Gael leaned back in his chair with a sigh, half-dozing off by the shoddy dining table on the third floor of the orphanage. Maeve and Cara were next to him, flanking his sides. Evelyn was across the table with her knees drawn up to her chest, but she'd be even more anxious if Gael hadn't told Fergal and his five boys to sit on the adjacent table instead. The poor girl was still absolutely terrified of the Repossessors.

Just as he was about to actually doze off, the door behind them creaked open, and in shuffled Miss Alba carrying boxes of fresh noodles, steam still rising off the lids. Her two children trailed behind her, and they set the lunch boxes down without so much as a word, though Miss Alba's eyes didn't miss a thing. The way they flicked from Gael to Fergal, and then to the others, told him she wasn't entirely comfortable with the company he kept.

Or maybe she was just annoyed at being called out for noodle delivery.

"Making more friends, are you, doctor?" she mused, her brow arching in a way that let him know she was asking, but not expecting a straight answer. "Every time I see you, there's a new batch of them. Not that I'm complaining. More customers, the better."

Gael didn't respond at first. Instead, he flipped open his box, revealing his specially crafted blend of noodles. He shoved a forkful into his mouth, chewing it without a care for manners.

"What cahn I shay?" Gael replied. "'Ahm a shocial bathurfly. Peepol love a goode ductor."

Miss Alba sighed. Her children dropped off the rest of the boxes on the adjacent table for Fergal and his boys, and then they walked out, leaving all of them to eat in relative peace.

Maeve, as expected, dove into her noodles right away. Cara did the same. Fergal and his boys did the same, pulling down their masks immediately, so the only outlier was Evelyn. The young girl hesitated, picking at the edges of her bowl like she wasn't sure she deserved it. Gael supposed she was still looking pale as a ghost, frail and shivering like a wet rat in a corner, but he didn't like it. Not one bit.

"Should I… be eating so soon after surgery?" she asked, barely above a whisper. "It's hardly good for me… right?"

Gael snorted. He did just make her lie down an hour ago so he could open her back to fix her Cursed Crook. Turned out, the 'mama' who needed help in her letter was her, but Gael had already come prepared last night, so it was a relatively cut-and-dry operation to manually unhook her twisted vertebrae, pull them back straight, and then bind them with bloomwire. All done in a matter of thirty minutes.

"Yeah, you probably shouldn't be eating," he said mid-chew, looking at her pointedly, "but, like, you're a Bharnish. You really gonna turn down free food?"

He flashed a grin at her. Maeve shot him a sharp look, but he was too busy stuffing his face to care. After a few moments, Evelyn cautiously picked up her fork, her eyes still uncertain but her hands steadying. Oh, he knew she was just salivating at the sight of Miss Alba's noodles—they really were the best in Blightmarch—so slowly, steadily, she started eating bite by careful bite.

For another few moments, all everyone did in the room was scarf down their lunch. It wasn't until Gael finished his bowl first in a record time of one minute and twenty-four seconds that he pushed it away, putting his gaze back on Evelyn.

"Alright, kid. Spill. What's the story?"

"I…" Evelyn continued chewing as she spoke, too engrossed in eating to pick one or the other. "Six years ago, my father drowned in the Vile. That was when I—"

"Okay, skip the orphan bit, we all know. Everyone's got a sob story in Bharncair," he interrupted, half-interested, half-annoyed as he waved his hand dismissively. "Skip to the part with the hounds. That's the only part I don't get."

Maeve shot him another sharp look, and Cara kicked him under the table, but Evelyn didn't seem to notice. She just pushed her noodles around, her gaze distant.

"I… like my hounds." She smiled, just the smallest tilt of her lips, but there was a weight behind it. Sincerity. Her eyes shifted to the shattered window right next to her, where the wilted central garden below lay in shadow. The four three-headed hounds were still sprawled in the shade beneath the dead trees. "The director of the Sallow Hearth used to give each of us orphans a hound to take care of. It's so we wouldn't be as lonely, but I… I liked the hounds more than the other kids, so I befriended them all."

She paused for a moment, a distant look in her eyes. "Even after the director died two years ago… after the Repossessors shut the orphanage down, I didn't leave. I stayed. I kept takin' care of my hounds. They were all I had left."

