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Freya was home, in the barest sense of the word.

Her body was curled up on her windowsill, wrapped tightly into a deformed ball, where her wings allowed it. Her arms were tight around her knees, and her eyes were unfocused, staring out into the night. But that was all that could be said for her presence. Until Kettil's voice pulled her back, Freya had been very much not home.

She turned her head and looked at the door, hollow and red rimmed eyes meeting his. Her mouth twisted into something that looked like it was meant to be a smile, but failed.

"Over here." She let her unbraided hair fall, partially covering her face to hide all of the emotions warring within her, as she called him over.

Perhaps, once upon a time, Freya might have tried to soften the blow. Or maybe she wouldn't have told him at all. But her heart was an open book that she'd let Kettil read for too long, and she promised herself long ago that she would never close it on him. This was no exception.

Her body leaned in to rest against him, even though her skin felt like it burned anywhere that it touched him. Betrayer, her nerves hissed. You're not worth his love. You don't deserve any of this. You deserve to burn.

"I saw Herryk today." Blunt, and vague, she started with the truth behind her red-rimmed eyes. While the day, and its consequences, had taken its toll on her, the truth was boiled down to four little words. Everything else was just circumstance.

The short and painful laugh that escaped her when he asked what happened was instantly regretted. She wasn't laughing at him, she was laughing at the answer. "What happened." Her laughter turned into a soft, quiet sob, burying her face into his chest. She couldn't say another word until the sobbing stopped, but it only took a minute before she regained enough composure to at least answer him.

"Yeh knows the hunters? Those false reapers with their fancy weapons that they makes out of us? I already suspected they'd taken him and turned him into one of them." She let out a hollow sounding chuckle. "What I didn't expect was that he still lives insides the weapon, Kettil. He's in there, he can't remembers anything, but he's alive inside of a weapon."

And for the first time, she actually felt sorry for Herryk. His body was gone, and his memories were stolen.. she shuddered at his fate.

"He doesn't even remembers me."

Freya's head turned, very slowly, up to look at Kettil. In her eyes, there was a confused shock, a wonderment at the question. It was fair of him to ask, he deserved to know. At the same time, she'd never expected him to. She just thought he knew.

"Nothing would change," She whispered, very carefully. At first, it might have seemed that the answer was what Kettil wanted, but it really wasn't. "I tolds yeh this, so long ago. Hooter, I never stopped lovings him. Even when I thought he was dead, I tolds yeh. I will always loves Herryk." Her brows furrowed, a sudden fear welling up inside of her. Kettil had accepted the answer long ago, but things were different now. They were far more serious, and he was committing so much to her..

She touched the ring on her finger, and her breath came short. Her tears sprang fresh and new, as her heart was gripped with anxiety. She looked away, her body shaking in his arms. "And I did tries teh saves him. I tried, and I failed. That is why he is a weapon, now. I failed him, and now I'm probably failing yeh."

Even as Kettil tried to convince her that this was all Herryk's choice, she found it harder and harder to believe. She found it harder to remember the way the boil had looked at her, when he walked, of his own volition, through that portal. No one would willingly choose a life like that. No one could have been that unhappy.

Could they?

"I never says yeh can't be angry at him." Her head dropped back down, burying itself into his chest. "There's no reason why yeh can't be angry at Herryk, whether he deserves it or not. I'm angry at Lark. I'll always be angry at Lark. Even if yeh becomes best friends with her again, I will probably always hates her. And I don't knows if she deserves that or not." Freya smiled weakly. "But it sure makes me feels better."

It was petty, and selfish, and maybe they'd grow out of it one day. But for now.. "He wasn't hurtings me." She paused, and thought about it for a second. "Well, no, technically he was hurtings me, because he is a weapons, and that is his job now.. but he wasn't tryings teh hurts me." Her hand reached up, pressing against her cheek gently. "And neither was his hunter." This was the greatest, and most tragic revelation of all. She looked back up at Kettil, and a strange, manic sort of hope sparked in her eyes. "Hooter, what if.. we're wrong abouts them? What if they're not all.." Visions of Jeremy flooded her mind, making her throat close up with fear. But she had to believe that Tuck was different. Maybe.. he was different because of Herryk. And that was why all of these horrible things happened. For all she knew, Herryk could have been the start of a wonderful change within the Hunters.

She wanted to believe that. For all their sakes.

The kiss to her head felt like Kettil was just humoring her. Her shoulders sagged just a little bit, but when he spoke, she felt a subtle sense of relief. Kettil was understanding and open enough to believe, just like she did, that there were good and bad in any situation. Even.. maybe.. hunters. Her heart swelled with pride, and she wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him viciously tight.

"Thank you." She whispered, her voice wavering. "For believings in the impossible."

Her sadness all but melted away in the light of this new development. She couldn't help but feel the slightest bit empowered that she could believe in something again, and proud of both boils. Kettil, for believing with her, and Herryk, for giving up everything to be a beacon of change. If anybody could do it.. she knew he could.

"Tuck - he is the hunter who has Herryk, now - he says he wanted teh sees me again, teh talks more, some day. I trusts him. He won't takes me away. I am not as strong as Herryk was," She grinned. "I can't gives up my life teh help makes hunters better. I would fail miserably. Only Herryk had the powers teh does that."

She winced when Kettil reminded her just how much he hated insulting herself. So she put her fingers to her lips, and mimicked a zipper, zipping them shut.

That lasted for all of four seconds.

"Maybe yeh just needs teh knows more people!" She teased, instantly contrite. "Sorry." She murmured, while she grinned sheepishly up at him. "I'll stops."

Freya had effectively been through yet another mentally exhausting and traumatizing event in her life.. and yet.. once again, without fail, being around Kettil had her smiling again. That was his super power, after all. That was why she'd finally said yes. No one could soothe her the way he did. It was a gift.

"So.." It felt so stupid to ask this now, but, "What have yeh been up teh?"