[SE] Black like my soul

Sah

Sah hummed accepting Tal's assurances. "Good." He understood the guilt that the courier was carrying. Sah had only killed one person since coming to Caido and it had been an accidently. A miscalculation in the gap of their abilities. He would never fully forgive himself, but he had learned to live with it. Tal would too. "You won't make the same mistake twice. You're too smart to do that." He was fully prepared to smack the courier later if that comment went to his head.

When Tal straightened up, Sah's eyes traced his face, reassured to see that the courier looked marginally more like himself now. Giving the man a slight squeeze, the hybrid nodded, "Always." His lips twitched, mischief in his eyes as old words coming back around, "Someone's gotta look after you."

I think therefore I am,
But what if all I do is bleed?

Killing, Tal could handle. He was born and raised in Halo, and in his heart he never doubted that someday he would return there when Alys was ready, and when he was able to go back on his own terms. Part of being Halovian was a certain pragmatism that some might call callousness when it came to life and death. It had been too close and too common for too long for it to be stranger to even someone like the courier, who had spent his early years running from any fight that tried to find him.

But there was killing with intent - because he meant to - in defense, and being tricked into it. Being used, and taunted for it.

And whatever Sah said, Tal wasn't sure that he wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. Or even if he didn't, that his hesitation to act would cost someone else, like Alys or Boreal, their lives instead. But he sniffed a final time and nodded at his friend's attempts to cheer him up.

What other choice did he have? He couldn't stop delivering messages around Caido, and that meant running into more Void shit. He'd have to face it eventually, again and again, and sometimes running wouldn't be possible. So he took the strength and comfort that Sah offered him and tried to find a wan smile at their usual teasing. "Guess someone does, sometimes."

~Fin