the need to stare, but was still observing, with the same attitude an animal would look at another sharing the same meadow, once they had concluded not only that the animal wasn’t a predator, but also that there was no competition between them. Chéri was starting to smile again once Malachi mention “many like them.”
“And who are “those like me”?” Chéri asked, suddenly a mask of neutrality, as still as a rock. It was so sudden it could be dizzying, how they suddenly looked like a completely different person, icy and distant.