"What's your budget for a coat?" Zane asks as he gets off of Danny's back.

No, we didn't walk all the way into the middle districts with Zane on Danny's back. He switched whether or not he was on our friend's back from time to time as we walked, so as to not actually hurt Danny. While he didn't actually say that's why he did it, I'm pretty sure that's why.

As much as Zane loves having fun, goofing off, and teasing people, he's still respectful of certain things, like how much someone can carry and for how long. Personal space is another matter.

"Three hundred," I answer as Zane opens the door to the store and lets us in. "Basically, how much I get paid to clean that conference room, plus a few more."

"I still find what you said beyond belief," Danny says. "There's no way they leave it that trashed."

"Ooooh, they do," I snort. "The other workers manage to do a room in two hours or so by themselves. It took Zane and me around eight hours together just to do the one. Wait – Zane, you took a picture this past one, right?"

"Yep!" Zane happily pulls out his phone and shows Danny the pictures he took of the room and some of the spills and messes we had to deal with. "I made a bet with Zach, my brother, on whether or not it's going to be worse than this on Saturday. He didn't believe me it could get worse and asked why I didn't ban the group yet."

"Why haven't you?" Danny asks. "If they're leaving it that much of a mess, wouldn't it be better to ban them and find a group that will treat the room better? Or are you waiting until you find a replacement group, to make up the loss in income?"

"We can handle one or two groups leaving," Zane says. "I mostly haven't banned them because it means I can still see Kieran here and he gets a little bit more money. It's guaranteed money for him until he finds out if he gets the job or not, and maybe some extra money once he does get it, since we're certain he'll get it."

"Security," Danny shakes his head in disbelief. "I can't believe you got an offer like that, Kieran. You must have one hell of a power. Just how strong do you become in shadows? You said 'a little bit stronger'. It's a lot, isn't it?"

"Nah," I answer. "It's only a little bit."

"They really want someone with no skills?" Danny asks. "Why?"

"Ask the Patron, not me," I stop and look around. We've walked through part of the store already, and all I'm seeing are normal clothes. "Where are the coats?"

"Oh, they're this way!" Zane cheerfully answers. "Though stock might not be the best, since people are probably buying what they can."

He leads us to the other end of the store, which suggests that he was probably letting me wander around in search of the coats knowing we were going the wrong way. Once we reach them, we find the racks half-empty already, and I can't help but gape at the prices on them. The cheapest ones I can see right now are almost two hundred dollars. I'm glad I brought three hundred for a coat.

"Are you looking for one to wear by itself, or over your hoodies?" Zane asks. "This one's cute."

He holds up a heavy winter coat that would probably be uncomfortable to wear with a hoodie on. It's also almost three hundred dollars, though it does look warm.

"I'd prefer something to wear over the hoodies," I answer. "For layers. That should help deal with winds better than just one coat."

"Alright!" He hangs that coat back up, then grabs another. "What about this one? Hey! I like this one!"

Zane starts going through the coats, commenting on whether he likes it or not, and muttering under his breath about how expensive things are anytime he finds one over my budget. As he does that, Danny moves over to the hoodies and I inspect the coats and jackets within my prince range.

After about ten minutes of searching, I find a dark blue heavy jacket with a fuzzy inner lining that looks nice. It's three hundred exact, but it feels nice and might work for what I need.

"That's a good choice," a calm voice says behind me.

Danny and Zane are arguing a few aisle over about whether or not a jacket or coat over a hoodie is better than just a heavy coat, though I'd know it's not them, anyway. The voice is different. Calmer, more focused.

"Hello, Isaac," I turn and face my childhood friend.

He's dressed in a dark brown hoodie this time, still wearing his sunglasses despite being inside. His hands are slipped into the pocket of his hoodie, and his hair is slightly-ruffled, leading me to believe that it might actually be intentional styling on his part rather than just something that had happened last time we saw each other.

"Didn't expect to run into you here," I admit. "Doing some errands?"

"The Patron asked me to deliver a message to you," his cheeks flush slightly. "I was going to call you, but he refused to give me your number, saying I had to ask for it myself."

"Oh," I say. "Yeah, I can give you my number. We didn't do that, did we?"

Isaac and I pull out our phones, and after putting in each other's contact information, we put them away.

"He has a message for me?" I ask. "Did I get disqualified despite… you know?"

