[Jaskier nods. There isn't much more to say on it, is there? Between what it did with Rhy and Julie, and its attempts to communicate with him, and Rhy speaking on it after -- what else is there to believe? At least he trusts Rhy. He did not trust Ronan when he spoke of such things... and he was rather mad, anyway.

And Jaskier was not the exact same Jaskier he is now.

The gaze he lays on his friend is soft, dawning with understanding. Had he seen his mother in Gideon in that moment, then?] There is nothing more human than the feeling of powerlessness. I've always been there, and never been able to stop anything.

[It isn't some grand revelation. It's only a musing; that no matter what Alucard is, no matter his strength, they are the same.] I know what a temptation it is to think of all the things you could have done. [He offers Alucard a hand to take, to hold, if he needs it. It tears him to see his friend always so tortured by his past. His healing is so fucking painfully slow to watch as a human, if it is truly healing at all.] And how we will fall into the same temptation, again and again, because we are truly bad at learning any lessons.

[There's almost a smile, a sense of humor in it.] We still have time. To change this. And you have me to suffer with you.