Gael leaned forward slightly, interest piqued. "Where'd you get the food? The money?"

Evelyn looked down, her fork absently tracing circles in the noodles. "I... I stole." She swallowed, embarrassed by the simplicity of it. "It didn't take much to get by, honestly. A good robbery here and there would set me up for an entire month, but then... then one of my hounds got sick." She looked up at Gael now, her eyes darker. "I had to steal more. Medicines. Marks for medicine. Whatever I could get."

The room was silent for a beat. Gael's eyes narrowed, and he leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping on the table.

When Evelyn spoke again, her voice was thinner. "Eventually, they all got sick. Every single one of them. And then I got sick too. This was… about a year ago, I think. The only reason I was able to keep stealin' was because I found a dead Blackwing Courier in an alley about the same time, and he had a Symbiotic System in his neck, so I took it and… ate it."

She shifted in her seat, her expression uneasy. Then, almost reluctantly, she unfurled her wings. Transparent, the giant fly-like appendages shimmered slightly in sickly sunlight.

"These wings are mine," she said quietly, almost embarrassed. "I learned how to fly with them so I could steal better and run away faster. With them, I managed to do bigger-scale robberies that kept me and my hounds alive, but—"

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"You needed more and more Marks for stronger medicine as the year went on," Fergal's voice suddenly cut in from the adjacent table, and it made her jolt in her seat. His sharp eyes glinted black as they focused on Evelyn. "Why not go to a doctor for proper treatment? You had the Marks, didn't you?"

"I did find a doctor," she said quietly. "But… uh, it's more like he found me. He showed up at the orphanage about two months ago and said he could cure me and my hounds over time, but his medicines were… expensive. Really, really expensive."

"And so you set your sights on my warehouse?"

Gael didn't think her face could get any paler, but it somehow did. "I didn't know," she whispered. "I only heard… that was a warehouse full of jewellery and other expensive trinkets. I thought if I could just take a handful and leave undetected, I'd have enough money to get the full treatment from the doctor. I didn't know… it was a Repossessor warehouse."

Her answer didn't satisfy Fergal yet. "Then why'd you blow my place up? Why make yourself a bigger target than you already—"

"I wasn't trying to!" she said, raising her voice slightly. "When I realized you spiders owned the place, I… I panicked. I tried to run immediately, but my wings caught onto something like an oil tank, and then…"

She didn't finish her sentence. She didn't have to. Fergal leaned back in his chair, sounding more amused than anything else.

"So you're not completely stupid," he said. "Good to know."

Evelyn quickly nodded. "I didn't mean to blow it up," she muttered. "It was a complete accident. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't mean to hurt—"

Maeve cut her off before she could go on. "But how did you get three Myrmurs inside you? Where did they come from?"

Evelyn stilled, a deep crease forming on her brow as she thought. "I… don't know," she said, shaking her head slowly. "I really don't. I started feeling extra sick... after the doctor came, but I just thought it was a side effect of his medicine."

Gael narrowed his eyes, but he didn't say anything as Cara pressed further. "And this doctor told you to rob Old Banks' mansion next?"

"No. That was my idea," Evelyn said quickly, shaking her head. "I still needed Marks after the warehouse exploded, and I'd heard there was an old baron living in that mansion in the Fellstar Cemetery, so I thought… you know. I could do the same as I usually did." Then she paused, looking straight and sheepishly at Gael and Maeve. "But you guys were there to stop me."

"We kicked you out of Old Banks' mansion. What happened next?"

Evelyn swallowed, her eyes flitting nervously toward Gael before she continued. "After I escaped and came back to the orphanage... the doctor came back. He told me he could help me deal with you two. He said he could get rid of you... and the Repossessors." She stopped herself, biting her lip as if she didn't want to continue, but she did. "He said I had to turn my hounds into something... bigger. More powerful. He told me he could make them like that, so... I agreed. He said he'd fix them afterwards. He promised he'd come back."

She trailed off, staring out the window to look at her oversized three-headed hounds again.

"... But I don't think he's gonna come back anymore. Not while all of you are around," she whispered, her face crumpling as tears flowed from her baggy, bloodshot eyes. "I'm sorry," she said, her eyes red, lips trembling. "I didn't mean to cause all this trouble. I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I just wanted to save them, but Luce, Bram, and Rags, they… I guess the three of them have been dead for a while if three Myrmurs were able to replace them in my head, huh?"

