Worthy

[MP]

The moon lay on the surface of the water, flat and still as a dead thing as Sarkany touched down in a sigh of aether. The water looked brackish and the bare trees thrust at the sky like claws, but at least the place was quiet and undisturbed. He rested for a moment, eyeing the reeds and branches and underbrush to be sure of it. No sign of cameras or surveillance. No prints or scent of vehicles outside the normal routes. Not yet.

His talons flexed on the cold soil, and he hunkered down on his haunches, motionless but for the occasional twitch of his tasseled tail. The savage hawk-like eyes had narrowed to slits. Half the night to confirm the obvious: that the path from the mountains was clear. That was nothing. After all, who would waste their resources - their secrecy - on flying prey? From here the boy would have to go on foot, or else be seen by humans in his commute. From here, he would be vulnerable. 

Where next?

He rose in a flowing trot and drifted along the lakeside, up along one bank, then down the next. From time to time Sarkany paused, watching, listening, scenting, head angling to get a better lay of the land. Where would he wait? Where would he strike, knowing the prey as Viktoria and surely the operatives now did? He lowered his head and flew on, looking at the lakeside through predator's eyes, through man's thoughts, picturing where and how best a hunter might think to ambush.

[Sharei]

After rereading the same line six times, Isaac closed his eyes with an exasperated sigh and put down the budgeting report with a whump. The pages slid across the glass top of his desk and he compulsively straightened them, squaring the corner of the stack against the corner of his desk to compose himself. He did the same to his keyboard, then laid his silver pens in a neat row. When everything was exactly as it ought to be, Isaac tented his hands in front of him.

Sohl, he said, interrupting the extremely distracting pacing his bonded was doing in the back of his mind. Sohl was not actually present, but Isaac could feel his anxiety all the way across the city. The time blinked 10:45pm at him from the corner of his steadily glowing monitor. Just what had gotten into the young man? What is the matter?

The impression of restless movement halted at once, replaced by one of nervous energy. It muffled, held, and then sprang back to focus as Sohl tried and failed to keep his emotions under control.

Sorry Isaac. I'll try to be quiet,came the contrite thought. There was a tremulous pause. He could leave now, and Marchelute would never be the wiser. Oh, but Father would be so angry. Maybe instead...an undercurrent of hope and appeal ran through the link as an idea was considered and almost immediately rejected. It was just... It's just, he left again. Father left again tonight. He wouldn't tell me where he was going.

Is there a problem with this? Isaac asked, though he could tell from Sohl's turbulent emotions what the answer would be. Or perhaps I should say, why is there a problem with this?

A flicker of thought. The residual stamp of an emotion pressed like a leaf in the pages of his memory. The night they'd brought the agent back. It came to Isaac through the bond in a rush.


"Re korrh." [Go home.]

Earnest, tentative. "Hye ouh -" [But if I can help -]

How the yellow eyes had blazed at him. "Kre korrh." [ I said. Go. Home.]

"Y rasg wunoshe - wunoshe hnei." His words had grown stronger, a passionate appeal. "Woshe Icarim. Hmanu ygari-" [If there's trouble, then let me face it - let me stand with you and face it. I'm Icarim, same as you. You don't have to do it all alone -]

And it had gone back and forth, the tension rising, until the snarl had cut him off. An almost roar.

"Araakt! Sjau la." [Sit down, whelp. Know your place.]

The words had cut like claws. Sohl had flinched back from them - flinched back from the very memory of them now. Isaac felt Sohl's pain like the sharp edge of a blade. Then the thought passed in a moment, a guilty flicker just barely repressed.

There isn't, Sohl answered after a moment. He says there won't be. But... Misery surged through the link. He'd never voiced the fear to anyone - never once spoken. But how could he not so much as think it? But what if there is? What if he gets hurt and no one's there? I don't even know where he is, and if he - I - I can't save him twice, Isaac.

The thoughts came in a torrent now, terror and frustration and loneliness blending until the thoughts were barely coherent. I've already had my try, and if something happens to him now, there's nothing else I can do. And it's not like in Az's stories. He won't let me help him - he won't even talk to me half the time with his haneh, and I - I don't think he even wants me around.

