[Heaviness lies like thick fog over Liem as Set drapes himself atop him. The aches riddling his fragile mortal body seem layered atop each other, making him one big, throbbing wound, but for a brief moment he leans his face against Set’s hair, surrendering some of his meagre remaining scraps of pride for a moment’s comfort amongst the cacophony of complaints his physical form now offers him.]

I told him I would return it safely, and still he went to such lengths…

[And he hadn’t simply come after Liem himself, or enlisted the aid of an ally. He had used Set instead, had held Set’s child hostage just as he had accused Liem with such outrage of doing himself. A vicious circle of pain.

Because he thought Liem would change his mind, and never give it back? Because he couldn’t stomach waiting even a few days to receive it on Liem’s terms? He doesn’t know. Just as he hadn’t known that any piece of Anubis’s soul could be here, in Kenos, when Set still intended to return to him in his own world.

At another time, he might have felt shame in drinking Set’s blood, after having just inflicted pain and injury upon him. He will mend with or without it, in time — but the god surely does not intend to linger to watch him recuperate, and his regeneration will take some time to rebuild his strength on its own.

And, for better or for worse, shame has eluded him ever since his supper with the garden’s faeries.]

It will.

[Perhaps not immediately, but soon enough. Liem frowns up at Set, his expression severe in contemplation despite his throbbing face.]

Do you think he will return what he has, if you give that to him?

[He had not suspected Gen would threaten a child to begin with. He has learned many things today.]