#the Behold patrols are done walking side by side and you can’t convince me otherwise

[savathuns-pyramidscheme]

“You really don’t see anyone?”

“No.”

“Not even…”, Crow pauses, eyes flicking to Peregrine’s cloak, and then to the ground.

“Cayde?”, the phantom of Uldren offers unhelpfully.

“Not even Cayde”, Perry responds to Crow alone.

“Why? I mean… don’t get me wrong here, I wouldn’t wish this”, he jabs his thumb in Uldren’s direction, “ on anybody, but what’s keeping them off you?”

“Rude”

“I don’t…,” Peregrine considers the lie she nearly told, to him and to herself, “ His cloak, I guess. It weighs on me like an anchor...keeps me warm like a flame. If I’m wearing it, then he isn’t, which means he’s dead. I can’t lie to myself with it as a fact, and the phantoms are nothing but lies. His death isn’t my only failure, but…”

“Like your failure to find me? Failure to even look, despite what Mara so kindly showed you? If no one else is up to task, Peregrine, I’m content to oblige. Can’t have you forgetting what your negligence put our little bird through, hmm?”

“Would you stop?! Perry, I’m so sorry, that’s not what I think, I…!”

“Huh.”

The trio stops as Peregrine finally turns to acknowledge the crimson-hued apparition. Crow looks between them, frantic. Guilt-ridden.

“I didn’t know he even knew my name.” Her voice rings with genuine surprise, her face betraying a mild curiosity. She humors his sneering visage for a moment longer, before returning her gaze to Crow with a hearty shrug.

“He…”, despite not having been asked to, Crow reflexively searches the other man’s memories, “he didn’t. It would have been on crow reports from when you were looking for the Black Garden, when he had you tailed, but it never stuck. He didn’t care. He had no idea what your name was.”

That tiny truth causes Crow’s shoulders to relax by a fraction, a small breath of relief escapes. Perry nudges him with her elbow and flashes him a smile as they resume their patrol, cataloguing this and that horror or monstrosity for Eris’s studies.

The tiny truth keeps their unwelcome companion quiet in a huffy hush for the remainder of the excursion. Oh, he’s not done, he’ll have his say, but at present his dearly detested duo are beyond listening.