Morgan opened his eyes.
His mental space, once again. He exhaled slowly, unhurried, and got to his feet with the calm of someone who knows a place better than he'd like to.
As soon as he stood, he looked for Xol.
He found him pacing back and forth, jaw tight, steps short and sharp. Frustrated. Restless. Morgan watched him for a moment before approaching.
He didn't get a word out.
- DAMN IT!
Morgan flinched.
Xol stopped, breathed, and screamed again with everything he had been holding back.
- Damn it!
The echo dissolved into the stillness of the place. Xol turned his head slowly toward Morgan, and the moment he saw him he closed the distance between them in a few steps, planting himself right in front of him.
- What the hell... was... that.
( Xol said it with pauses that weighed more than the scream )
Morgan held his gaze, expression steady, a little sharp.
- I don't know.
Xol grabbed him by the shirt. He stared him down, jaw set, trying to intimidate him. Morgan didn't blink. Didn't step back. He just held that same calm that Xol found so infuriating.
When he got nothing, he shoved him, just enough to make him take a step back, and turned away.
- DAMN IT ALL!
( Xol shouted, shaking his hands )
Then he turned around again. When he spoke, his voice had a different edge — somewhere between a threat and a warning.
- Listen to me, kid. Don't go back to that place. And if that thing shows up in front of you, you call me and let me handle it. Are we clear?
Morgan frowned. Something about all of this didn't add up. The intensity in Xol, the urgency in his voice... It was as if he was afraid.
- What's wrong with you? It didn't hurt us. Why are you acting like this?
( Morgan said, with a trace of irritation )
Xol let out a laugh. It wasn't a happy one.
- For the love of — do you not get it? Do you not understand what just happened? Grow up, for once in your life. Thinking that just because it didn't hurt us we can trust that thing doesn't make you a good person, it makes you an idiot. That thing didn't just send us somewhere outside this plane — it pulled me out of you. It forced me to manifest physically there, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. And you know what else? In that place, neither you nor I have any power. Only that thing has jurisdiction there. So what do you think would happen if it traps us and decides it needs to get rid of us? What do you think would happen?
Morgan didn't answer. He just listened.
Xol took one more step toward him.
- You don't know? The baby doesn't know? Fine, let me spell it out for you, kid: we'd be finished. Because neither of us could do a single thing to stop it there. So use your head, for once. Stay away from that forest. And if that thing shows up again, you call me before it makes its move first. Yeah?
( Xol said it with irritation that had started bleeding into something that almost looked like exhaustion )
- This is for your own good. But mostly for mine, alright? Call it an agreement between the two of us. Do you understand?
Xol stepped away, trying to sort his thoughts, trying to settle himself down.
And then he heard Morgan's voice.
A single word.
Calm. Firm. Without hesitation.
- No.
Xol went still.
---
*End of chapter.*
**Next chapter: Two Stances.**