He stood watch at the mouth of the cavern with his knife in hand, listening to Ravenna's breathing even out into something close to peaceful while water dripped somewhere deeper in the dark. His mind churned through possibilities he didn't want to consider. She knew something was wrong with him because she saw too much and put too many pieces together, and pretending otherwise was becoming impossible.
'So what do you do? Tell her the truth? Watch her look at you like you're insane?'
He didn't know. Eight years of climbing gave him skills for fighting monsters and surviving floors, but none of that prepared him for this. For someone who looked at him without fear, without judgment, and asked questions he couldn't answer.
"You're still awake."
Ravenna's voice came from behind him, soft and slightly rough from sleep. He didn't turn around.
"Couldn't sleep." He shifted his grip on the knife.
"You never sleep." She moved to stand beside him with her tail swishing against the ground in a nervous pattern. "I've been watching. You take first watch and last watch and barely close your eyes in between. That's not normal."
"I'm used to it." He kept his eyes on the tunnel.
"Used to what?" She stepped in front of him while forcing him to look at her. "What happened to you, Dante? What made you like this?"
The questions hung in the air between them, heavy with everything she wasn't saying. She wasn't asking about his fighting skills or his impossible knowledge. She was asking about the hollow place behind his eyes, the parts of him that died so long ago he barely remembered what they felt like.
'Tell her something, anything, give her a reason to stop digging.'
"I've lived through things," he said slowly while leaning back against the cavern wall. "Things that changed me. I know things about this Tower that I shouldn't know because I've..." He paused while searching for words that were true without being complete. "I've seen it before. All of it. The floors, the monsters, the people who don't make it."
"Seen it before?" Her brow furrowed while she crossed her arms. "What does that mean?"
'It means I'm a regressor from Floor 75 who watched everyone he loved die and got thrown back in time by an eldritch abomination. It means I've done this climb once already and failed. It means nothing about me makes sense unless you accept that the universe can break its own rules.'
"I can't explain it," he said instead while shaking his head. "Not in a way that would make sense. Just trust me when I say I know what's coming. I know how to survive it. And I'm going to make sure you survive it too."
She stared at him for a long moment while her mismatched eyes searched his face for something. He didn't know if she found it.
"You fight like you've done this a thousand times," she said quietly while stepping closer. "You knew exactly where that cave was on Floor 2, exactly how to beat the guardian. You navigate these tunnels like you've walked them before. And you look at Adrian Cross like you're already planning how to kill him."
His jaw tightened. "I didn't think you noticed that."
"I notice everything about you." She said it simply while tilting her head. "You're the only person who's ever treated me like I mattered. Of course I pay attention."
The words hit harder than they should have, and he looked away because he couldn't hold her gaze.
"Adrian is dangerous," he said finally while pushing off from the wall. "More dangerous than he looks. I can't tell you how I know that, but I do. Stay away from him when you can. Don't trust anything he says."
"Because you've seen it before?" She watched him with those piercing mismatched eyes.
"Yes." He met her gaze and let her see that he meant it.
She was quiet for a moment, processing, and then she nodded slowly.
"Okay." She let out a breath.
"Okay?" He turned fully toward her while surprise flickered across his face. "That's it? You're not going to demand more answers?"
"What good would that do?" She smiled, a small sad thing that didn't reach her eyes. "You're not going to tell me everything. I can see that. But you're also not lying to me, not really. You're just holding back."
'Because the truth would make you think I'm insane.'
"I can work with that," she continued while uncrossing her arms. "Whatever you are, whatever happened to you, you saved me when nobody else would. You've protected me since the moment we met. I don't need to understand you to trust you."
He didn't know what to do with that, with someone looking at him like he was worth trusting, worth caring about, and it made his chest feel tight in a way he couldn't name.
"You shouldn't," he said roughly while turning away. "Trust me, I mean. I'm not a good person."
"Neither am I." She reached out and touched his arm, her lavender skin warm against his. "I'm half demon, remember? My blood comes from monsters. If anyone should be afraid of what's inside them, it's me."
"That's not the same thing." He didn't pull away from her touch.
"Isn't it?" She stepped closer, close enough that he could smell ash and wildflowers and something that was uniquely her. "You judge yourself by whatever you've done, whatever you've been through. I judge you by what you do now. And what you do now is protect people who need protecting."
'Like the half-demon on Floor 50. Like the party I hid from on Floor 3. Like everyone I failed before I learned how to be strong.'
He didn't say any of that, just stood there letting her touch anchor him to the moment while trying not to think about how dangerous it was to let someone this close.
"We should move," he said finally while stepping back. "The shadows won't stay away forever."
She nodded and stepped back, but her hand lingered on his arm for just a moment longer than necessary.
They gathered their supplies and headed deeper into the darkness, moving toward the exit gate that waited somewhere in the depths. The connection between them shifted into something he didn't have a name for, and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a disaster waiting to happen, but either way there was no going back.