The thoughts shuddered to a stop, shocked to silence. The next instant that final thought was quashed, erased, pushed to such a far corner of Sohl's mind that he might have never thought it all. An impression, a denial, an unspoken no was etched in the other's mind. Isaac stared unblinkingly at those emotions.

He'll be alright, a calmer thought resumed. He's strong. I know he'll be alright. I'm sorry, Isaac. I'll be quiet.

A silence stretched for an uncomfortable amount of time as Isaac processed what Sohl had told him. His mind was glass-like, a serene pool of water in an undisturbed mountain glade, but deep beneath the surface, the currents were churning. Every ounce of his mind was devoted to whatever he was thinking about, and that left little room for surface thought.

Then there was a ripple, small and soft at first, a caress down the golden Icarim's head, the echo of an imagined touch, and Isaac came back to himself.

There is no need for you to be quiet. I will never ask that of you unless there is a great need. Do not be sorry to feel. Never be sorry for that. Another pause. A tentative, comforting brush of his thoughts over Sohl's, enveloping him in a warm embrace across the distance of the city. Has your relationship with him always been this strained?

It was Sohl's turn for silence. A frail thread of thought was squirming like a worm on a hook, looking for a way out. No, no, it insisted. But the truth yawned behind it. And Sohl had never been one to lie.

Yes, he admitted. But not for everything. He never doubted I was his son. And he never minded that I'm imprinted or mixed blood or too friendly with humans sometimes. We go hunting together, and sometimes he tells me stories. But... The warmer, sunlit thoughts waned and faded.

He's never been happy with what I am. A Walker, I mean. I thought we could work together, but he was...he was so angry when I told him... A trailing pause. A flicker of teeth in Isaac's mind's eye. So I practice on my own. I don't tell him what I do. I know it's wrong, but...it's just...a long time ago, he made a promise with someone, and they weren't able to keep it. I wanted to...I don't know. Set things right. For all of us. And if he won't help, I'll do it for him. I guess as long as I do...we'll have to come to teeth over it.

A frown turned down the corners of Isaac's mouth. He does not like what you are, so he distances himself from you.
 
It wasn't a question, but a statement, a confirmation of the words and thoughts that Sohl was sharing with him. It wasn't a nice thought, but an ugly thing, full of the frustrated loneliness that they both knew all too well. Sohl's dismay caused Isaac's lips to writhe back from his teeth, revealing the fangs he was normally careful to contain while at the office. His grip on his own hands tightened and relaxed reflexively. It was a struggle to keep his own emotions from boiling over into the link, but Isaac reigned them in with an effort. Sohl did not need that now on top of his own harried thoughts. 

Isaac settled his emotions into a flat line. Sohl, he said in a quiet, serious tone. Where are you now?

For the first time, Sohl's thoughts were almost bitter. In Mister Marchelute's bunker. Where Father told me to be. Beneath the dull recital, something approaching defiance surfaced. I'm to stay here until he's sure of the territory. In case Viktoria comes back.

Do you know how to work the GPS on your phone? Isaac asked softly. I am going to give you an address. I want you to go there.

A spike of anxiety. For all that he had imagined sneaking out, the actual opportunity - the thought of his father's and likely Marchelute's fury - sent his mane flat. Isaac got the impression of Sohl looking around nervously. What address? He said to stay here.

I know he did, Isaac said somberly. But that is not a place for you to be right now, I think. I would have you surrounded by light and comfort. The address is my home. I can be there with you soon.

I... A wavering pause. Again Isaac felt the tiercel move, and nearly saw through the other's eyes, he was concentrating so hard on the young man. Sohl glanced toward the hallway, perhaps in the vain hope that his father might even now be returning. I know GPS. Let me tell Mister Marchelute first. He can tell Father. Then I'll come.

There is no need to wake Marchelute, Isaac replied with the barest shrug. I will inform your father. I know how to contact him. And when I meet you, I will show you how to use your new senses to track him from a distance, if you wish. These are skills you seem in need of, and you are ready to learn them.

At the promise of knowledge, of help, the wavering thoughts cemented into a kind of wan certainty. Alright, Sohl agreed. There was a long silence. Then, softly. Isaac? Will you make sure he's alright? When you talk to him?

