Bearing Quinn back to his home, Rolburn and I kept ahead of the Players who'd opted to come with us. Carter was one, along with three of his friends, which kept little shivers running up and down my back. I couldn't help glancing back, making sure they weren't about to break their word and stab us all in the back. But Carter's weapons were hidden and the others had left their with their friends to be taken back to their own homes. I still kept waiting for treachery.

As Carter had promised, Quinn healed remarkably quickly after eating the steak. It made me wonder how fast he could have healed had we tried that method when he was recovering from the injuries I'd given him. Before we even reached the land bridge to his home, he was walking as though he'd never been injured. Eyeing Carter suspiciously, I decided this was probably why none of the past wars had much of an effect on the Players; their food healed them too fast. Or at least...this food did. Does it work on mobs? It didn't smell anything like chorus fruit. I looked away, disinclined to attempt the experiment.

The Players stayed for a few hours in the house. Apparently they had already put back everything they'd taken before, for all signs of the earlier struggle were gone. Neither Rolburn nor I left Quinn alone with them, however, and we sat on either side of him watching their every movement. They talked mostly, and Harley, one of the three girls of the group, made food for everyone. Of course, the conversation quickly turned to Rolburn and myself.

>Where'd you find these guys, Quinn?< A Player named Ferdie asked. He had hair the color of stormy water, ragged as foam on the crest of a wave about his shoulders. He, along with the others, were smart enough not to look me in the eyes again. >Why're they so protective of you?<

Quinn looked at the floor, shrugging silently. Rolburn watched uneasily, patting his shoulder. "We are here now, Quinn. Neither their words nor their bright edges can hurt you. Here." He pressed one of the gold nuggets into Quinn's hand, along with a piece of crystal. "Speak by the whiteness and make them do the same."

The Players glanced at each other. The one named Stanton, one of those who'd been involved in the raiding of the house, spoke up cautiously. >What's...what's he saying, Quinn?<

Quinn's eyes remained on the ores in his hand. >He said they're here for me and he wants everyone to speak the truth. His name is Rolburn, by the way, and that's Percy.< He nodded at me. >At least, that's what I call him. His real name's unpronounceable by humans.<

Harley grunted. >Weird you got these guys for friends.< She slid something red and flat into one of the furnaces. A smell similar to the steak Quinn had eaten began to filter into the air.

>I might say the same about you guys.< Quinn snapped, suddenly looking up. >You went too far, taking my stuff just to get my attention. You can't just do what you want in my house.< The anger in him was smoldering deeper than any of them realized, though I thought I could glimpse its ember, revealed in the story he told us, the one that broke Rolburn's heart.

At his words, the other Players went quiet. Ferdie's lips pursed and he looked like he was getting ready to respond, but Carter put his hand on his friend's arm. The expression on Carter's face was very serious as he shook his head at Ferdie, then he turned to Quinn. >I'm sorry.< He said bluntly. >We should've known better than to come busting into your place and trying to force you to come out. We were worried about you, buddy, but we should've done something else. I'm sorry.<

Quinn noticeably relaxed, and so did Rolburn and I, feeling the tension ease from our friend. >Apology accepted.< He told Carter. >If...< he sighed. >Look, I...I was afraid. Players kill mobs for parts and here I am living with two of them. I didn't want them getting hurt and...it's...it's been...< kicking his feet against the floor, Quinn cleared his throat a few times before he was able to continue. >It's a long story. Just...I need to know my friends will be safe, okay?<

>Dude, of course.< Carter said. He jabbed an elbow into Ferdie's side when the others didn't respond right away, and they all jumped and nodded. Carter looked back at Quinn again. >They can come visit the town if they want, and no one'll touch them, I promise. You should come out, too, man. We miss you.< If I had a better opinion of Players, I would have said he actually sounded concerned, but as it was, I just wanted him to go away and leave us alone.

Unexpectedly, Rolburn spoke up next. >You have put gold back on, Carter. Thank you.< Quinn and I glanced at him.

"Rolburn, you sure?" Asked Quinn. The Piglin nodded.

"His words are white and they clink. Can't you hear it? They clink." He tapped his fingers against his teeth. "Like that."

Quinn now turned towards me. "What do you think, Percy? Do you trust their word?"

