#bergen_county

....

The next day, when Dagmar returns from her meeting with the Mountain and Chief, she finds Symon outside of her house. He is pacing anxiously on the pathway that leads to their door.

"..Sy?"

His head jerks and tension seems to drop away as he sees her. Shuffling over, he looks up. "You're back." it's hard to tell with his already sunken eyes and sallow skin, but... has he slept?

"I said I was gonna tell the Chief, and lucky, Vali was there, too." A crease between her brows, and she reaches out, her fingertips hovering just shy of his temple. "You okay?"

"I am now." He says, his whisper scratchy. "Couldn't sleep."

She allows herself to touch, kenning. "You need to sleep. I'm still worried that... I'm still worried."

The same tempestuous ill-gotten glamour that fizzes in her bones is echoed in her friend, flickering in his veins. Like a lodestone, he is drawn to her.

"I just... can't get you out of my thoughts. Not that i mind it, I like thinking about you..." He runs a hand through his limp hair. "Sorry, it's weird isn't it. I'm being weird."

The crinkle deepens. "Yeah, you're running hot, kinda? Magic stuff. I think.. I... backlash? From what I did?"

"You are being weird, but, well, maybe we just gotta ride it out?"

“I dunno. Maybe. What if it doesn’t stop?”

He reaches over and takes her hand, if allowed. “When you left my sight? It felt like there wasn’t enough oxygen in the air. Like trying to read as book but the pages were blank. I don’t feel right.”

She gives his hand a squeeze. "That sounds bad. Not healthy. So... we get help, right? Magic isn't my strong point, but I want you okay, okay?"

“The cruise ship should be returning to port… what day is it? My head is fuzzy. Returning.. tomorrow, I think?”

He rubs his temples. “I’ll make Cairrean unweave what she had in place. Take it back. Make sure that whatever I’m still feeling is right.”

Scowl.

"We don't need her."

He presses her hand in his. “I’m going to have to face her. I got into this, I have to make a clean break.”

“Like… closure.”

"Chief was pretty pissed, so you know. Cairrean won't be allowed in the barony."

His lips purse. "I don't like that this has blown up. Makes me uncomfortable. Being on display, like." His shoulders curl in a bit "Dirty laundry aired out on town square."

"I know. I know you don't. I'm sorry. But I can't lie to the Chief - between fealty and us both being Gwyd? Ain't happening."

"I tried to leave your name out, but they figured it out, anyways."

She rubs her thumb across the back of his hand, but guilt and worry pull heavily on the lines of her face and posture. And... something else? Close to worry, at least. And those unused to troll nuance might not notice anything at all.

He spots the worry, and he closes his hand around hers - more than that, she can feel something taut, sticky - fly fingers, as he clings. "Don't be upset with me, please. Don't go. I'll try not to be weird. I can be better."

"I'm not upset with you. I'm just..." She struggles, trying to articulate.

"I want you to be you, and... and feel... feel however you want to feel, not... not be forced to by magic..."

"I'm not... I... maybe I am, but... I..." He seems unable to put a word on it, though his hand is warm, glamour-fizzy, answering the tingle within herself, it has not yet faded any that she can discern.

"Since the necklace popped? I don't just feel... I mean, I did feel..." He swallows. "I'm the tides, pulled by your moon. The plant, turning towards your sun. It wasn't like this with C - with her. I feel... it's overwhelming. I need you."

A flare of panic - that is, her eyes widen slightly and then she shutters into stoic troll-face.

"Okay, okay. So. We'll fix it, so that the effects are better. Whatever is best for you."

"Maybe we can bleed off some glamour? This isn't a fix-via-punching situation."

"I don't know how to manipulate this flavor of Art. If I did, I'd not have needed to go to anyone." A wrinkle of his nose. He's trying to think, but even as he ponders, his gaze keeps trailing back over to Dagmar. Boy, her horns are pretty when the light hits them just so.

"Maybe I can get Cairrean to come to us. Get her to undo this, in a safe space. Our safe space."

"Give her back her belongings, and tell her I don't want to see her again. A clean break. ....will you help me?" He looks up at her, a different need in his eyes, not the glamourous longing, but a request for help.

"Mountain and Chief have the necklace - so if she gets it back, if we get it back? Out of our hands right now." A small frown. "I don't want to ask her for any help, but you do have a right to tell her off."

"Just... listen. Answer this for me and for you, okay? I know you, metaphorically, agreed to walk into the room. Paid for the hotel, right? But... but, like, did you agree for her to lock the door?"

He looks confused. “I could have canceled after any semester. It was tapering off… that’s why you didn’t see me at all for a while, then just a bit, when I came back around with Cairrean… she didn’t want to be stuck with me long term, after all.”

“At least, that’s what the agreement was.”

"Were you ever free of the necklace's influence when she asked you to renew? Did she ask to renew at all, or did you ask her, while wearing it?"

"Did you ever try to see if you could open the door?"

He slowly shakes his head. “No. I wanted it to work. Dagmar… I thought I’d lose you if it didn’t. Compared to that, what’s money? I would give the world to keep you by my side. And if I didn’t have it to give, then the world better watch out.”

This last sounding a bit more like the old Symon.

She closes her eyes. "Do you think you had me, when you woke and slept and ate and breathed her?"

An abrupt "Sorry. I'm sorry." She scrubs at her face, looking anywhere but Symon.

“I… I don’t know. I never forgot you… but I thought I could take the awkwardness and the messy bits and the hurt and longing away that had messed up “us” and just have our friendship back.” His whisper is low and sad. “I know I messed things up.”

"But you left. Once you found her, you just were... gone." Her mouth pulls into a brief frown, breaking through before it's buried again. "I didn't have any right to be mad, or jealous, but I was both."

"And it would be a lot easier for me if she was a villain that trapped you."

"How's that for some fucking Gwydion honesty?"

She breathes in through her nose and exhales with a puff. "Sorry."

“Don’t be sorry. You’re here. I’m here. However messed up it was- we’re both here now.” His eyes gleam. “I won’t let her come between us. I promise.”

Her hands curl, nails digging into her palms. "Yeah."

He sees this and squeezes her hand. “It will all be okay. Once this is dealt with, nothing will be between us. Just like old times, only better, because we’ll be true to each other. No more hiding. Okay?”

A soft grunt, Dag has pulled hard inside herself.