There was a long pause, then a soft, yes, Sohl. You may rest easy tonight knowing that I am watching.

Alright. See you soon, Sohl answered, and Isaac felt his thoughts grow dim as the young man moved his concentration away from their conversation. Isaac quickly sent a text to Sohl's phone with the address, then sent another to his staff to inform them that the boy would be coming, and to see to his every need and comfort. That done, Isaac stood up and drifted to the open window of his office. Beyond it the glittering lights of the city shone like jewels in the dark, a reflection of the stars that glowed cold and bright in the night sky above it. Isaac closed his eyes to the distant pinpricks of light, but his mind was on his other senses. His mind stretched outward, outward, searching and probing into the dark spaces, looking, looking, until he found - ah, there, by the lake. 

He stepped. Darkness and cold flowed over him, then he was out the other side, alone on the bank of the lake save for the pale tiercel he'd appeared in front of. Isaac winnowed down his link to Sohl to as small and as tight as it would go, and then he opened burning eyes and scowled.

[MP]

In the moment before it happened, Sarkany felt the change coming. A wrongness. A weight. The air seemed to rend and warp as he paused. And the shade roiled behind him, Her formless threads closing over him like a vulture's wings, defensive. Warning. As if his own instincts couldn't tell him that. He ignored them both and stood very still, looking at the thing the dark had spat out before him. It seemed very lucid for an Outsider. And it was glaring at him.

That was new.

He lowered his head with a huff and planted his feet - not with aggression as a groundling might assume, but to anchor himself while he gathered his aether for potential flight. It might smell of printer ink and polished surfaces, but it was not a man. Not quite an Outsider either, now that he had a proper sniff at the thing.

Sarkany tipped his head a little, turning one yellow eye to examine it. He hadn't met such a creature before. It felt a bit like Huxley. A bit like a Nightmare. But the face...the face.

[ Ah,] he said, mane smoothing just a fraction. [ You are Uncle.]

[Sharei]

[ I see the half-pint has been talking about me,] Isaac responded flatly. He crossed his arms over his chest and tried not to be annoyed with his bonded. This man was his father, however unfortunate that was, and it would be expected to tell your parents about something as important as being psychically linked. Just because Isaac loathed the idea of Kanagi knowing anything about him - a dislike spawned entirely out of contempt - did not mean it was fair or just to be angry at Sohl.

So long as he keeps my deeper secrets, all will be well, Isaac thought, shielding that concern from the mind link. He would give Sohl the benefit of the doubt, because Isaac did not believe that Sohl would betray him.

But this visit was not about him. It was about Sohl, and Sohl's current predicament with his father. Isaac forced his thoughts back on track. It was not that difficult a task, for when he raked his eyes over Kanagi's pale form the anger returned with a bright flare of indignant rage that simmered just below the surface of his mind.

[ He speaks about you often as well. Usually with great pride and enthusiasm,] Isaac added, but the words were betrayed by the acidic tone that dripped from his tongue. [ But unlike you, I hear the things he does not say, and now you and I are going to have a chat.]

[MP]

[ Hmm.] If he was pleased or touched by Sohl’s supposed praise, not a hint if it showed in the flat yellow stare. The rumble was musing, like a man sitting down to a long and difficult problem.

[ Very well,] said Sarkany, and inclined his head. The aether sighed and receded, the taloned shape blurring. And then the man stood on the cool grass, arms folded as he waited. It was only polite, and he may have need of his commands.

“What have you heard, Director? And why are you digging around in his head, I wonder?”

Yes, why? What did it want with the pup, hissed his thoughts. His manner was mild, acquiescent, but the the shade flickered darkly behind him. This was more than just a mindreader. It had mastered the hunter’s speech - spoke it with the same near-Karag accent of his son. He bristled inwardly but waited for its word. Boy, what have you gotten yourself into?

[Sharei]

The tierce blurred and resolved itself into the shape of a pale haired man. He was shorter than Isaac by a few inches, and slighter of frame, but the height and weight difference didn't seem to phase him. There was an anticipatory energy about Kanagi that suggested he was expecting a fight, and Isaac had to reel himself in from giving him one. Sohl would never forgive him if he let his temper get the better of him.

