Shark found it difficult to sort their feelings towards Hollyhock Novak. He was always floating in the background of Springen’s activity, yet he was treated by Iree as someone with far more importance. Somehow, it just didn’t sit right that Hollyhock’s only job in Springen was to muck around in the dining hall.

“So what is it you, uh, do, exactly?” they asked, trying to be nonchalant about steering them away from the street where the Olyen cobbler shop stood.

Hollyhock smiled. “I make food of questionable quality, and I… Hm, well, other things I do aren’t really for me to talk about with anyone else.”

“You work in the Catacombs, right?”

He laughed, pleasantly surprised. “Ha! Straight to the point. But you’re correct. Yeah, Horizon’s not a magic suited to larger battles, though it’s pretty great in a one-on-one setting.”

“Right.” Shark paused to cast a discreet glance around them. Whenever they were in public with someone like Iree or Cerid, no one dared say anything about their traitor status. It helped that their exploits to help Sacer, however small, had been described in newspaper reports, but Sacerians weren’t the type to forgive and forget. They and Hollyhock were getting the usual stares, glares and whispers, but the atmosphere wasn’t charged for confrontation.

“Relax.” Hollyhock patted their back. “Pretty soon, people will go from caring too much about how you live your life to not giving a hoot.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice. If everyone could just worry about themselves and let other people be.”

Hollyhock whistled. “So it goes. It’s your treat, right?”

Shark laughed. “Okay, yeah, sure.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Hollyhock pulled them into a shop with pies cooling on window sills with open shutters. In one of those pies, two birds were currently frolicking, coating their plumage and beaks with thick violet-blue filling. Tables stood outside in a yard dotted with rose bushes, separated from nearby establishments by a baby-blue fence. There were no tables to be seated at inside; the bake case cut the room in half and curved along the walls, offering treat after treat nestled on wooden trays.

“Wow,” Shark remarked. “Choices, choices.”

“I know, right? I could spend all of my savings here. In fact, that’s what I’ll probably do when I’m old and near death.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“You can join me, then!” He laughed and bent to peer at each and every delicacy with a studious eye. “Hmm… Iiinteresting. Very iiinteresting.”

With this, it took them far longer than what Shark would have considered normal to have their orders and take their seats outside. The pink and white checks of the tablecloth were almost completely obscured by their plates, and even then they had to sit some in their laps to make room.

“Damn, Hollyhock. You just cleaned me out of all the money your parents gave Thea and I.”

“It’ll be fine,” he reassured around a mouthful of a raspberry and white chocolate scone. “The two of you will get your first army paycheck at the end of the month. So pretty soon.”

Oh, right. That was a thing. “Thea probably won’t be happy with that. Blood money.”

“And you?” Hollyhock had finished the scone in two bites and was now attacking a wide slice of peanut butter pie with a shining chocolate ganache layered atop it.

“I never really cared. Still don’t.”

“Yeah, I don’t really get people who are all bothered about it. That’s just the way things are.” He paused to breathe between bites. “Why ain’tcha eating?”

Shark hesitated. They barely knew Hollyhock, so it felt strange to go so personal, but they had to know. “I’ve gotta ask you. Uh, were your parents… Were they always so supportive?” Hollyhock definitely played with gender in their daily appearance more than what was considered normal in Sacer.

“Yep. Never even a question. Then again, I figure it’s different for you. I still only like girls and plan on getting married someday, so they never had to worry about whether or not I’d have kids. The reality is that it doesn’t matter who or what we are just as long as we pop out a few crotch goblins in time for the next war. Not the same case for you, right?”

“Right.” Shark had lost their appetite. “There’s no one else to carry on the line, but the odds of me having a child are…” Cerid came to mind. They hadn’t spoken since the night before, and Shark worried what must be going on in his head right now. “Honestly, they’re almost nonexistent. Ma couldn’t have any more kids after me, and Dad’s got no siblings. His line’s the one that carries Shatterer. Though things might’ve changed after I left.” Their father could have taken another wife or two to do what needed to be done.

Hollyhock tutted with sympathy. “Must’ve been rough for your momma. Assuming she wanted more children, of course.”

“It was, and she did.” John and Finnley had used to talk of it when they thought Shark wasn’t around, how scared they were of this being the end of the Olyens and Shatterer. Such conversations had only become louder, more intense and more frequent once Shark had begun to grow into their identity. “Sorry. I don’t know why I’m talking about this. It doesn’t seem like you have any advice for me.”

