To the enclavers: "Excuse me for a moment, gentlemen."

To Wilbur and Niki: "Yes?"

"Eret, what happened? You were our friend."

"Got a better offer. Nothing personal."

"You betrayed us."

"I took something I made and owned, and then I sat with a different group at dinner."

"There was a mal! We could have died because of you! We trusted you and you betrayed that trust! We were, we had a mission, we were like a family. I believed in you."

Eret shrugs, spreads out their hands. "It was never meant to be."

(Wow, he's never seen Niki like this before. It's kind of incredible, or would be if it didn't also break his heart a little.)

"Let's go, Niki. We don't need to talk to this-- this traitor, any more."

Time passes.

He tells Nick that they won’t be selling to him anymore. Fuck him, and fuck Tampa, and fuck Eret, and fuck all the enclavers. Fuck them for wanting Eret to give them everything so that he can have the privilege of being their meat shield. Fuck Eret for taking them up on it and leaving him and Niki to die. Fuck them for thinking they won’t have any consequences for it, that they can still get whatever they want from him, that he’ll be grateful for the opportunity. Fuck Nick for thinking he could still trade with them after getting Eret to betray them and fuck Clay, Clay and his stupid fucking smirk and how fast he can go when there’s a mal attack, leaving everyone else behind, and fuck the obvious metaphor of it all, and fuck George for never trying and living anyway because of his enclave spot and his friends, and fuck Tampa fuck enclavers fuck them all. Wilbur will survive this year and he’ll do it without a power-sharer for mana and without Eret on his side and without giving a single goddamn thing to Tampa. 

He spends a lot of time staring into the void. Phil went in once, to see, he knows that. Nothing more—he didn’t like talking about it—but it’s tempting. And he knows the stories of people who get actual momentum, who come out messed up. He wonders if being messed up like that would make everything hurt less. 

It doesn’t matter. Tommy and Toby are coming in soon, and he has to be there for them, he has to be fine and alive and not messed up. Just for a little longer.