Instead, he committed Kanagi's shape to memory; the imprint he left in the darkness, his outline, so that Isaac would recognize it when he came across it later and could easily find it again. Having Kanagi already marked by the shadows would make a valuable instructional tool for Sohl when Isaac showed the boy how to do it himself.

"You imply that there is any digging required, when the effect you have on your son is as plain as anything," Isaac grunted. The shadows vibrated with his anger and Isaac was forced to make them still. He jabbed a finger accusingly at Kanagi and couldn't keep the snap out of his voice. "Tell me, are you're just daft and didn't know that your son was going to cry himself to sleep tonight? Or were you just ignoring it?"

[MP]

Sarkany looked down at the accusatory finger, eyebrows raised. He hadn’t missed the warning flutter - could guess now what form an attack might take and how to counter it - but the tactical thoughts were secondary to his surprise. He looked up at the man’s face, appraising, digesting the unexpected if barbed earnestness in his words.

With a faint sigh, he pushed his hands into his pockets. It was too early to judge, but he settled for now on honesty.

“I take no pleasure in it, I’ll tell you that,” he answered. “But I prefer upset to dead. Tell me,” and he tipped his head, the corner of his mouth lifting in a rueful slant. His voice continued, gentle and conversational as ever. They might have been discussing tea. “Would you rather I take him with me, hunting soldiers on their own ground, through their own traps? With all their darts and guns and practice? Defeats the purpose of patrolling for him, doesn’t it?”

Sarkany shook his head.

“The day I lead him into that - then you can call me daft.”

[Sharei]

"How altruistic of you," Isaac retorted with an airy wave of his hand. He shoved the other into his pocket and rolled his eyes heavenward. "Do you plan to walk him to school and do his homework for him, too? Ah, but that would be too much. Better to lock him in a glass box and pretend like any sapient creature would be fine with that. Freedom is subjective, after all."

This was probably not the most tactful way to get his words across, but Isaac had gone beyond the point of caring for tact.

"Icarim. It means worthy hunter, if I recall correctly," Isaac said quietly, but his voice was like a blade's edge. "Are you telling me then that you think so little of your son that you do not believe him capable? That he is not Icarim?"

[MP]

It was the shadow at Sarkany’s back that flickered now. The shade twisted over him, a bitter knot, and then fell still at his thought. He stared at Isaac flatly, his eye like the dead moon over the lake. But for all that, his answering tone was soft. Almost gentle.

“You know our words, Director. Don’t pretend to know our race. Sohl is strong, yes. Sharp as a Dreamer and twice as bold, and in a quarter century he’s already a hundred, a thousand times the person I will ever be.”

A pause, and Sarkany glanced briefly up at the stars. The next words caught in his throat. They shouldn’t have hurt him to say. He looked back at Isaac, meeting the man’s gaze levelly.

“But no. He is not Icarim as any of us would have defined it.”

He’d never said this to the boy, and he never planned to. Such honesty had belonged in the old age, not in this one. Sarkany continued patiently, doggedly, wanting this man - this stranger - to understand.

“He has a gentleness to him. A very...human empathy. How could he not? He’s never known anything else.” A small syllable of a laugh. Sarkany shook his head and held up a qualifying hand.

“I don’t say it makes him less or more. I don’t doubt his worth, man or hunter. But he does not have the teeth for this. Sohl is from a tamer age, and if things go sour, he will hesitate where he cannot afford it.”

And then the coldness was back in the hawk-like eyes, that brief warmth gone.

“So yes, Director. He stays in his glass box, away from this hunt, until I know that he won’t follow. There will be safer opportunities.”

[Sharei]

Isaac met and held Kanagi's hawk-like stare with a narrowed red gaze. If the words that the other man had said were meant to impress and soften Isaac's anger, to make him understand, they did not have the desired effect. It was to Kanagi's benefit that he had shown some compassion for his son, for Isaac had come to this meeting with the intention to warn the other man that his presence was no longer welcome in Sohl's life. But this did not make him less angry, it simply made him more fierce.

"Done?" Isaac asked with a genial tip of his head. The anger did not seep into his tone, and he was careful to keep it tightly coiled, away from the link he shared with the man's son. "Good. Because I have lived for billions of years, and never have I heard such trite bullshit."