No. No! I stared back at him without answering at first, teeth grinding against each other, fists tight behind my back. They're his friends. I don't care! They hurt him! They'll hurt us! How do I know? They already hurt one of their own! It was an accident. So they say! Make them go away! Make them go away! Make them leave us alone! "No." Forcing down my anger, I looked hard at Quinn. "No, I do not. But you should not ask me. I do not know them as you do. They are your friends. Do you trust them?" I wanted, so badly, for him not to trust these people. I wanted him to send these people away and for us to be safe again. But Quinn was not like me. Rolburn wanted things to be better. They both looked forward to a sunrise that I could not see, for I kept looking back at the bloodstained sunset. Perhaps that was my role, but it didn't have to define either of them; I could keep them safe without keeping them isolated.

Quinn faced his friends once more. He played with his fingers before speaking. >Okay. I'll...we'll come. But only because you promised. Percy and Rolburn cannot be harmed.<

Carter and the others nodded. There wasn't a lot of talk after that; Harley finished cooking the steak, which she handed around to the others, including Quinn. Rolburn and I had our own food, and I had no intention of taking food from a Player yet. We ate together for a while, the Players making small-talk in between bites. I paid scant attention, instead watching Quinn, weighing his earlier words in my mind. Percy and Rolburn cannot be harmed. It was not lost on me that I had leapt to his defence without a second thought a few hours ago, and now my safety was one of his biggest concerns. What had happened between us?

When the other Players finally left, we all were able to relax again. Rolburn grinned and tapped his hooves on the floor. Quinn heaved a long sigh, dropping his head into his hands. I followed them with my eyes until the trees hid their retreating forms. Then I turned to Quinn. "Do you really think they'll keep their word?"

"Yes." He answered, raising his head. "They won't hurt you guys. But they will still hunt mobs, just out of your sight. It's how they've survived as well as they have. How I did, too."

"You said you didn't hunt Endermen."

Quinn nodded. "I don't. I killed zombies, skeletons, creepers, things like that. But Endermen always looked too much like people. So did Piglins." Absently he reached over, petting Rolburn on the head. The Piglin scrunched up his snout and shut his eye, nudging up into Quinn's hand. "I just didn't touch them unless they attacked me first."

Instantly the memory of my attack on him filled my mind. He hadn't fought back, though, neither then nor since. I glanced at Rolburn. He had found it so easy to accept the Player, to comfort and try to heal him, though we hadn't known how. "And what of me?" I asked Quinn. "Why'd you insist on my safety?"

This time he didn't flinch or look away. "Because I think I understand why you're angry. And...while I am still a little scared of you...I don't exactly blame you."

He didn't know. He didn't know I'd lied to Rolburn. Neither of them did. I shut my eyes. "I'm sorry I hurt you." I told him. Then, with a flicker of purple lights, I teleported back to my corner of the basement.

What would the Ender Dragon think of what I had done, or what I had said? I was living with a Player and I'd just apologized for protecting my friend from him. No. No, wait, that's not what I did. I huddled under my tree, gripping the block of mossy dirt in both hands. I said I was sorry I hurt him. I could have protected Rolburn without hurting him. But I thought he needed to be hurt! I thought he was going to hurt Rolburn! I didn't know that, did I? The thoughts chased after each other in my head, loud and heavy as my own heartbeat now sounded. My fingers dug into my block.

I didn't realize Quinn was sitting nearby until he said his name for me. "Percy." I jumped and forced my gaze over his head. Once I saw it was only him, my nerves calmed, and I laid my block down.

"Yes?" I rubbed the moss on my dirt block. It felt safe and fuzzy.

"Did...you want to talk? About what happened?" He sounded more hesitant than I was.

"What happened?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

He spoke slowly. "I mean, did you want to talk about the fight? About...our fight."

My gaze shifted to a flower that was blossoming on one of the azalea bushes. It looked so fragile, just newly opened. One wrong move and I could destroy it forever. "I don't know what to say."

Quinn's voice seemed to come from the room itself, lightly echoing off the stone walls and bouncing back to me. "I understand why you did it. And...I think you were right."

"I wasn't." The words come quickly, more quickly than I was expecting. "You never hurt me, not even when you caught me in your house. I should have remembered that."