"No," he waves a hand dismissively, then slips it back into the hoodie's pocket. "It's a random message, and I haven't heard of him ever wanting one delivered like this before. Only the guardians hear his voice, and only those who've finished the first year hear it for things other than missions. I've never heard of him sending a message to someone like this before."

Isaac said it twice, so I'm assuming it's important. Yet at the same time, he did say it's random. Could it be that Isaac is just repeating himself out of confusion.

"What's the message?" I ask, curious.

"He told me to tell you," Isaac says. "That 'the king of shadows kept to the shadows while here'. He can be cryptic sometimes, but I assume that means something to you?"

The king of shadows kept to the shadows while here? The Patron must be referring to Nox, Shade's "King of Shadows'. I'm going to assume it means there aren't any records of Nox while he was here on Sivalshi's back. Intentionally so, and only Shade and the Patron know of his existence.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Well, Shade, the Patron, and me. Isaac if we include just his knowledge of this 'king of shadows' that the Patron is sending me a message about.

"Yeah," I answer. "I found out about a potential ancestor of mine and had asked Danny if he'd heard of him, since I'd figured he might have been a guardian or something in the past, but Danny said he'd not heard of any famous people with shadow powers. He'd had a pet wolf made of shadows, so I figured that would be distinctive, and what's with that face?"

As I spoke, Isaac began to give me an extremely bewildered face.

"From what you said," Isaac says. "I caught that you asked Danny about him, and nothing else until you asked me what's with that face. I could see your lips moving and hear you talking, but I could understand nothing of the rest. Even reading lips didn't help me."

"Huh?"

"The Patron just outright censored you," he tells me. "Normally, it's done through a distraction so that we don't notice that we're being censored, but I'm probably too focused for that. He's never censored me before. At least, not that I'm aware of."

Why was me talking about Nox censored? Danny and Zane heard me just fine. Unless the Patron removed the memory of the discussion after Danny answered? If that's the case, did he want it censored from the start, but hadn't caught the mention in time and so did a removal after the fact?

Or he selectively censored it for Isaac himself and not the other two. Why? Does Isaac know something that, when combined with what I said, would allow him to learn something that the Patron doesn't want learned?

"Don't worry about it," Isaac tells me. "He'll probably tell me eventually why he censored me. So. What are you doing here? I didn't expect you to be here when the Patron told me you were."

"Looking for a coat," I answer. "I need something a bit better than just my hoodies since we're going into a frost zone, and figured layering a coat over would work."

"It would," he nods. "That's a good one you're looking at."

"You think?"

"Yeah," he answers, shifting uncomfortably as I try on the jacket to see if it fits over my hoodie. It does. Is he uncomfortable because I'm poor? "Do you need more clothes, too?"

"I could always use more clothes," I pull the jacket off and hang it back up. "Hopefully my financial situation changes in the next few months and I can afford to buy a few more things."

"Can I?"

"Can you what?" I ask.

"It won't make up for what I did," his voice is quiet. "But can I buy you some clothes? As-as an apology?"

Even though I told him it's okay, and it's been so many years, he still wants to find ways to apologize. Judging by his expression, if I refuse, it might feel to him like I'm rejecting his apology.

"You don't need to," I tell him. "You didn't do anything wrong, Isaac."

"I-I know," he casts his gaze down. "But maybe if I hadn't done that, you wouldn't be in the situation I'm in. Or if I'd approached you sooner, I could have helped you out more, got you a better job. Maybe helped you learn to control your power."

Oh. He's feeling a different type of guilt over things.

"Okay," I say. "But nothing too much, yeah?"

"Yeah," he lifts his head. "This place has a good selection of clothes. Let's do five shirts and five pants? Oh, and five long-sleeves, to wear under your shirts. You can wear one of the outfits to the party. If you're single, you might get lucky if you dress up."

He's definitely going to try to get me and this bi friend of his to hook up when I'm there.

"Thanks," I say.

Isaac nods, then falls silent for a few moments. I return to examining the jacket. Do I want this one? It feels nice, and it's darker in color, too. Would help me blend into shadows a little more at night if wearing it.

Blending into shadows. Keeping to the shadows. Keeping to them while here. A king of shadows who's my ancestor. I think I know what the Patron was censoring from Isaac, but if I'm right, why hide it from him?

Unless he wants each person to figure it out on their own. If that's the case, then I doubt the "while here" was part of the message and Isaac might have added it by accident out of nerves. Knowing what I said probably would have given him the last clue he needed to learn it, but would probably have counted as me telling Isaac as a result.

