"I'm worried about him," Damien continued, his voice dropping. "I mean, really worried. Not just about whether he's alive, but about what he might be going through alone. Because if he really has been operating by different rules, if he's been preparing for something the rest of us couldn't see coming..."
"Then maybe he's better equipped to survive than we think," Sarah finished.
"Or maybe he's been isolating himself so much that he'll face whatever dangers this place throws at him completely alone." Damien's voice carried genuine pain. "And despite all his planning and calculation, Kael's still just nineteen years old. He's still the person who used to laugh at terrible jokes and stay up too late reading theoretical combat manuals because he found them interesting."
Sarah found herself studying Damien's profile, seeing past the Academy noble to someone who genuinely cared about his friend despite the social barriers that had grown between them.
