Page 102 of Thexan

“I am not brooding.”

Tanner made a low sound that did not qualify as agreement. “If you say so.”

I turned then, assessing him. He had removed one of the work gloves from his hand and was flexing his fingers as if the repair had strained them. His posture remained cautious around me, but no longer defensive in the same way. He had placed himself within conversational range without weapon readiness.

That was also progress.

“You have something to say,” I said.

“Usually,” he replied. “Right now I’m trying to decide whether I should say it.”

“If the information is relevant, delay is inefficient.”

He considered me, then shook his head slightly. “You really do make it hard to tell whether you’re joking.”

“I am not.”

“Yeah, that’s what makes it hard.”

I waited.

Tanner sighed and looked toward the repaired fence, then toward the path that led back to the infirmary. “She’s taken on too much for too long. You probably figured that out already.”

“Yes.”

“She won’t stop just because someone tells her to.”

“I have also observed that.”

“Then don’t make yourself another thing she has to carry.”

The statement redirected my full attention to him.

He did not retreat from it, though his body registered the increased focus. His pulse shifted. His posture held.

“I do not intend to burden her,” I said.

“I didn’t say you intended it.”

The distinction mattered.

Tanner continued before I could respond. “I don’t know what you are to each other, not really. I heard her say mate, and I saw enough to know she meant it. I also know Brynn. If you decide she’d be safer without you and try to disappear for her own good, she’ll tear herself apart trying to figure out whether she should stop you, hate you, or chase after you.”

The accuracy of his assessment struck harder than I expected.

I had not spoken my consideration aloud.

He had identified it anyway.

“That action might reduce external threat,” I said.

“It might,” he agreed. “It might also break something in her that took years to keep standing.”

The words entered the space between us and remained there.

I looked again toward the infirmary, where Brynn’s presence remained steady in my awareness, unaware of this conversation but not distant from it in any meaningful way.

“I would not choose to harm her,” I said.