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"But he's alive - I - I saw him, I talked to him," Thorne struggles. He had texted Aleksy earlier today to complain about Animal Crossing. He had to be alive - he was still - "Can you tell me - what happened?" The words burn an arc across his chest. "He was - he is close to me."

Death and all its facets could not touch what Aleksy was to him.

"Work? What does she do, exactly?" Thorne repeats dubiously. And then he looks up at her, the mention of cycles causing him to blink, to understand the reality. The Noeh he knows - it's not the same. "I'm sorry," he says, because he doesn't know what else to say. His body still trembles. "I am. Was I... did I ever know you before? Or in your cycle?" He pauses and shudders, his chest tightening.

"I cam here because of you," he says softly, and looks up at Mina. Not Noeh. Not yet. Mina. "I came here because you gave me a request, from my cycle. I wanted to help." He runs a finger across Aleksy's tattoos. "But it seems I - I'm not much good at it."

"Oh," Thorne says, the breath blowing from him cruelly, and he says, "What is he now?" He looks over at Noeh - Mina - and pulls himself back together, one by one. His eyes are wet and his mouth is set into a thin line, but he stomachs it and stares at her and tries to breathe evenly - to breathe at all.

"So what are you saying?" He asks softly. "That this is all my fault?"

But he already knows the answer. It burns in his eyes and he looks disgusted at himself for the span of a second.

"I'm sorry for all the questions," he murmurs, and looks up at Mina. "Was I different in your cycle? Less tattoos, maybe? A better man?" He pauses, the joke flat and failing on his lips, but then he looks at her openly, gently. "Was she kind in your cycle? Melany?"

Thorne blinks at her and exhales softly, an animal sound.

"Perhaps," Thorne says, "I imagine she knows far more than I do." He pauses and wonders and tilts his head at Noeh. Exhaustion, emotional, runs like a current through him, but it beats against a wall of adamant. Death stings the air around him. Keep walking. Keep walking.

"She sent me here for one of your rings," he says, his gaze shifting to Mina's supple throat and back. After a pause, he asks, "What are they for?"

"Oh," Thorne says softly, and looks at Noeh, not sure how to say anything anymore. His chest hurts. His entire body hurts. "Thank you," he says, not sure why, but only able to say so much.

His eyes lower, and he flexes one hand in his lap and laughs a little bit at the bump, pressing back against her gently, companionably.

"I'm glad I seemed pleasant at least, and I'm sure just as lonely," he says and laughs again. "Melany and I have a very complicated relationship in this cycle, if she would ever lower herself to calling it a relationship at all." He scoffs, a little.

His eyes soften at the mention of the gifts. He looks at her and wonders what to say for a moment, if he can even say anything at all that would help.

"Your father?" he echoes, and then he pauses and exhales sharply. He looks down at her and reaches, but only tugs a small curl against her ear. Gently. Remembering. "I'll protect and care for anything you give me. But - "

He pauses, looks at her, and his expression splinters.

"Will you die if you give them to me?" And then - "Are you alive right now?"

"Oh," Thorne says, gently, and then, "I'm glad."

But she presses the ring to his finger and he blinks down at the gift, turning his hand over in hers to look at it, to wonder who it once belonged to before he looks up again. At Noeh. At Mina.

"Thank you, I will," he says gently. And then - "Will I ever see you again?"

Thorne watches Noeh move and nods as she pushes open the door. His eyes travel to the corpse in his hands and he knows he cannot do anything more. There is nothing more that can be done, and he can only say, "I will."

A pause, and then quietly, "Take care of him too? If there's anything that can be done."

He stands up and leaves her there, leaves, and is not sure of himself, his body, until he is back at court, searching for the real Noeh. He never calls her name, doesn't has to, only searches the shadows and the niches and the shadowy garden corners where Noeh seems most apt to be when not in the service of Melany - Melany as is she is now.

Thorne settles before her, like a skeleton someone breathed back to life. But there's something regal and lupine that hallmarks him differently here in the light. The nightmare crests in the corner of his eyes.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting long," he rasps, ever gentle, and settles before her to offer the ring. "This is yours, right?"

A thousand questions nestle in the hollow of his throat. He does not ask.

Thorne exhales a sigh and tilts his head at her, wondering. There are more questions, always more. But he's tired. He wants to go home. He wonders if she is tired too. He returns the ring to his finger and touches her hand with his gently as he stands back up.

"Noeh," he only says, "Only if you stay safe as well. I'll come back. If you call."

He turns to go, and twists the ring on his finger as he does.