Fjord sits up straight and guides Essek into the sanctuary of his shoulder where he can hide as much as he needs to, a hand running up and down a bowed back as another buries in short silvery hair. No platitudes are offered, no empty promises that everything will be okay, just support for a man who may have lost his home. Fjord may never have had one to call his own but he can imagine how, in the midst of a shining twilight city, surrounded by protective walls of his own making, everything was still always familiar whether Essek felt content or not.

If your people want to punish you, that must be one thing, but quite another if they don't want you back at all.

"You are not alone anymore," that's true. He speaks into soft hair. "For what it's worth, you never have to be again. We're here."