"Hm," he snorts. "I'll live. A little sore." He runs his fingers up his right arm, staring at the unblemished skin there, not entirely sure how to feel.

"...I kind of want to see his face when he realizes you erased every mark he made," he says, settling on grimly satisfied. 

"Now I want that too. I am sure Topher will be willing to share that memory around."

"I'll probably pass on that." He's had enough people in his head to last him the rest of his apparently extended lifetime.

"...Do you know what's going to be done with them?"

"The conspiracy will likely disappear him and send him to a prison colony in one of the less inhabited worlds."

"Prison colonies, huh. Her too?" He frowns, "He had some lackeys... and probably there's more people connected to him who know about magic, and defintely aren't the kind of people who should."

"I am sure they will work something out. Might recruit some of the lackeys, but I don't think she would be among them."

"I'd hope not. The idea of her wandering around free with that gift-" he shudders, wrenching his thoughts away from the topic. 

"...I... have one of those, now," he realizes, remembering- flames, reaching out furiously, so close, but stopped at the last minute with the pinch of a needle. 

"Yeah, we know.  She won't be allowed to be free." Pause. "I am sorry for how you got it."

Nod. 

"...It's only the one. I can learn the others the usual way." He kind of doesn't want to use the one he has. Feels like proving him right. "Think I could I trade this one for something in the vault, once we're attuned to it?"

"Yeah, absolutely."

"Great. Don't have a lot of good memories of fire."

He glances to the other side of the bed, where Jamie is curled up.

"...How bad was he?"  

"He... did very well, but it was hard on him."

"Hm. He pushed himself." Of course he did. Alex did the same. "He's been eating at least, right? Getting at least a few hours of sleep?" 

"Yes. Not nearly enough."

"Just when he'd started recovering, too. Bastard has the worse timing." Pause. "Or the best. Or maybe you guys have the best timing. Fuck, if you'd found us a few weeks later..." 

"He... has been on you for a while. He probably made his move because of us."

"Maybe. He would have caught us eventually, either way. And if you hadn't found us first..." He swallows. "He wasn't prepared for you at all. He was prepared for us."

"Yeah. And I don't think there was an easy way for him to acquire rituals, but it made me so much easier that he didn't." Pause, oh right don't make the victim nervous. "But I think we still would've managed to beat him, realistically."

Nod.

"...Thank you. For..." Coming for them. Rescuing him.

"You're welcome. Do you need anything?"

"...Not that I can thi-" His stomach growls, and suddenly he notices how hungry he is. "Okay, maybe something to eat."

"Alright," He goes over a bag and pulls out some Tupperware containers and soon is offering something that looks like a home made nut bar to Alex.

"Thanks." 

"You're welcome."

People start to stir awake.

Jamie's among them. When he notices Alex is awake, he surges upright, reaches for him

"Alexei-"