Henry did not waste time in deciding his next course of action, nor did he so much as acknowledge his inability to deliver maniacal lines.

“Where is the nearest unprotected village?” He asked in a low and firm tone.

Amanda hesitated for a few seconds, gazing off into the distance with clearly unfocused eyes, before she finally spoke,

“Isn’t there a better way?”

“No.”

“...northwest,” she said, pointing and letting out a sigh.

Henry began marching in perfect rhythm and Amanda followed.

“There are schools you could train at.”

“There are families who would take you in.”

“Not all nations are hostile.”

Henry did not speak until she finished delivering what she must have perceived as all the viable options for him to gain strength. When at last she was done he spoke in very few words.

“These options take time. Do our enemies wait for us as we rest?”

“But it’s just so needlessly cruel.”

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“Needlessly? Xevis sent you and thirty-two others to die. Would you rather he grow stronger and kill more as we ingratiate ourselves with group after group with no guarantees of safety or benefit? I assume the Triumvirate has grown with him in power.”

Amanda was unnaturally cheery in her response,

“But you can super beat him and the others!”

It took Henry somewhat off-guard, and yet he did not show it.

“And that requires strength.”

“But you don’t have to go about it this way. There are alternatives.”

“And they’re all slower with no guarantees of success. If you want to set me up for failure like this it makes me think you’re actually working for him. What kind of person waits for someone they barely know for ten years?”

Apparently this comment hurt her, as her lips closed and voice fell silent. Henry thought he heard sniffling, but did not turn around. Nothing but the sounds of feet brushing through grass resounded through the moonlit night as it continued to grow darker. Henry did not suggest Amanda light the way, but she nonetheless provided pink-tinted illumination from a candle flame floating above. When she finally spoke some ten or twenty minutes had passed. Her voice wavered as she spoke.

“Do you know how many friends I’ve lost? How many true loves I’ve had?”

“Too many,” she continued, voice growing softer by the second. Her voice was nearly a whisper as the next words came out.

“I just want to love someone that won’t leave me behind.”

Feet continued onward through grass and pink light fell on trees whose thick and numerous trunks obscured all sight beyond ten or so feet around. Leaves blotted out the sky and there was no moonlight.

Henry allowed the swishing and intermittent silence to resound for a few long seconds before he at last replied,

“If you love me,” he at last said,

“Then why do you doubt?”

She did not reply.