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It was a bad habit. Even in what was supposed to be a casual, friendly conversation, she found herself sifting through Kairatos's answer, trying to pull out as many facts as she could and turn them carefully under the light to see if they sparkled at all. If there was a wrong time to be on the hunt for more information, it was probably a time like this -- she just couldn't help herself. Fishing for information was what she did.

So she stored the names away: Themiscyra, Glitnir, Gehenna, and someone else -- plus Kairatos, of course -- marking the number of Mars knights, according to Kairatos's count, as standing currently at five.

"We're not exactly swarming with Cosmos knights that I've met, either," she said. "You met all of them at Mistral. So it's -- just me and Sarras now, I think. And he's -- I don't know, he seems really isolated. If you run into him, if you wouldn't mind sort of -- watching out for him a little, maybe? I don't think he's very good at asking for help, and -- " She frowned, nibbling on her lower lip. "He's the kind of person I worry could, um." She lowered her voice unconsciously, like she was about to say something impolite. "Could go over."

Hvergelmir shook her head, frowning mightily. "I couldn't get him to open up too much -- I was surprised he told me as much about himself as he did. He's -- well, Mistral was hard on everyone, but you saw a bit of him there. Sarras is a good person, he just . . . " Another worried shake of her head. "He's just having a hard time, I guess. He lost a few family members to Negaverse attacks. I think that's part of why he's had such a hard time forgiving Mistral for what happened at her Wonder."

She felt a little guiltier playing the armchair diagnosis game with a fellow knight than when it was a Negaverse agent under her theoretical microscope. At least with Negaverse agents, the problem was usually easy to diagnose: a Chaos infection.

"I don't know about setting a high bar, though," she said, picking her feet upon to the bunch to curl her arms around her knees. "I'm not the one who found my way back from the Negacult all on my own. That takes real personal integrity."

Hvergelmir went flush a little -- this time from a vague sense of shame rather than from embarrassment. Something about his encouragement that she not write herself off rubbed her the wrong way. Right after the dreams had first come, that had been the first time she'd ever actually considered . . . not going to the park anymore. Not being a knight anymore. It was the first time she'd thought about salvaging her relationship with her parents and maybe even her relationship with Tara and just trying to fit in.

It would've meant giving up on people. Leaving them to the war they were all caught up in and hadn't asked to be in, abandoning them to youma running rampant or to lives doomed in the service of Chaos. It would've meant giving up whatever it was she was trying to accomplish by coming here, to the park. She hadn't considered it that long -- but she still had. She wondered if, somehow, Kairatos could tell.

"Oh, I'll always be here to do the talking," she said quickly to cover up her self-doubt, slapping on a bracing smile. "I can't do the fighting, so, I mean, this is how I help out. Anyway, um. So -- I'll get in touch? And you'll be in touch too, I guess? Be safe though, okay?"