Her words barely reached the others before more tears spilled, fat drops running down her cheeks as she sniffled.

Gael sat in his chair, quiet, his gaze distant. So were Maeve and Cara's. Fergal, on the other hand, was the first to break the silence with a heavy sigh.

"From now on, you can't show your face outside," he said plainly. "If my boss finds out you're still alive, he'll have you tortured for the rest of your life. You hurt the Repossessors, and that's a line that's hard to cross without consequences even if it was an accident—but I'm the one in charge of this district. Nobody died because of this incident, so I'm willing to overlook it just this once."

Evelyn's face paled, but she didn't say anything.

Fergal then turned his gaze to Gael, his eyes hardening. "But you, Raven." He scowled. "You had no business saving her. Lorcawn won't appreciate that. If he finds out you didn't kill her like you said you would, you'll have picked a fight with the Palm of the Repossessors, and that's a fight you can't win. Reckless, boy. Reckless."

Gael didn't flinch. He shrugged, a smirk playing at the corner of his lips. "Yeah, well, not the first time I've been reckless, is it?" He met Fergal's gaze without backing down. "But I'm not in the business of killing people unless they ask for it really, really badly. What kinda doctor are you taking me for, spider?"

To that, Fergal had nothing to say.

Evelyn was still sobbing quietly, her shoulders shaking in fear—or relief—but if it wasn't relief, Cara sure as hell made it relief with her next offer.

"We do run a proper clinic," Cara said, her tone gentle. "Despite how he looks, Gael's pretty decent at medicine—"

" —I just opened her back an hour ago and pulled her misaligned vertebrae back in place with two forks and a spoon—"

"—so we can take a look at your hounds and see what we can do," Cara finished warmly. "They don't look like they're suffering too much right now after all the sedatives we gave them. Even if we can't restore them to their original bodies, I reckon we can take care of them as they are."

Evelyn's tear-filled eyes flicked up, looking at Cara. There was a flicker of hope in her gaze. "You… you'll really do that?"

Gael grinned. "Not for free, kid. Now that the clinic's looking to expand its business, we could use a speedy courier. You'll help us deliver packages, medicines, and messages to people around the city, primarily for our patients and patrons who live far away from the clinic. In return, you get to stay at the clinic, and we'll help you take care of your hounds. How's that for a job?"

"Do you have a lot of patients?"

"Ouch. Indirect assault. But we do deliver medicine to Old Banks every week, so you can start with that."

Evelyn's face lit up at the offer. "So I really have a job?" Her eyes darted between Gael and Cara, as if looking for confirmation. "Will I… um, will I get paid?"

Gael tilted his head. "Ehh, I spent a lot of resources on you. I'm thinking you'll work for free for the next six months, at leas—"

Cara kicked him under the table again, smiling reassuringly. "Of course. We'll work something out once we get back to the clinic."

Without another word, Evelyn zipped across the table and wrapped her arms tightly around Cara in a spontaneous hug, catching her by surprise.

"Thank you," Evelyn whispered over and over, clutching Cara like she might disappear if she let go. "I'll work hard. I'll fly wherever you tell me to. I swear I won't steal again."

Cara returned the hug softly. "Not unless we tell you to," she said with a quiet laugh.

And while the girls chatted and exchanged pleasantries, Fergal stood up with the rest of his boys, telling them to go downstairs and make sure the other Repossessors knew to keep Evelyn's survival a secret from Lorcawn. One by one, the men filed out of the dining room quietly, leaving only the four of them clinic-people in the room.

Gael, who'd mostly been lounging back in his chair the entire time, sighed as he pushed himself to his feet.

"Gotta take a piss," he muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear. Cara and Evelyn didn't so much as look in his direction, though. Only Maeve shot him a discreet glance, but he pretended he didn't see it and walked out of the dining room, heavy but unhurried.

As he passed through the door, his eyes drifted towards the cracked windows, and his gaze fell down to the wilted garden below where the three-headed hounds were still resting in the shade.

The scene was almost peaceful.

Too peaceful.

And there was something he wanted to confirm before he put a wrap to this entire event.

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