The first thing he ever learned (and sometimes still forgot) was his mother's maxim, Impatience kills as surely as poison. A lack of planning kills as surely as a blade. And so Edge crouched hidden in the branches for hours, until after the tall blond man had finished his dinner of overcooked rabbit and stripped to his skin, wading into the wide and shallow river to bathe. After that it was just a matter of slithering along the branches until he was between the man in the river and the small pile of his clothes and armor, abandoned on the bank.

He dropped silently, out of habit, telling himself he didn't particularly care if the blond man saw him do it. Naked, alone, and caught away from his weapon: what was he going to do that Edge couldn't handle? Catching himself on all fours Edge rose to his feet, to find that the blond man was watching him, standing ten feet out in the river with the muddy brown water eddying high on his thighs. His bare chest was a mass of scars, including one huge 'X' that bisected his chest and stretched from shoulder to shoulder; it must have nearly killed him.

"Nice scar." Irritation--not entirely rational--at having had the initiative stolen put an edge on Edge's voice. "What are you doing in Eblan, Kain?"

"Passing through." Kain's arms hung loose by his sides. He didn't bother trying to cover himself. "My business isn't here."

"Passing through," Edge repeated, crossing his arms over his chest and subtly loosening the knives in his forearm sheaths. He might be between Kain and his armor, but still, it was best to be careful. Very careful, with this one. "You're not welcome here, Kain."

"I'll be out of your country and into the eastern mountains by sundown tomorrow," Kain said, not moving. "I promise."

"Promise," Edge said, leaning on the word. "I don't trust your promises."

That one was a hit; Kain said nothing, but his fingers flexed slowly at his sides. Edge found himself almost wishing the man would move, or try to cover himself up, or react, or something. "Sundown tomorrow," he said, trying his best to think of it as 'magnanimous' rather than 'giving in'; besides, as deep into Eblan as they were, Kain couldn't possibly make it out any faster. "I'll hold you to that. If the sun sets on you here--"

"--kill me," Kain said, voice perfectly neutral.

Edge (who had been about to promise just that) stopped dead and scowled. "Would you stop that? Way to ruin a perfectly good threat. I was looking forward to making that threat."

Kain didn't smile. Edge didn't think Kain could smile.

"May I come out of the water?" Kain asked, and finally he moved, one hand raising in a lazy gesture that dripped water everywhere.

"No," Edge hastened to say, pleased to be able to deny Kain something. "I want to keep you where I can see you."

"I didn't say you had to stop watching me."

"Shut up."

Kain let his hand drop again and shifted his weight onto his other foot. "I promise I'm not going to try anything."

"I already told you, I don't trust your promises." Edge's eyes automatically tracked every nuance of that little shift, right down to the ripples forming in the water. "Can you blame me?"

"Not really." Kain reached up with both hands to push his wet blond hair out of his eyes, and Edge's muscles all twitched towards him, a small throwing blade appearing between his first two fingers. Unaware--or uncaring--of how close he'd just come to dying, Kain let his hands drop again. "I can't blame you at all."

That left Edge with very little to say, and a knife in his hand that he didn't need; feeling a minor prick of embarrassment he resheathed the blade and took two quick serpentine steps to the side. "Fine. Come out of the water," he said. It was an apology of sorts, but he felt compelled to add, "Don't try anything."

The water roiled muddily around Kain's legs as he moved out of the river, heading for the small pile of clothing and armor that sat on the bank ten feet from where Edge stood. Half a head taller and gleaming wet in the moonlight he moved past Edge, barely sparing the ninja a glance, and the lack of what Edge considered to be only a necessary amount of respect for his lethality was galling. He turned, slowly, watching Kain's bare and scarred back. "I could kill you," he said, counterattacking the indifference with an idle threat. "Right now, I could kill you, before you turned around."

"Then do it," Kain said, wringing water out of his hair. He didn't seem afraid. "Stab me in the back. Since you seem convinced that I'd do the same to you."