"What opportunities, Kanagi?" Isaac demanded. "The ones, just like the others, where you take him out and fly around the mountain and tell him pretty little anecdotes? Where you kill deer and laze around in the sun, doing a lot of nothing? No, I do not know your culture, but I do know a great deal that would put you to shame - and one of those things is your son."

The Director strode forward, the grass crimping beneath his shoes. There was nothing hostile in his posture to indicate that he intended to attack, and indeed he didn't, but talking over seven feet of space was not conducive to stressing his point. He stopped when they were within arm's reach of one another and repressed the urge to throttle the other man.

"You're right. Sohl comes from a softer age. He does not possess the readiness to kill that we do, and for his sake I pray that he never has to make the choices that we have. But you do him a great disservice by pretending that he will not have to. This is not an age of peace, but one of strife. Just because there are not soldiers thundering down the fields does not make it safer. The danger has simply gotten more subtle. This affair with Viktoria should have served as a warning, but clearly, it has not."

Isaac sighed wearily. "And yes, I agree that perhaps this hunt he should stay behind, but what of the next? And the one after that? Sooner or later he is going to be confronted by something he cannot handle, and if you had been doing what you ought to have in the first place he would have the skills to protect himself." The Director clenched his hands at his sides so hard that his nails bit into his palms. "Instead, he practices alone and in secret, too afraid of your neigh constant rejection to approach you for anything worthwhile. He goes to others when he should be going to his father."

Another breath. This one more ragged, like an outburst of air meant to cool a rising temper. "I'm going to lay down some harsh truth for you, Kanagi," Isaac said. "Not for your sake, but for his, because this half-existence - this half-relationship you have is unhealthy and destructive. You have not trained him. You have not even so much as offered him basic advice about the world around him. You have not told him you were proud of his accomplishments. You have not shown him that he is worthwhile. Instead, you have made him feel unimportant and unwanted on a routine basis. You have actively showcased your disapproval of his existence as a Walker, and made him feel as though an aspect of a part of him is somehow wrong. And I don't care what reason you have, or how dangerous this ability of his is, but no parent should ever make their child feel as though there is a part of them that 'isn't good', or that there might be something wrong with them."

"Sooner or later," Isaac growled. "You're going to lose him, and there won't be anyone to blame but yourself because you did not take the time to be with him as you should."

[MP]

Sarkany listened. He stood with arms folded and head tipped lightly to one side, but he listened. There was a word there, old and aching, and all of his response and expression went still in the face of it, save for perhaps a flicker of grey across his scleras. There was something else there too. A note of truth, perhaps. He met Isaac's gaze unflinchingly. Said nothing. Even the shade was quiet, held by that reminder. For a moment...a moment...

And then the last words, the pieces leaping out at him like blood on snow: trained him; his existence as a Walker; a part of him. His anger and disappointment curdled. Always - always it came back to this. In the silence, Sarkany looked up, that light, that tiny hope snuffing out.

“You know a great deal, that's true. Everything he knows." His hand was white-knuckled on his arm, his words deadly soft. "But Sohl only sees what he wants to. He sees the one rejection and he takes it for the whole. It’s all or nothing in his eyes. I’ll tell you how I’ll lose him, kuwha and it won’t be because of that."

The night air was bitter on his skin. He could still remember the sinking weight, the twisting horror in his chest as the pup had first explained to him - had shown what he could do.

“When he first came to me, he set out a plan. There were were things we would set right together, he said. I would provide the knowledge, and he the ability. When I refused him, he went on with his plan alone. As a Walker.” A small, bitter smile. “Do you know what a Walker is, or did he ignore that with the rest? It's not a natural state. The ability can’t be bred or taught. It’s what happens when a being is ripped from its natural timespace - it's a wound, and every action in time tears it wider. He’s bleeding sanity, and he could heal if he would only stop.

