Dorothea felt more lucky than she could convey to have Rhys by her side currently, but the anxiety emanating in waves off him as he crouched next to her was not helping a great deal.

“Just breathe. Tilt your chin up to stop the bleeding. Or was it that you’re not supposed to tilt your head back…?” He peered in when she kept her head bowed, hands covering her nose and mouth. “Hey. Can you hear me?” He sounded doubtful and scared of what hidden extents might lie behind Juncture’s aftereffects. “Woah!” he gasped when she pushed him away and rose onto her knees with her hands splayed on the ground.

The feeling of her stomach flipping and then gathering a heavy mass at its bottom before sending it upwards in a bitter rush was one Dorothea hadn’t felt in a long time, but she’d known she was about to vomit. It was slight, a primarily clear puddle of fluid due to her stomach being empty after the course of the day, but it still rushed up her nose to choke her as her head bowed over the mess while she retched. Dimly, she felt Rhys beside her again as his hands gathered her hair.

When she sat back, gasping and wiping at her face, the wetness around her mouth and nose and the cold sweat on her forehead, he searched her eyes with endless concern furrowing his brow. “Is this always what it’s like…?”

Dorothea grasped her left wrist with her right hand to try and get both arms to stop trembling. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. Let’s go.” Taking a break here wouldn’t help. The only thing that would was a long rest, and they’d been away from Springen for too long in the first place. Sunlight had faded from them now, leaving the sky a tapestry of dark navy and violet with orange and red streaks clinging on. “Sorry.”

“Are you sure?”

“We can’t stay here.”

“Tell me if you need a break.” He pulled her up and kept a cautionary hand on her back as they trudged onward. When she started to veer off from the proper direction, he tugged. “Stay steady.”

“No, it’s not that. I want to go back and check where we left Sharkie and the others. Just in case.”

“They’ve gone home by now, Dorothea.”

“Please.”

He groaned but turned with her on the slight detour, their footsteps whispering atop and through long grasses. When he stopped walking and sucked in a breath, Dorothea snapped to attention. First, she caught a flash of bright green almost glowing in the grass. That was Cerid’s hair. Then she saw the white sections of Ariana’s jacket and Shark’s inert form.

Dead, all three of them.

A keen of terror rose from her throat, but Rhys held her back from moving. The fact that he had barely spared the dead a glance led her to follow his gaze.

On cue, two dreadful and familiar voices crept to them, silhouettes until now unseen becoming ghastly apparitions as they stirred. “I figured one of them would come back at some point. But both? How fortunate,” Johanna Marley commented through a wide yawn.

Gren Fall lingered behind her. “Remember, I told you to relax. The time for revenge will come later.”

“You know what would be better than that? Having it right now.”

“Later, Johanna.”

“Easy for you to say! It’s not your brother that got killed!”

“Your brother went in alone of his own volition, against Eunice’s orders. His recklessness can’t negatively influence our moves.”

“You know what? You and I are going to trade words about this later, you bastard. For now, you just do what you came here to do. You’re damn lucky Mina owes you a favor.”

As they had their exchange, Dorothea’s life flashed before her eyes. For the first time, there were things she desperately wished she could have done. She hugged Rhys’ arm, pinpointing the exact point in time she wanted to return to, and he tensed in preparation.

“Wait,” Gren said quickly yet, as always, without feeling. “Please. Wait.”

Against all proper reason, something gave her pause. “W-What?” Her own voice was unfamiliar to her, tight and high with fear.

“I have to ask. Are you under the impression that we destroyed the village of Equin in Sirpo?”

“I am, because you did,” Dorothea confirmed with all the feeble rage she was able to muster. Her body wouldn’t stop shaking. Why were they toying with her and Rhys like this? If one of the Ghurians took a single aggressive step, the slightest twitch, she’d decided, she would reverse events to before she and Rhys had even walked into the fort at all that day so they could come up with a plan.

“I see.” Gren folded his arms. “If that village still stood… If it had never been harmed, would you have joined the Sacerians in the first place?”

What was he trying to say? No, it was obvious. He was trying to plant doubt, convince her that they hadn’t committed the atrocity that had stripped her and Shark of their home and safety. She wouldn’t let it work, especially not with the dead bodies of three friends behind her. “Don’t try to—”

“Please answer the question.”

She answered to stall more than anything. “I… I wouldn’t have.” But it was the truth. That was the core of the whole alliance between herself and Sacer. She wanted to go home with the assurance that the ones who took that home away would never attempt to do so again.

“I’m going to tell you this.” Gren sought out and fixed on her eyes even in the darkness. “We did not touch Sirpo.”

The larger part of her refused to take these words in. “What good does that do any of us now?” Dorothea gasped, almost laughing. “After what we just did!”

Gren shook his head. “The truth is all I have for you, unfortunately.”

“I’m tired of this bullshit,” Johanna snapped. “Can’t I just kill them already?! I don’t get the point of telling her this. It’d be better for everyone if she just fucked off and died.”

Despite herself, Dorothea flinched. Well, it was no surprise for enemy soldiers to feel that way. Rhys freed his arm from her hold and drew her in protectively, lifting his other hand in warning and throwing a baleful glare at Johanna in response to her words.

Gren let out the softest of breaths that might have spoken to impatience or tiredness. “I understand your feelings on the matter perfectly. You don’t need to continue to reiterate them.”

“I could leave you alone, you know, and you’d have to get all the way back without my help. How would you like that, huh?”

“I don’t believe you’d appreciate my honest answer.”

“Would both of you just shut the fuck up?” Rhys snapped. Dorothea jumped; after hearing him swear like that, it only became more clear how on edge he was.

Gren barely cut him a glance. “Time to go.”

“Next time, I get to kill them.” Johanna did a little hop, and ice shot from beneath both feet. It ferried her and Gren to the sky and, in a great shattering of the already splintered trees in their path, they were gone.

“I honestly don’t understand how both of us are alive right now,” Rhys wheezed. He almost buckled as Dorothea rushed to kneel by Cerid, Shark and Ariana to do her work. It was a good point, though. They had once again been spared under Gren Fall’s discretion…

Shark’s restoration came first, and she let out a sob of relief when they sat up with a gasp. “Thea!” They caught her up tight in their arms. “You’re okay. Shit, I’m so glad you’re okay.”

She was being enveloped with enough pressure to suffocate, and it was a beautiful feeling. “Shark…!” she sniffled. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have left you alone…!”

“All’s well that ends well, Thea, so buck up. We’ve got more to do, and you’ve got this.”

Even such little words from them gave her endless strength to keep going. “Okay.” She crawled to Cerid, then Ariana.

“I am sorry,” Cerid said ruefully. “Because of my failure, you have had to…”

Shark shook their head. “It’s not your fault, Cerid. They came out of nowhere.”

“Yes, they…” Cerid glanced at them, hesitant. “Indeed.”

“He’s a real animal, the Fall kid,” Ariana noted in a dark tone. “You can see it in the way he moves. But I shouldn’t be surprised. Someone like him.”

Dorothea was surprised to hear her talk like that. Gren was one of her own people, wasn’t he? “Ariana… But you’re alright? The three of you feel fine?”

Shark wrapped an arm around her waist to help her stand. “You’re the one who’s looking worse for wear, Thea. Come on, I’ve got you.”

Like that, she was hoisted into their arms, so familiar and safe. This was only one step, she knew, in the larger battle that awaited them. The future was uncertain, and what plans she’d had were falling away from her addled brain.

Gren Fall… Who was he? What did he want, and what were his goals? An intractable curiosity, a hunger for answers, had been seeded. His words and their implications wouldn’t stop spinning in her head.