“You said to me once that things like this don’t happen in your world,” Elias hummed.

They ended up sitting down against a tree, their legs far too tired to stay standing. Pebbles and dirt dug into Andrew a bit uncomfortably, but not so much that he let it distract him from the soft way Elias spoke to him.

“Well, they don’t exactly happen here, either. My childhood was normal, free of any visitors from outside worlds. My father and mother raised me safely and happily in the castle. Most of our days were spent doing carefree things and visiting the people in the city to shop or celebrate things. The biggest conflict our land faced was when the droughts kept the farmers from bringing in enough produce for everyone. And even then, my father always had a solution.”

“Sounds like he was a smart guy,” Andrew mumbled, wanting to show Elias that he was listening.

The prince chuckled. “He was. People would even say that he was the smartest. Smarter than the mages, the scholars… There wasn’t a problem in the world that he couldn’t solve. Until Sebastian showed up a little over a decade ago.” Elias sighed. “He was like you, at first. Lost, confused, and said a lot of similar things. He came stumbling out of the woods, running into town and causing enough of a commotion that my father himself decided to come and see what was wrong. We brought Sebastian into the castle, but he believed in this world much quicker than you have. The second he saw a mage use magic, it was as if… As if something in him changed.”

Andrew hadn’t realized that he placed his hand on Elias’ knee, but once he noticed, he thought it would be too awkward to suddenly take it off. That and the prince seemed like he could use a bit of comfort while speaking. “What do you mean? I’ll be honest, seeing the magic didn’t do much to me. I thought it was a fancy trick. I think I still kind of do, but I can’t tell anymore. Seeing you turn into a dragon has been the craziest part, actually. Did he see that, or was it just the magic?”

Another laugh came from Elias, and he gave Andrew’s hand a light pat. “He saw the magic first. The mages and my father were happy to explain to him how it worked, thinking that they were just helping him adjust to something he had never seen before. But then Sebastian realized he could use it. That, for some reason, the magic listened to him and did exactly what he wanted it to.” He paused for a moment, the crackling of the fire filling the silence, since everyone else had either fallen asleep or chose not to speak. “At first, he did small things. Asking it to make him fly, or bring him things. But then, one day…”

The next bout of silence lasted longer, long enough that Andrew decided to tap Elias’ leg to bring him back to the present. “Listen, you don’t have to get into too much detail if you don’t want to. I’d like to know what’s going on, but if it sucks to talk about, then I’m not going to force you.”

“I appreciate that, Andrew, but I’ll be alright.” Elias took in a deep breath before he continued. “One day, when we had thought that Sebastian had settled in and accepted that it would take some time for us to figure out how to get him back home, he suddenly went on a rampage. He… He killed some of the staff in the castle. He asked the magic to make him more powerful, to make him strong enough to get home, and somehow he concluded that killing people would do that. I never saw the first people to die by his hand, but when my father went to confront him, Sebastian could only babble on about how he had to leave, that he couldn’t wait any longer to get back to the people who needed him. And then… Then he used the magic to kill my father.”

Andrew sat up more, his jaw clenched. He had heard sob stories before, and he had always written them off as nothing more than that; sob stories. But seeing the pain on Elias’ face, and the way his crimson eyes threatened to spill over with tears, made him realize that he had never seen much of that in person. The little family he had never cried in front of him, and he wasn’t the person that people would go to in their time of need. He wasn’t just listening to some far-off problem that didn’t have anything to do with him that time. Elias was a real person, with real feelings, and Andrew, whether he liked it or not, had become a person the prince would talk to about that sort of thing.

“I’m sorry, Elias,” he said softly. “I was a huge dick about things when I showed up, and now that I know this-”

“You didn’t know, so it’s not like you could have done it differently.”

Elias looked over at him with a large smile, and the lump of sadness in Andrew’s chest suddenly dropped into his stomach, fluttering around and turning into a laugh that he couldn’t hide.

“You can’t be all serious like that and then throw my own words back at me,” Andrew snorted. “I was trying to be all serious with you!”

“I know, that’s why I did it. I don’t want this story to upset you, Andrew. It’s not as if you could have known that he had come here and acted the way that he did. You’ve been far more pleasant than him, in every way.” Elias grabbed Andrew’s hand, holding it in his lap. “And I hope that I haven’t made you feel as though I thought you would be the same as him. You showing up the same way he did scare me, but I realized it would be unfair of me to judge you before getting to know you.”

“Nah, I felt pretty welcomed by you. But some things make a little more sense now that I know this has happened before. And I know I’m kind of an asshole, but I would never do the things he did. Seeing that was…” Andrew shook his head. “I couldn’t ever bring myself to do that crazy shit. Sebastian definitely has something wrong with him. Besides, you’ve been nothing but nice to me. If I had gone through what you did, I probably would’ve treated the next person in the door a lot meaner, so you did better than I would have.”

Elias gave a slow nod, absentmindedly tracing over Andrew’s knuckles. “To be honest, if I had known of a way to send you home, I would have done it in a heartbeat to avoid having anything like that happening again. But, I still don’t, so instead I tried to make friends with you, in hopes that you wouldn’t do what Sebastian did.”

“Well, it worked. We’re friends now, and I’m not going to turn into a rampaging, evil cloud. I like to think I wouldn’t have anyway, but who knows.” Andrew closed his eyes, a yawn forcing its way out. “I’m glad we had this talk, but honesty hour might have to come to an end for now. Using the magic exhausted me, so I think we should both get some rest before moving on in the morning. We can talk more about all of this after we get everyone, including you, treated and in a warm bed.”

“A warm bed does sound nice right about now,” Elias agreed with a hum. “One last thing before you rest, though, Andrew, if that’s alright?”

Andrew lifted his head, his tired eyes barely staying open enough to look at the prince. “Sure, what’d’ya need?”

The prince laughed and brushed a stray lock of hair away from Andrew’s face. “Promise me that no matter what, you’ll take it easy with the magic. I trust that you won’t use it to hurt anyone, but seeing what it’s done to you today worries me. I want you to be safe, so please don’t feel the need to push yourself. If we’re ever in that position again, I will do better to make sure you don’t have to do this to yourself again.”

Andrew snorted, lightly smacking the prince’s leg before resting his head on him again and closing his eyes. “Says you. I… Didn’t want to see you hurt, either. So I’ll only promise that if you promise that I can still help. Without pushing myself, of course.” His words began to trail off, and Andrew could tell that fighting sleep was no longer an option.

Elias didn’t respond to him anyway, so he had no qualms with allowing himself the rest that his body demanded. They had a miserable trip ahead of them, and Andrew wanted to avoid being crabby for it.