Sarkany spread his arms in a kind of challenge, no aggression in the movement, only a kind of grim earnestness. "If you need convincing, look. You have his thoughts, it seems. His inner mind. Do you have his eyes too? Then look at me. See what he won’t." And as he spoke, he summoned himself - reached for all the drifting fragments of his being and centered them. In that moment, for the first time in this world, he was there entire. He seemed subtly clearer, more immediate, and yet...diminished. To the eye of a Walker - to even the dim eyes of a mortal - the impression was of something faded and tattered, worn almost to cobwebs. The essence trailed and sighed from the core of him, and to look at it was like seeing a foreign thing. He couldn’t hold onto it - couldn’t remember. In another moment the being dispersed, the worn threads snapping, and it was no longer like a person at all. Sarkany looked at Isaac, fierce and upright, his eyes cold defiance.

"In the language of Dreamers, we are gwr htaan, the offering fuel. This is what he makes of himself. This is what my son will be. Of course I refuse to teach him. Of course I disapprove. In the Guard, we wear ourselves down to madness and pray our children will never have to do the same. And he begs to learn. I’ve explained again and again. And everything I do - every warning I give, every lesson I teach, he twists to this. He studies me so he can end the same. And that’s if he survives.”

He hesitated. The words ended on the faintest shudder, the breath an almost hiss in his throat. No. That he mustn’t say. Sarkany reigned in his frustration, calmed his rising tone. He drew in a smooth breath and was all control again.

“Believe me when I say this: to be his packmate - his father - is all I want. But what would you have me do? He will take that bond and he will hang himself with it. I can’t stop him any more than you could undo a wound. And he will not see reason.” The helplessness, the anger twisted in his gut. But Sarkany only shrugged. "So yes, I keep my distance. I'd rather lose him whole than watch him go to pieces."

[Sharei]

Isaac looked, saw Kanagi, saw all of his shredded pieces and the tethers of his self. He saw the fragments of his essence, saw them come together into a twisted thing barely attached to reality, and saw too as he came apart at the seams. He saw Kanagi then, truly saw him, and he understood. Yet he said nothing, did nothing, changed nothing, as the other regained himself and the apparition becoming the man once more. It was only when Kanagi had finished his explanation that Isaac spoke again, this time without the cruel barbs and harsh tone that he had been using earlier. That did not mean his message was different, however.

"You will lose him in pieces anyway, Voak," Isaac said. He released his hands from their fists and ran one back through his dark hair. Another weary sigh puffed past his lips. "Sometimes, there are things in this world worth fighting for. We call them ideals; principles; freedom; love; life. They have many names and many meanings, yet they all hold power and people fight for them every day. They know the risks, but a cop does not put on the badge in the morning thinking 'today I could be shot.' They think, 'today I am going to save people.' And that is just a part of who they are."

It sounded ridiculous coming from him. Isaac had no right to speak of altruistic motivations. He shifted his weight, leaned his hip to the side, and crossed his arms over his chest. His gaze slipped from Kanagi to slide out over the water in self-reflection. But whatever his own motivations were in his own life, he knew Sohl's, and the brightness of the young man could not be denied.

"Sohl has chosen to put himself behind a belief that he is willing to fight and die for because it means more to him than anything else. If he succeeds, he could save millions of lives and bring your species back from the brink of extinction. Yes, I know about his plan. And no amount of telling him what could be will dissuade him from it. I could ban him from doing what he does for the WDSA, but it would accomplish nothing except put him out of my sight, in an uncontrolled environment, where yet more mistakes will be made. He will. Not. Stop. I know that," Isaac said and his gaze swung back to the other man, "and so do you. All we can do is minimize the damage and support him as best we can, in what ways we can."

Isaac grimaced suddenly, realizing the tangent that he had gone on without intending to. What was it with these Icarim that made him want to speak? He grit his teeth because Walking was not actually what he had been trying to talk about.

"But that is an aside to my point," Isaac grunted. "You say that every lesson you teach, he twists to this. I understand you are frightened of watching him come apart. But if you truly think that stealing secrets from you is all he wants from you then you are more Voak than I thought. The boy wants his father, Kanagi." Simple. Easy. To the point. Less complicated than the subject of Walking, and yet infinitely more complex an emotion. "He wants a family, and somewhere to belong with people who love him. Your kindness would move mountains. Set boundaries. Rules. Teach him in limited ways, in controlled environments where your instruction does him less harm than his guesses. Find compromise. But do not deprive the both of you out of fear."


