He wanted to sigh, to hug her again as she raised her leopard side against his words, as averse to criticism as Sam could be. Young and inexperienced, he could understand why she hadn’t considered the dangers inherent in that unknown place. But she wasn’t as inexperienced as she had once been. She had walked among the Fae, delved beneath the Spire, been trapped in the cave with him. She knew of dangers aplenty, but no one had ever died on those ventures. Gods willing, no one ever would…
But the gods could only do so much if they didn’t take their own precautions.
”Hold our own against what?” he asked gently. ”A magic that vanished people where they stood and took them… where? The bottom of a lake? The top of a frozen mountain? The jaws of the LongNight monsters?” He saw her fingers leaving red marks on her skin and he reached out without thinking to try and rest his fingers atop hers, to give her something else to hold on to. ”I didn’t know what happened. That was the problem, and the risk. In hindsight it was mostly harmless. But at the time there was no way of being certain that things would turn out alright.” And he still had a bandage wrapped around his calf beneath his pants, from where an angry book bigger than he was had latched onto him. If the others had been gone in books and rooms and who-knew-where when that had attacked him, would he have been able to handle it on his own?
”I know what you’re capable of,” he said gently, ”or at least… I thought I did. Every time I blink you’ve grown stronger.” He sent a pulse of warm affection to her, tinged with awe for the new form she had found. ”But some dangers are better fought together. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be alone when I faced that shark book! Things like that are why I worry when we split up when we don’t need to.”
But the gods could only do so much if they didn’t take their own precautions.
”Hold our own against what?” he asked gently. ”A magic that vanished people where they stood and took them… where? The bottom of a lake? The top of a frozen mountain? The jaws of the LongNight monsters?” He saw her fingers leaving red marks on her skin and he reached out without thinking to try and rest his fingers atop hers, to give her something else to hold on to. ”I didn’t know what happened. That was the problem, and the risk. In hindsight it was mostly harmless. But at the time there was no way of being certain that things would turn out alright.” And he still had a bandage wrapped around his calf beneath his pants, from where an angry book bigger than he was had latched onto him. If the others had been gone in books and rooms and who-knew-where when that had attacked him, would he have been able to handle it on his own?
”I know what you’re capable of,” he said gently, ”or at least… I thought I did. Every time I blink you’ve grown stronger.” He sent a pulse of warm affection to her, tinged with awe for the new form she had found. ”But some dangers are better fought together. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be alone when I faced that shark book! Things like that are why I worry when we split up when we don’t need to.”
