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Rafael looks down at the bottle in his hands. His thumb circles the mouth in slow, melancholic loops.

You lift your head to the night sky, setting your eyes on the dark clouds hiding away the stars. The rain falls harder under the canopy of the building, making a thick veil of shifting water.

It should be cold. Tonight, this moment, should feel cold.

"I'm gonna kill Tarek," Rafael speaks. He's lifted his face too, staring at the curtain of rain. "May not be tonight or tomorrow or this year, even. But I'm goin' to kill him."

You take the final swing of your bottle. It tastes as bad as the first time. "Maybe I'll help," you mutter, setting the empty flask aside.

- - -

"On our own, we are formidable, but together?" Alessa's freezing hands press against your cheeks. "Together, we are indomitable. There is nothing you and I cannot do, my most darling one."

She hesitates but presses on. "If only we hide nothing from each other."

- - -

You walk past a large oak with white branches spreading like ribs overhead and finally spot her.

Vallen waits beside a yellow rose bush, her dark red hood like a bleeding rose itself. She doesn't don her armor, choosing instead black robes underneath her cape. Her round eyes are on you, and you get the feeling they have been on you for quite a while - maybe even as soon as you arrive at the garden.

"Here!" Vallen calls, half raising her arm in greeting, but she seems to think better of it and puts it back down.

You saw the white flash of bandages wrapped around her forearm before the cape covered it anew.

- - -

"I don't—" Hadrian takes a deep breath, his jaw so clenched, you can see the bone grinding. "I don't know how to tell you this."

You carefully put a hand over his shoulder. It tenses under your touch. "You don't have to, you know."

"No, I— I want to."

You watch as he tries to calm himself down. His fingers reach for his cross, halt, then close into a fist. "Hadrian, nothing you say will make me look at you differently," you gently reassure.

Finally, he looks at you. His eyes are afraid. "Really?"

You smile. Silly man. "Of course."

"Alright." Hadrian nods, more to himself than you. He turns his chair back to you again and grabs your hand in his. "I hope not."

"I promise."

You consider his quick smile a victory. "You were right. I'm not..." Hadrian lowers his head, his cheeks heating. "Inexperienced."

"A virgin," you say plainly.

His blush deepens. "Uh. Yes. But my experience wasn't..." Hadrian frowns, suddenly completely serious. And when he talks, he settles his eyes somewhere over your shoulder, staring at a memory. "It wasn't at all the way I imagined it would be. The way I wanted it to be."

- - -

"Ready to go?" Lance asks, straightening away from the wall.

"Can we talk?" you ask the bard. "Before we go?"

He hesitates, clearly caught by surprise. "It won't take long," you persuade.

Lance opens his hands, palms spread before you. "By all means," he says, smile of gold. "I am all ears, mercenary."

- - -

Once again, these don't have the choices in them so that the text flows better! Also, Alessa's part won't be in this upcoming chapter.