"Backstabbing your former comrades-in-arms is your job," Edge said, quick as lightning, and was rewarded by Kain hunching his shoulders slightly. Again, he didn't deny it, leaving Edge feeling as if something was missing. Some resistance. Something. Fight back, dammit, he thought. Fight me! Instead Kain just reached for the pile of his clothes--Edge tensed, noticeably, his face going absolutely still as his fingers shifted on his forearms--and picked up his shirt, shrugging into it. Threadbare, Edge noted. Worn through in all the places where his armor must rub.

"I can't say it hasn't been a pleasure having you," Kain said dryly, stepping into his pants and pulling them up. "Was there anything else? Did you want to fight?"

Edge was silent, watching the other man dress. Kain buttoned up his pants and tucked his shirt in, then tied his hair back with a bit of leather.

"Yes," Edge finally said, just as Kain pulled on his boots. "There was something else. A message for you from Cecil."

That, alone out of everything he'd said tonight, drew something like a real reaction: Kain stopped, and straightened up, and turned to face Edge, his face careful and set. "A message for me?"

"It's a couple of years old by now," Edge said airily, discovering that he was enjoying this. "He just asked us all to pass it along if any of us ever saw you. It might not even be relevant any more. He might have changed his mind--" Edge trailed off there. Kain showed no sign of getting impatient (beyond a slight tension in his jaw), and prevaricating wasn't any fun if it wasn't going to make Kain angry. So Edge sighed and said, "He wants you to come home."

"Home," Kain echoed, flatly.

"He said to tell you that if you want to come back to Baron, you'll be welcome there." Edge's nose wrinkled slightly, showing what he thought of this largesse. "And something about 'all is forgiven' or some kingly nonsense like that. I doubt he meant it."

"No," Kain said slowly, his face still set. "If Cecil said it, he meant it."

Edge could only nod. Yeah, that was just like Cecil. The big trusting idiot. "You ask me, he's a fool to trust you--"

"Don't," Kain said, and now, finally, there was that warning rumble of fight in his voice. "Cecil's no fool."

"Except where you're concerned," Edge was quick to point out, baring his teeth under his mask. "Cecil's always been blind and stupid when it came to you--"

"Don't," Kain said--growled--shifting into something like a fighting stance even though his armor was still piled on the ground and his hands were empty. "I don't care how much crap you want to talk about me, because you're entitled, but leave Cecil out of this."

Edge laughed sharply. "Oh, now you're loyal to Cecil? Now? Better late than never, Kain!"

Much to Edge's disappointment, that seemed to snap Kain out of it. His hands fell again and his face smoothed over, becoming neutral. "Yes," he said, voice totally flat. "Better late than never."

With no fight materializing, Edge fell back on his own flat neutrality. "Anyway, that's all I have to say. You have until sundown tomorrow. If you're not out of my country--"

"--kill me," Kain said again, and he almost, almost smiled.

It infuriated Edge. Was he being mocked? "I will," he snarled, voice going savage. "Do stay in my country, Kain. Give me an excuse. Cecil will be angry but I'll be able to pacify him somehow--"

At the mention of Cecil the almost-smile faded from Kain's face. "If you want to kill me, kill me now," he snapped, spreading his hands wide. "I deserve it. I won't stop you. I'll even turn around if you want me to--"

"Shut up!"

"--but I will be out of your country by the time the sun sets tomorrow. If you want to kill me so badly you'll hurt Cecil to do it--" Once he invoked Cecil's name himself Kain did smile, and it was awful, that thin and vicious expression. "--then do it now. But you wouldn't know anything about wanting something so badly that you'd betray a friend for it, would you?" His voice turned thin and vicious to match. "Because that's my job."

"We're in agreement on that," Edge snapped--not very snappily, but it was the best he could come up with on the fly. "Get out of my country, Kain. Or don't. I don't care which." And dropping to all fours he leaped into the trees. Not so much as a leaf rustled to mark his leaving, but leave he did. Let Kain wonder if I'm still there watching him, Edge thought, putting miles between them with all possible haste and not letting himself wonder if he was running away.