Cerid’s brows were knitted with sympathy, and it made Shark uncomfortable to have a stranger showing such strong emotion for their sake.

“I am truly sorry for what you must have gone through, though I admit I cannot empathize,” he said quietly, then shook his head. “Me talking about my sister so casually… How that must have felt to you! Once more, I apologize.”

Shark frowned. “Don’t feel bad for what you have just because I’ve been through something. It’s not like I’m that bitter either!” They laughed. “Like, how dare you have a happy family when I don’t! Naw.” Though Cerid’s instant and deep sincerity in his contrition was way too disarming.

“A happy family. Of course.” He tilted his head, thinking. “Anyhow, I had not thought about it like that. But you are right, of course.”

“I usually am.” Shark leaned against the bedframe, the edge of the low mattress digging into their upper back. “Uh… While we’re on the subject. Is my family still alive? Do you know?”

“I have not heard much about the Olyen family since the incident of your departure caused a stir. On that note, I shall warn you that, in Sacer, there will be those who think of you as a dastardly traitor and nothing more. You might not be treated kindly. However, rest assured that so long as you are with me, I will not allow a single word of vitriol to be said against you.” He gazed at Shark with eyes narrowed in determination.

“Huh. How gallant,” Shark teased. “You’ve swept me off my feet.” They laughed as Cerid blushed. “But seriously, why make an offer like that to someone you don’t even know?”

“Because it is the right thing. I do not have to know a person long to understand that the right thing to do is to be kind. Protecting another from harm is a part of kindness.”

“Hm.” People had different perspectives on kindness because it was a thing determined by who they thought was in the wrong. Cerid had called Dorothea cruel because she hadn’t initially agreed to do what he was fully convinced was right. He had only thought about his murdered comrades. Shark couldn’t fully say he was wrong, either, but still. Thea’s life was all that really mattered in the end. “I appreciate that, but getting too wrapped up in sticking to what you think is kind means you might not consider the perspective of the ones you’re so certain are being unkind.”

Cerid’s face fell. “You are referring to your…friend? And the things I said?”

“Yep. So, know this.” They smiled coldly and leaned in to captivate Cerid’s wary gaze. “If you or your people try to make her use her magic for your goals after she’s refused, I’ll turn every ounce of my power against you. Got it?”

Cerid shivered. “I understand,” he whispered.

Shark smiled like they had just told a funny joke. “Good! And with that, I bid you goodnight. Precious guest, you are free to have the couch. There’s some spare blankets in the bathroom closet and some dried fish wrapped up on the counter if you get hungry.” They had never claimed to be a generous host, and Shark felt not one bit guilty as they plopped into bed. “Prepare for an early morning,” they called as an alarm clock was wound up for an hour before sunrise.

“Goodnight,” Cerid called timidly a few minutes later after he’d settled himself.

Shark’s rest proved to be fitful, interrupted by flashing dreams, brief reels of images that always morphed into something grotesque and yet familiar by the end. The garden where they had buried their love notes to a boy, overgrown with thorny weeds. The warmth of a clandestine, panicked first kiss growing in intensity until it burned, burned, turning Shark to ash, smoldering, angry eyes that knew the truth of backwards desire. The eyes of the people that had been supposed to protect and love them, fizzling out into indifference.

The memories and their transformations were fleeting, and Shark got maybe two hours of sleep between them all. That was partly why, when they at last woke to the sound of a tortured, fearful scream, they were able to leap into action.

The movements of that previous life came back in an instant. Shark didn’t even register the appearance of the intruder before they had subdued them, going in bent low and sweeping the legs out from behind before straddling the body with both hands going to the neck to snap it. The instant between Shark gathering force and completing the killing blow was when the enemy made to counterattack. They grinned the grin of a soldier who knew their life was about to end and flailed faintly in Shark’s grasp.

The attacker’s hand brushed the floor, and Shark braced to be hit with whatever magic was about to ruin their day and possibly kill both them and Cerid. Cerid, however, acted in the nick of time, hurling himself over the back of the couch to land hard on the floor and put his hands over the intruder’s face. It didn’t matter where he touched, only that he did. Such was the Creed family’s Thaw magic, able to nullify any other magic it came into contact with. With that, a life was taken into and ended by Shark’s hands. The unknown attacker sputtered and gasped, and what sounded like a sob leaked from gaping lips before a life ended with a sharp crack.

Shark found themself shaking as they drew back. What had just happened? It had been just like the past, as if nothing had changed, as if they had never even left Sacer in the first place.

“Mister Olyen… Shark,” Cerid croaked, snapping them back to the moment.

“Are you alright?” Shark asked urgently.

“I am… I apologize for causing you concern,” Cerid replied, getting to his feet unsteadily. He held up his hand, in which a short blade had been embedded. “Luckily, I woke up in time to defend myself. If you can call this defense.” He frowned. “By any chance, do you keep a key outside?” His teeth closed on his lip, and it seemed more than anything like he was trying not to cry from the pain as blood streamed down his knuckles to soak his sleeve.

Yep. Right under the mat. Being in neutral lands had made Shark careless. “Come on. We need to get you to Thea and leave Sirpo before any more of them come.” The attacker had to have been a Ghurian soldier. It would be too much of a coincidence for a member of Sacer’s Creed family to be randomly attacked by a nobody on the same night he arrived in neutral lands.

Whether they liked it or not, the time to venture out of Sirpo had come.