"Well...sure." Now he sounded like he didn't know what to say either. The conversation lapsed for a moment. But his words had given me something to talk about now.

"Quinn," I said, and I turned towards him, but kept my gaze on the floor, "why did you not hurt me?"

"I told you. I only hurt those who attack me first. You weren't hurting me."

I looked at my hands, large, black, resting on the ground. "But I attacked you that day. Why not then?"

This time Quinn gave a nervous laugh. "I couldn't, Percy. I was out for the count before I had the chance."

I remembered better now. The blows I had landed, the ribs cracking, the gasps as he struggled to breathe. "Rolburn asked me not to kill you that day. He was the one to convince me to help bring you home." Quinn said nothing. I went on, still looking at my hands. "I promised I would not hurt you anymore. I told him to go wait for me." I could still see the concern in the Piglin's eye, freshly damaged. So fragile. "I lied to him. I wanted to end you once and for all, keep you away from him."

"But you didn't." Quinn answered. "Isn't that what counts?"

I pressed my fingers against the stone, feeling the tiny weaknesses I knew how to exploit. "Maybe to you. But you saved your own life that day, Quinn. You showed me you'd come in peace, with a chestplate and apple, for Rolburn, I assume. That's why I didn't kill you. That...and he was watching us from the hill." The figure of Rolburn, framed against the sun, rose before my eyes. "You don't owe me your gratitude, or your friendship."

Quinn was silent for another long moment. But it was he who first broke the silence. "You don't owe Rolburn friendship either, though." He leaned forward a little. "Friendship isn't owed anyway, Percy. Not from what I've seen. It's a gift, one chosen by both the giver and receiver, right?"

The stone cracked minutely under the pressure of my hands. "There are reasons for everything, Quinn. Reasons for gifts as well as for debts. I don't understand the reason behind your gift."

"Okay, well..." I wondered if Quinn even had a reason, if his friendship was not merely born out of fear in the end. But I let him keep talking. "So," he said, "look." And then he paused again. He seemed to be having trouble speaking. I released the stone and picked up my dirt block again. Then Quinn seemed to find his words again. "There was a point, when you were getting better from the rain, when I went out. I was scared of you and I didn't honestly know what to do about...you in general. If you would attack me again, why I'd saved you, what was going to happen once you could move about on your own, things like that."

I nodded briefly. I didn't want to imagine what it had been like for him during those days, but I couldn't help knowing. I had experienced something far too similar on so many occasions, as had most of my people.

"So I went to find a friend of mine." Quinn said. "I didn't tell him who you were, but I didn't have to. He'd pretty smart and...well...I learned something from him, which is pretty usual. He said I had to find a way to either come to terms with you or deal with you. I chose coming to terms, because..." He cleared his throat and shifted his position. "Because while I was afraid, I knew sort of why you'd done it. And...I've been told I don't know how to save myself. I tend to not get out of...situations that require a lot of self-help. So I didn't. Again. I made friends, or tried to, instead of standing up to you. And I don't really regret it."

I frowned. "You don't?" I wasn't sure what to make of what he'd told me.

"I don't." Quinn replied. "At first, it was just me trying to keep you not mad at me, but over time I figured you out a bit better and especially since I learned how you guys met. You made more sense to me. And that made you safer."

"Safer."

I could just make out a movement that was probably Quinn nodding. "I had a better idea of why you'd tried to kill me, so I knew what not to do, what to look out for. I figured out some boundaries, which meant I could relax a bit. Learn about you without being so afraid of you. So...that's why I told my friends you couldn't be hurt if I was going to come out."

Now I was watching his hands. Long, pale fingers intertwined with each other and fidgeting constantly. I had one final question. "What happens if they break their word?"

Quinn made a pessimistic sound. "I hope they don't. I don't think they will. If they do, though...I don't know. I'll take care of you guys, I know that much. But...I don't know if I can fight my friends."

"Can I?" I asked. I had far less problem with it than he did, I knew.

"You'll stand a good chance of getting killed, Percy."

"Can I anyway?"

Quinn gave a slight chuckle at my insistance. "Hey, I won't stop you. If that's really what you want, okay. I'll just protect Rolburn."

My worries began to ease. It wasn't as if I was completely okay now, but...it was better. I handed him my dirt block. "Good. You keep doing that."