[ The farms are devil-free. Good to know. Ed pokes the wriggling worm onto his hook, then drops his line into the hole next to Nero's. Are they supposed to be quiet with ice fishing, too? Can the fish hear you from under the ice? ]

Yeah? Steam house and everything? [ Maybe he should check out that sauna. Everyone loves a good sauna. Ed frowns at his line bobbing in the water. ] I guess. I dunno, people here, they've got lives. Like they're not even thinking about going home anymore.

[ And maybe, to Ed, that's sort of hard to think about. That one day, he might find himself doing the same thing. Settling in after three or four years or however fucking long the soup woman had said it'd been. What if he gets stuck here for years? What if he never sees Stede again? ]

I just don't want him to think I ditched him, y'know? He's sensitive.

[ Sensitive, yeah. That's definitely the reason Ed doesn't want Stede thinking that and not because Ed himself is still a little (a lot) traumatized by being abandoned himself not all that long ago. ]