I'm sorry. I know you hate it here.

Ne touched Numair's shoulder to wake him, but despite having his head buried in his arms at his desk, he was already awake. He let Helly help him to his feet as he yawned.

I know that you feel trapped, and lonely, and even frightened, sometimes.

all you ever wanted was control over your own fate, but I could not even give you that.

I'm sorry.

nothing I could say would make up for that.

In the morning light, under the dark shape of the trees, Helly said, < No matter what happens today, with the Assembly and with Hawk... >

the best I could manage was:

< I am very proud of you and all the work you do. You should be, as well. >

Numair looked back at nem, by all appearances exhausted. He smiled a little as he looked away, though, murmuring, < Thank you, Helly. >

but at least you knew that I meant it.

[Hello all! Next week I will start running some character Q&As that were submitted by my patrons. Thanks for reading and sticking with me through this sort-of break I'm on!

Also: on Friday 10/13, the comment system here will be migrating off of Disqus to Hyvor, so next update you should see a brand new comment system with fewer atrocious ads. A few other Hiveworks comics are already using Hyvor so you may be familiar with it already! No comments should be lost or anything like that, hopefully the migration goes off without a hitch.

Thanks all!]