He swings himself over the fence, boots thudding softly into the moss on the other side. With one last lingering look at the garden, he trudges back into the trees.

"Not everyone, but..." His eyes duck away, drawn by shyness, which he tries to disguise as vigilance in regard to their shadowy surroundings. "The most important one, yeah."

The month he passed in Cadens while Iris was alone in Thorne felt like an age, even with nightly rendezvous in the Horizon. Now to be flung into the same patch of forest together feels like the universe finally relenting.

"What about you? I saw Hilda and Sylvain around."

Only the lightest hint of knowing presses into his tone.