Dinner was tense.

"I know how much you want to prepare me, Father," he reasoned over his soup. "But we need the precursors for the Divine Heart, I have to harvest them myself, and that's not happening from behind the walls of the workshop."

"At least take Domo with you?"

Domo, for his part, kept away an indulgent smile, finishing up in the kitchen, not saying a word.

"I know enough to swing the sword you gave me if need be, thanks to Domo. Do we risk disobeying the Goddess because I had a chaperone? We already talked about this. Alone means alone."

Pharryl stabbed a potato with his spoon, merely halving it. A fork would have offered more drama. "Some of those ingredients we can source right on the hillside," he gestured with the spoon. "I don't see why you have to go so far afield."

Parry didn't answer, letting the comment hang in the air. Everyone in the room knew you couldn't "locally source" dire perch, wind cup blossoms or thaumic geodes.

Domo broke the stalemate. "Going due south first, are you?"

Parry nodded. "South, to Baronston. No reason not to ride the river while I can. I'll buy a few things there, then continue south east, cutting in through the marshes."

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"You'll need a compass," Pharryl frowned.

"I have one."

"A better one."

"Alright, I'll get a better one."

"I'll make it for you tonight."

Parry nodded, smiling. "Thanks, I'll leave in the morning."

The older man clanged his spoon on to the table, admittedly with better drama. "Tomorrow?! What's the rush?"

More silence. Domo took the empty bowl.

"Fine, I'll be in the workshop," and Pharryl strode off, in a mood.

Domo collected the rest of the table. "He doesn't want to lose you. He's greedy for family, and he's looking at less than half a jar left him."

"I know, Domo. He knows I have to go. This isn't a crazy dangerous thing, though. I shouldn't have to risk much to get these precursors."

"World's more dangerous than you know, boy."

Parry looked down to make sure not to betray any irony. "I'm not as naive as I was," he managed. "I won't get my pocket picked, I won't gallop off like it's a grand adventure, I won't court trouble."

"You've sense, though I'm not sure where you earned it," Domo joked. "He doesn't like things out of his hands. It took everything I had to get him to leave you to heal up in town. He wanted to take the room next to yours and watch you like a mother hen."

"I figured something like that."

"He never really got over losing your mother. I think he wants to keep you around for that."

Parry just nodded, offering his soup bone to Scratch and Sniff, who immediately fell to an internal tug-of-war upon it, growling outlandishly.

"He'll forget all about me in a day or two, catching up on those jobs he'd put off, hey?" Parry said it, not believing it.

"Absolutely," lied Domo.

They cleaned up after the meal together.