"Tell me who you are," Zane's voice is threatening. "And why you're staring at my friend so intently, or I'll beat your ass into submission while our friend here flags down the police after calling them."

I turn over to find Zane in a fighting stance in stone form, which has caused an obvious bulge in his pants that's probably very uncomfortable for him, and Danny standing with his phone ready. Upon seeing how worried they are for me, I look at Isaac, realizing that he's half-hiding behind a rack as we talk, probably out of shyness when dealing with me over what happened. We haven't spoken in a few minutes, so they probably thought he was stalking me and I wasn't aware despite how close he is.

"Zane, this is Isaac," I say. "He's the friend from my childhood I told you about running into the other day. He saw me coming in here and remembered that we hadn't swapped numbers, so finished what he was doing and came to chat. He's just a bit shy with me due to the last thing that happened between us before he moved elsewhere in the city."

"Oh," Zane returns to normal. "Okay."

"I've got time," Isaac says. "So I'm buying him some clothes to make up for the birthdays I missed. I'll be here for a little while."

"Really?" Zane grins. "What's the limit?"

I'm about to tell Zane that's rude to ask, but Isaac beats me to responding.

"Five pants, five shirts, five long-sleeves," Isaac says. "Or maybe we could do six? That's how many I've missed."

He meant the budget, but I think that doesn't matter to the city's top Sivalshi Guardian and vigilante.

Isaac looks at me for a few moments.

"We'll do six."

"Okay," I say. "Thanks, Isaac."

"You're welcome," he says.

"Alright!" Zane claps his hands. "I saw this shirt that I think Kieran would look cute in. Let's go take a look at it! We're all trying on some clothes! By the way, you're pretty cute. You trying to make moves on my bud? If so, you're gonna have to fight Lucas and me for him. We ain't with him yet 'cause of our own issues, but buddy-"

"He's straight," I interrupt. "Has a girlfriend he's marrying soon and a baby on the way. Also, if another guy has interest in me and you want to get with me, then hurry up and deal with your problems because I told you earlier, I ain't gonna wait forever."

"You already have a baby on the way?" Zane looks at Isaac in shock. "Huh. Guess you ain't a power user, then. Well! You didn't react badly to seeing I was one! What did you think of the bulge? It's still there. I bet I'm bigger!"

"My girlfriend likes my weapon well enough, thank you," Isaac responds. "And yes, I'm a power user. We got lucky and are quite happy."

"Really?" Zane asks. "What's your power?"

"What do you do for a job?" Danny asks. "If you can throw money like this as a gift so soon after reuniting with him, then you get paid really well, right?"

"Yeah!" Zane starts leading us to another part of the store. "Kieran said you live nearby, but you can afford the upper districts, can't you?"

"Um, well, yeah," Isaac is clearly uncomfortable, but I don't know how to rescue him. Zane and Danny together are a dangerous pair. "I have a couple of jobs that pay pretty well. I don't share my powers with those I don't know well. Kieran knows, but he was there when they awakened."

Zane and Danny both turn their gazes to me. It's for Isaac to share, not me.

"I mostly just grab whatever I can afford and buy them," I say. "But I think you two would hate me for that right now. At least, you would, Zane. So what are we doing?"

"Okay, first," he grabs my hoodie and starts pulling it up. "This comes off. Can't wear it while trying on shirts, after all."

Really, Zane? Taking off my hoodie? I let him, though, and he hands it to Isaac, who looks about as helpless as I feel. Where did Danny go? He's grabbing clothes, isn't he?

"Wow," Zane examines my shirt. "That's… really old. Look at how thin it is. Does it even keep you warm? Does your hoodie? Are you sure you don't need a new hoodie, too? Danny! Find a long-sleeve that will go with a dark blue shirt!"

"Got it!" Danny yells from wherever he went.

"I'll be right back," Zane shoves me down into a chair. "Sit here."

He steps away, and I realize that he'd led us to changing rooms. I look at Isaac again, who just shakes his head and sits down.

"You have interesting friends," he says.

"I still have to eat lunch with them after this."

"I'm going to avoid that."

"I don't blame you."

"Hey! Zane! Do you think he'd look good in this one?"

A shirt goes flying over the racks, in the direction of Zane, who catches the shirt and holds it up. I can't really make it out, but I can make out Zane's expression.

"No one would look good in this one!"

If anyone gets kicked out, I'll make sure the employee focuses on those two and lets Isaac and me do the rest of the shopping trip in peace.