Daivad made Julius a great big helping of his favorite Cinnamon Fry Butter Apple. Mostly it was because if not for the fuzzy little beast, Pait and Tash might not be here anymore, but also it was because he had quite a few words to give to Nyxabella, and he needed Julius to carry them to her as promptly as possible.

There was a chance, however slight, that she knew what the hell this flesh monster was that was stalking his camp, and he needed to know if there was even the slightest chance of safely freeing the people trapped inside it.

Pait had told him the whole story while they sat at his kitchen table, her voice surprisingly even, if strained, loud enough to be heard over the sound of Julius and Kitten having some nonsense argument in the other room. She told him about her dream that she wasn’t sure had been a dream, Ori’s voice, trying to keep Tash within her grasp and chasing after her when that failed. The guards had already described the monster to Daivad, but Pait had gotten the best look at it—she recounted its silent movements, the way it had shuffled body parts around as it needed, and the way Ori seemed to be struggling to fight its control.

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As she spoke, her eyes stayed trained on a ring in the wood of the table, totally focused and yet unseeing. Her voice was flat. Her hands stayed clenched. The expression, or rather the lack thereof, on her brown-and-white face was one Daivad knew well. It was the expression of a dam that was under far too much pressure.

He let her run out of words before offering any of his own, and that was only after he’d given them careful consideration over a stretch of silence. Which words were the right ones? Which had Auxica given him any of the thousand times he’d worn that same look on his face?

Fuck if he knew.

So he just picked some of his own.

“I’d name it pretty impressive for a girl of the walls to go rushing outside them at night to save a kid from a monster. Hell, I’d name it the same for just about anyone.”

For a beat she just kept staring at that ring on the table. Then her pale lip trembled. Then little brown eyes looked up at him, shining with tears. And then she dissolved into sobs.

Daivad stood up and began to gather the ingredients for cinnamon honey cake.