“Nah, not really. I can tell you this, though. Part of what Iree’s working to create is a world where you wouldn’t have to be talking about it right now. No threat of war, no need for wide-eyed tots to shove into the army. I don’t know what can change for you personally, though I hope things can get better. Either way, we can change things for people down the line.”

It was almost eerie, how closely Iree and Hollyhock’s sentiments echoed Cerid and Shark’s. They hadn’t thought about it before, but their goals really did align in a way. “So that’s what she wants,” Shark murmured. “In part at least.”

“Essentially, yeah.” Hollyhock smiled. “Even if we haven’t all had the same circumstances, we’re all in the same fight. So just lemme know if there’s anything I can do for you, even if it’s just for a laugh or to buy you some cake.”

“Oh, so you’ll treat me next time?” Try as they might, they couldn’t inject the proper laughter into their voice. “Thanks.” They stared at a strawberry sliding along the melting white frosting of a yellow cake with an orange jam layer bisecting its golden fluff. “So, how should I… I’ve got to talk to them eventually. How do I even start to go about that?”

“Hm.” Hollyhock took the time to give the question the thought it deserved while wiping crumbs from the corner of his mouth. “If you don’t feel safe going in alone, then don’t. You can even insist it be in a public place.”

“I’ll be bringing Thea along. I don’t think I need to go so far as to say we can’t meet at the shop, but it’s a good option to keep in mind.”

“In that case, just make sure that Dorothea’s prepared for whatever might happen. You don’t need her reacting badly and complicating things.”

“Shit, you’re right.” Thea’s anger could flip quickly. “Add that to the list of a million things we already need to talk about.”

Hollyhock nodded. “Best friends are complicated in the first place, but you guys are just in a weird situation.”

“It’s no weirder than…” Shark trailed off as a long shadow passed over their table. The presence of someone improperly close itched on their nerves, and they looked up, ready to tell whoever it was to mind their own business.

All went cold when their eyes met their mother’s. Finnley had changed, gotten more creases and tiredness around the eyes, but she was still the woman Shark remembered, with her strong hands and sloppy braid swinging at her waist.

“Shark?” she whispered, reaching out but stopping just short of touching their hair. “I found you. I-I read in the papers that you were back, but you never came, and I was waiting, and, and…” Her breath caught. “Please say something.”

They couldn’t do this, not without Thea. The way they had imagined it, bursting into the cobbler shop and declaring their confidence and happiness to their parents, had gone up in smoke. Helpless and paralyzed with fear, they looked to Hollyhock.

Something seemed to click when he received the silent plea. He drew himself up, a triple chocolate cake decadent enough to be deadly balanced in one hand. After smearing his mouth and cheeks with half-melted sweetness in a wild bite, he plastered what remained to Finnley’s face with a screech of “HIYAAAH!” Then, shoving a square of blueberry-mottled cheesecake into his mouth, he seized Shark’s wrist and pulled them to run.

They zipped through the streets until they arrived safely at the Tamlin residence, of all places. Once the front door had been slammed behind them, Hollyhock skidded to a stop and looked to Shark, concern and questions in his knitted brows.

“You just smashed a cake into my mom’s face.”

“I did,” Hollyhock confirmed.

“You look a fuckin’ mess, Hollyhock. Haha.” Shark covered their mouth with their hands, but the laughter wouldn’t stop coming. “What the fuck was that?!”

Hollyhock was howling with laughter then too, and, without ado, they were both rolling around on the floor in their hysterics.

“Gods, you just, all that money, all that food!” Shark gasped.

“I know!” Hollyhock was on his stomach, slapping the floor and waving his legs in the air. “I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life!”

Shark rolled over onto their back and put their hands on their chest, catching breaths. “Should we go back? It’ll probably still be there.”

“Nah. At this rate, we’ll probably be banned from the shop.”

“What notorious outlaws we are. You think a lot of people saw?”

“You know how it is. Only takes one witness and in no time the whole fort knows.”

“True. Wonder how the story’ll spin.”

“Probably in a way that makes you look as worse as possible. But it’s fine. I’ll vouch for you.”

“Thanks. Really. I don’t know what I would’ve done.” They could barely comprehend it all. Finnley hadn’t sounded angry or happy; they couldn’t tell how she really felt. But, since she’d approached Shark, been open to at least hearing them speak… Did that give them allowance to hope for something, just a little bit?

“Anytime, anytime.” Hollyhock burst into new laughter as bare footsteps padded closer, and a rudely awoken Rhys Tamlin stood over them as he rubbed at tired eyes and combed down patches of mussed hair with his fingers.

“What’s happened now?” he sighed.