Itzun seemed a bit friendlier now than he used to—didn’t openly tease her as often, and in general talked to her less. She couldn’t tell if he finally learned she would rather be awake, or if he just decided he couldn’t get as much entertainment out of the situation if he made her sleep for hours. Fortunately, he chose a time that didn’t leave her sleeping during the middle of the day.

Tara actually looked at him, which he seemed to appreciate.

“You’re finally being nice to me?” he asked with some theatric disbelief. He could understand her intent without her ever telling him; she knew it.

“I’ll still be glad when you’re gone,” Tara replied, frowning a bit. “Although it’s not so much a matter of doubt as it is normalcy now.”

“Understandable. From your point of view, I am the reason you’re in this situation.”

“That implies that you’re not.”

Itzun shrugged. “I’m not the one who destroyed the first island; that blame would go to humans, up the lineage as far as Aimiki and Itoki for falling in love with them. I merely chose to capitalize on that chaos to create something interesting.”

She sighed; honestly, she expected the answer. It would be nice to eventually hear him regard this in a way other than ‘purpose’ or ‘future’ or ‘entertainment’—then again, for the most part, that was all this was to him. He wouldn’t be affected personally if Dakari was destroyed, unless the higher gods turned against him for purposely ruining the people he was meant to govern.

…Admittedly, that did ease her concerns a bit. At least if everyone on Dakari—or most of them, at any rate—ceased to live, then Itzun may not walk away completely unharmed either.

Itzun noticed and gave an unamused look, but Tara continued onto a different topic of conversation, wandering over to where Itzun had placed a table and a single chair in the large room.

“You wanted to say something to me?” Tara asked. Growing worried again, she continued, “We’ve found someone who can take us to Sólstaður, but… You know the situation.”

“I do,” Itzun said. He slowly walked to join her. “And can now say that your family is more proactive about this than I thought. I expected you to try to do something on your own, maybe consulting your brother, keeping it from your parents.”

She sat down, trying not to sigh again. “It involves everyone—and at this point, they would’ve noticed if I tried to hide something from them. They know what hesitance looks like for me know; what I do when I want something to stay a secret.”

“Regardless, it’s very logical of you,” Itzun reasoned. “I agree that you don’t have an infinite amount of time here—had I known you might have refused, then I would have implemented a further fail safe. You have my word on that.”

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“I have a hard time believing that.”

He took the comment in stride. “I suppose that’s to be expected, as well. Little Tara never really liked me.”

“The girl you helped didn’t fully understand you, either,” Tara pointed out, looking at him. “She only agreed because the alternative was dying, and someone that age can’t understand what that means.”

“Yes, yes. You’re very fond of reminding me of that, little one.”

This time she did sigh. Sometimes she wondered if he got off topic on purpose, when he was the one that always wanted to talk to her.

“Bringing us back,” Tara said, slightly hesitant again. “You had some kind of input towards the situation?”

Itzun nodded, reaching the table but sitting on the floor and looking up at her instead.

“You’ve mulled over some possibilities in the time since—leaving one mother, possibly with your brother, behind. There are also things that could theoretically work, such as taking some other ship across but waiting a bit longer or asking this ship’s captain if she could come back for the rest in time.”

He shifted his position a bit—from just being there to cross-legged—and continued.

“Both would take too long,” he decided before she could even think to ask. “And besides, you’re the only one that really needs to go—you’re the only one that has the means to prevent it, at least.”

“I’m not going overseas alone.” She didn’t think she could manage to actually say anything if she did—assuming she could even make the trip. She still feared rain, after all; she fully expected to be terrified the entire time she was over water.

Itzun frowned, albeit without any true annoyance.

“If you had let me finish, you would know that,” he said. He cheered up almost immediately. “I acknowledge that you do need someone with you, if only so you don’t need to communicate through drawing or writing. And I’ve already come to the conclusion on who.”

He stood up again, smiling, and when she glanced at the table again it had a piece of paper on it. He did things like this a bit more often as well; she wondered if a combination of time and the bound blood made him stronger in her mind.

Itzun gained a pencil with the same kind of flair, which she assumed would be fairly normal in dreams any less realistic. He wrote down the names of her family members just to demonstrate.

“Simply put”—despite having just written ‘Adelinde,’ he crossed it out—“your former-queen mother would be mostly useless. She’s wise enough to recognize that, at least, unlike some others. Your blood-given mother”—he tapped ‘Rene,’ then crossed it out—“is similar. She would be helpful to blend in, but Torigami’s people are…strange. They may not take kindly to someone so clearly from ‘their island’ walking around with someone who appears to be a mix.”

“That leaves Matteo,” Tara noted.

“Right.” Itzun circled ‘Matteo’ on the paper. “For one, I personally think it would be entertaining to see you two interact. Carrying on with more logical points, he’s more familiar with Sólstaðuric culture than the other two and he’s better at understanding directions. I also believe he’s better with a knife than you are, should you run into trouble.”

She still wouldn’t be able to say much if it was just her, Matteo, and strangers, but Itzun did have a point. Matteo would be a little more likely to just…go along with her if Itzun decided there was more that needed to be said.

“…I could tell the others your thoughts?” Tara said.

“Please do,” Itzun replied, nodding. “You’ll have to wait until morning, but it won’t be very long. With the way things are going now, they should understand.”