The room smelled like cheap beer and old dust.

A single bulb flickered above, throwing unsteady light across cracked walls.

Shang stood with his palms out, a few crumpled bills and coins sitting in them, hands shaking badly enough that some of the coins slid.

"Please, Mother," he said. "This is all I have."

His stepmother looked at the money. Then she laughed. She scooped the coins up and clinked them in her palm.

"This?" She didn’t look at him again. "You think this feeds this house?"

"I’ll earn more next time. I promise, I’ll—"

Her hand moved faster than the sentence. The slap turned his face sideways. His cheek burned.

"You promise." The word came out like something disgusting. "You worthless brat. You can’t even keep yourself fed."

"I’m sorry — I’m trying—"

His stepfather came through the door then, something broken in his hand, eyes dull with whatever he’d been drinking.

"Trying, huh." He set the bottle down on the table. Glass scattered. "Looks like you need another lesson."

"Please, Fathe—"

"Don’t call me that. You’re nothing but a waste of air."

The rod came up. Shang saw it and froze.

His hands went up automatically, the coins scattering from his palms, hitting the floor in small bright sounds that rang out clearly in the quiet.

"Give everything you have," she said, lifting it. "Or I’ll beat it out of you."

"This is everything! I swear it’s—"

"LIAR."

It came down.

Pain cracked through his shoulder.

Another hit.

He fell. His face hit the floor and he tasted dust and blood. The coins lay scattered around him, small and useless and still somehow the only proof that he had tried today.

Worthless. Useless. Disgrace.

The words blended into the hitting. He stopped being able to tell which hurt more.

He pressed his face against the cold floor and stared at one coin lying on its side nearby, spinning slowly to a stop.

His eyes closed.

He was just nine years old when this happened.

_____

He opened them to a pale ceiling and the smell of something medicinal.

Bandages were wrapped around his arm.

The pain was still there but muted, sitting underneath something that had dulled it.

"It was just a dream," he sighed.

"ARIES!!"

He flinched.

Every face appeared at once — Valea, Eren, Adrian, Nico — leaning over him from every direction, all of them with red eyes and expressions that had clearly been sitting in worry for a while.

"What’s going on? Why are you all crying like I actually died?"

"IDIOT!" Eren’s voice cracked, and he was very clearly trying to cover the fact that he’d been crying by being angry. "You were out for TWO DAYS! You almost—"

"Two days?" Aries gasped in surprise. "Seriously?"

Adrian and Valea came in from either side without warning, arms wrapping around him at the same time.

"Don’t move too much," Valea said into his shoulder, her voice gone soft. "You were thrashing in your sleep. You kept saying ’please don’t hurt me.’ Over and over."

She pulled back enough to look at him. "It felt like something really awful was stuck in your head."

Aries looked at her for a moment. Didn’t say anything.

The door opened. A maid stepped in, leaned toward Cedric, and murmured something brief. Cedric listened, nodded, and glanced across the group.

"Good to see you awake, Aries." He said it simply, without making a production of it. "I’ll be back shortly."

He left. The door clicked shut.

"By the way, is this yours, Aries? I found it in the cave." Valea held out a pendant.

Aries touched his neck and realized the chain wasn’t there.

"Yes, it is. Thank you, Valea." Aries took it from her, slipping the chain over his head to put it back on. As the pendant settled against his chest.

"You were..." Nico scratched the back of his neck. "Standing up against that Dravetian Lieutenant while the rest of us were still on the floor." He said it fast, looking at the wall beside him rather than at Aries. "I... kind of felt pitiful, if I’m honest."

Everyone in the room turned to look at him.

"What? I’m just saying what happened." Nico’s ears went slightly red.

Valea stared at him for three full seconds.

"Aha?" Widest grin spread across her face. "Did Nico — the Nico — just admit someone else impressed him? Someone get a pen, we need to record this exact moment—"

"I didn’t say he’s better than me—"

"You absolutely meant it—"

"Fine! What if I did!" Nico spun toward her, composure gone entirely. "At least I can admit it! Unlike you, who was the first one screaming for help and couldn’t handle one Dranox without me pulling you out of the way—"

"WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN YOU LIAR?!" Valea’s hair practically lifted. "You weed-headed, puddle-brained excuse for a mage! Your Aqua Fang fizzled out faster than your pride!"

"Not again," Aries said.

Adrian and Eren burst out laughing at the same time.

"Come on, Aries," Eren managed between laughs, "you have to admit, they looked perfect together when Nico was applying bandage to her foot—"

Valea froze mid-arm-swing. Her face went scarlet. "W-WHAT?! Me and HIM?! Are you insane?!"

Nico turned the exact same shade of red. "I WOULD NEVER — she’s the absolute LAST person on this planet I would ever—"

"Come on you both, did you forgot that you guys are engaged?" Adrian said with a teasing smile.

The laughter got louder. Aries sat in the middle of it and let it wash over him.

It was a warm and absurd and completely real laugh.

His chest ached, but not from the wounds.

’When did this happen, When did this become something I didn’t want to leave?’

He looked at all of them.

Valea still sputtering, Nico gesturing aggressively, Adrian laughing with his whole face, Eren not even trying to hold it together anymore.

Flashes of memory came rushing back.

Drelan’s hand on his shoulder. Althea’s face over the cliff edge. Mirielle’s voice cracking when she thought he was gone.

His chest went quiet for a moment.

’Would it really be okay if I stayed in this world forever?’

He looked at all of them again.

’I think I like that. I want to live as Aries now, and stay with the people I’ve come to care about.’

All of them.

The door opened.

Cedric stepped back in with an envelope in one hand. The wax seal on it caught the lamplight — deep red, a crest pressed into it that looked formal enough to mean something important.

Eren noticed first. "You’re back already, Master."

Cedric turned the envelope over once in his hand, expression doing something caught between serious and something that looked almost like excitement.

"Umm." Valea squinted at him. "Why do you look like that? You look weirdly happy. It’s creepy."

Cedric scratched the back of his head. "Ah — sorry. It’s just..." He held up the envelope. "Seems we’ve got somewhere very interesting to be tonight."

The laughter in the room faded completely.

Everyone looked at each other.