It was absurd. It was almost the kind of thing he might have done back home before things had gone so wrong. Except he couldn't see Hamish, Jack, or Lilith putting up with it. But thinking about them hurt. Hamish and the way he was leaning hard into magic. Jack and the Thing he seemed to have with Alyssa that actually seemed to be worse than his Thing with Gabrielle. And then there was Lilith. Lilith who said they'd kidnapped her. Who had the same kind of scars Zecchia had.

There was a moment when the emotion might have shown on his face, but it was gone in a flicker.

"Absolutely. I just don't carry a sword." He glanced down and grinned harder. "Until now."

Jeff had gotten a thwack against him when Randall was distracted but now he countered, poking Jeff right in the stomach.

"Do you have a real band here in this place?"