[Voak = foolish one]

[MP]

Despite the jabs, his language and his once-call thrown back at him, Kana - Sarkany was calm now. He could consider these points fully, weigh them with a steady mind. With the current state of the city, his previous approach to the problem had become untenable, that much was true. But still... He allowed the facts to settle for a moment before he answered the man.

“I am afraid, I don't deny that. But don’t assume I blind myself to this. I know what Sohl wants. I know what it would mean to him.”

Of course he did. How could he not? The dream the pup pursued - that sajk¹ master plan - had been his own idea. His and Az's together. That wish, that promise, it had burned in them like a fire, and he knew full well how thoroughly that need for home and kin consumed. Now it had passed on to his son, whom it would wither as it had withered his companion. He met Isaac's eyes.

“And you're right, in part." he said. "But understand: nothing I teach can mitigate the damage he does to himself. I can refine his technique, but our methods only remove the strain on the realities we work with. We have no answer for Walkers. And if I were to teach him, if he were to continue, it would open him up to other dangers. There are things he isn't ready to face.”

He fell into musing silence. Sarkany was dully surprised at himself. It had been so easy to say these words - they had been simmering in his heart since the day he’d met the boy. But to spill his thoughts to this stranger...to this kuwha²...it was unlike him. Yellow eyes turned upward, appraising.

"But you say ‘we.’ What do you plan to do, Director? What is your role in this? You seem to care for the boy; I respect that. But I don’t know who you are." There was a slight glint in his eyes. “Outside of your position. And you haven't come in an official sense. I doubt Sohl even knows you're here."

_{[1] sajk - piece of shit
[2] kuwha - strange shadow (the eerily long shadows at dusk)}

[Sharei]

A smile curved Isaac's mouth into a rueful look, half affectionate, half weary, like a careworn older brother reminiscing about an irritatable younger one. "I am sure that if Sohl knew I was here he would be shouting quite vocally," he agreed. "He doesn't like it when someone speaks ill of you."

Isaac quirked his head to the side and regarded Kanagi steadily. His anger, while not gone, was mostly drained for the moment. He had expected a confrontation and not this reasonable individual willing to listen rather than presume. Isaac still did not agree with his approach to the boy, but Kanagi seemed truly at a loss himself, and that was a sign of a strength of character that could be worked with. He had also supplied information that Isaac had not possessed, and with it, the Director was forced to reassess his approach.

But the silence stretched between them when Isaac failed to answer Kanagi's initial question. What is your role in this? A complicated question, and Isaac's fingers gripped his arms as he stood there with his arms folded, formulating and discarding many explanations and half-truths. Isaac was a beautiful liar, but if he lied to Kanagi now and was discovered, everything he had said and would say would become suspect. And yet... Sohl was one thing, but revealing himself to this Voak?

"You ask difficult and very broad questions," Isaac finally said. "I'm afraid you're going to have to narrow it down. I could spend decades telling you 'who I am', and it would still not be enough time to get through the first eon. My 'roles' are fluid and changeable and prompted by my moods and fancy. But what I intend is only what is best for Sohl - physically, and emotionally. He is... precious." He paused. "And I wish to help him, even if that means making an ass of myself to his father or helping him rewrite a timeline."

[MP]

"I am sure that if Sohl knew I was here he would be shouting quite vocally. He doesn't like it when someone speaks ill of you."

Sarkany had to shake his head at that, a wry and slightly despairing smile flickering over his features. That boy...that boy and his damned, stubborn loyalty. It was the stories, he thought. And that was another thing he needed to set right. Later. He listened to Isaac's response in folded-arm silence, evaluating the words and subtle expressions. It wasn't an evasion, exactly. But it wasn't an answer either. A corner of his mouth slanted at those last words.

"Hah!" He gave a bark of laughter. "You talk like a Dreamer." Just as vague and grandiose. "Almost feel like one too. No wonder he's taken to you." His smile faded a little. For what it was worth, he believed this being - believed that Isaac meant his words. But however genuine Isaac was, he was also a powerful thing by the feel of him - almost an Anomaly. And what such beings intended and what really happened were not always the same thing.

"Let's start with this then: how exactly do you plan to help him? You may feel like one, but I know you're not a Dreamer or a Walker or any like being. These are dangerous things Sohl plays with. And delicate. How will you know that your 'help' won't make his situation worse?"