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[devoutish]

Solomons & Melborn
1108 Sweet Cream Street

[Feel free to use this space for letter/package deliveries as well as visits/knocks on the front door!]

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[devoutish]

How are you gonna do that?

[bywolves]

Showing you. Living it again. Remembering so I can lock it back up properly.

[devoutish]

Give it to me.

[He locks eyes with Royce.]

Let me keep it, in my head. It'll be safe there, and you can leave it behind.

[bywolves]

[ He shakes his head. ]

I need to keep it. It's important. But -- [ Royce glances up at Alfie. ] I'd be willing to let you help me carry it.

[devoutish]

Sharing the load. All right.

[He gives Royce's shoulder a squeeze.]

I can do that, mate.

[bywolves]

Yeah. [ Deep breath. He smiles a little, weakly. God, he feels - weird. He feels different. Being so present in those dreams, being in that Manzant mindset, and then coming back to here... he's grown. He knows. ]

Thank you.

[devoutish]

You knew me even without knowing me.

[Another squeeze.]

Suppose I should be flattered.

[bywolves]

Probably. [ Royce says, amused. ] Had you been anybody else I would've killed you for getting that close. And for using my real name.

[devoutish]

Mm. I thought about using Duster.

[bywolves]

Either way I think I would've been on guard. Duster was the reason I was put in there.

[devoutish]

I weighed it, in my head - the chance you'd think knowing your real name would make you think I was sent to kill you specifically, the chance you'd think using your code name would make you think I was just another person down there.

[Alfie scrubs at his face with the hand that isn't holding Royce's shoulder.]

Nim, though - I liked him.

[bywolves]

He saved me.

[ That's genuine, soft. ]

In a lot of ways, he saved me. I was going to go back to rescue him from Manzant.

[devoutish]

Do you know what happened to him?

[He's heard about Merrick, and he's heard about Hadrian - but he's heard next to nothing about Nim.]

[bywolves]

I went back, months after Arcadius bought me. He wasn't there.

[ Royce rubs at his face. ]

I thought he died, but then - Mercy and I were leaving to head to the elven capital, and... there he was. Acting as an adviser for the Empress. I didn't know what to say to him. We walked together for a while, and then he split off to head in another direction, and... I thanked him, but that was all I could manage.

[devoutish]

But he remembered you? Surely he did.

[bywolves]

Yeah. He did. He remembered me. Thankfully.

[devoutish]

Do you wish he hadn't walked away?

[bywolves]

A little. I could've used his help with the elves. He - he taught me elvish, did I tell you that? The bits I knew before here.

[devoutish]

You told me a bit. You hinted.

[He's going to try to pull Royce back down onto the bed, if he'll come.]

Think he'd approve of me more than Hadrian does?

[bywolves]

[ He does. He lays back down and curls right up with Alfie, closing his eyes. The question has him hesitating. ]

I don't know. Maybe. He was a mystery.

[devoutish]

[Alfie curls around him like a comma, resting his cheek on top of Royce's.]

Well. Maybe he'd lead the elves, eh?

[bywolves]

No. I'd trust him with my life to do it, but he wouldn't.

He'd get on me about responsibility and doing what I know is right, too.

[devoutish]

But you don't think you're making the wrong choice in staying here, do you. Wouldn't be very right for the elves to have a leader who didn't want to be there. That's just asking for trouble.

[bywolves]

[ He shrugs a little, quiet. ]

Hadrian thought this wasn't real. The Meadous isn't real. Too good to be true. That I'm pretending it is so that I don't have to do what's right.

[devoutish]

And Hadrian had been here for five fucking minutes when he said that.

[It's a worry that Alfie himself has sometimes, and he knows Royce does too - but as far as he's concerned, that's different from Hadrian coming to the conclusion he had. Hadrian was assuming. They were worrying based on experience.]