“You all know about that?"

She Laughed and reached out to touch his arm fondly. "You're not nearly as good at hiding your feelings as you think you are."

ULf flinched at her touch and shifted away from her. She furrowed her brow at the movement but didn't call him out on it.

“So, why did you get angry at them today?" she finally continued her line of questioning.

“I wasn't angry at them. I was angry at him." “The human?”

ULf nodded shortly.

“Why was that?"

To her surprise, he actually turned to look directly at her. It was very true that ULf had never been good at hiding his feelings, and she saw the sadness that now filled his eyes. In all the time she'd known him, she'd never seen him like that. He was always so controlled, and focused on trying to win fights that had always been unwinnable. Once or twice she'd seen him lose his temper with himself, or Laugh with the rest of them in Lighter moments between ass-kickings. Sadness had just never been in his nature. Even after all those defeats and humiliations, he'd never let the weight of it settle upon him and drive him to despair.

“If I'm not so good at hiding my feelings as you think I am, then I think you know why I was angry with him, Ulla."

“I do?" She played the question innocently enough, but he continued to look upon her with those sad eyes and her playfulness evaporated. "Yes, I think I do. I did not know you thought of me in such a way, ULf."

At that he Laughed a loud and derisive: “Ha!" Then he shook his head before continuing. "Ulla, even I knew I was barely hiding how I feel about you. Why did you choose him?"

“I... I wanted to hurt Algra. I admire the human, and I saw him one night with her and the red-haired one. I looked at Algra. I saw she was so damned happy and I couldn't stand it anymore. So, I offered myself to him to spite her. I thought I could hurt her."

“You gave yourself out of spite!?"

"I tried to-"

“You should value yourself more."

Those words hit her harder than if he'd slapped her across the face. He didn't even seem angry anymore, but rather at a loss as to why she‘d do such a thing. More than that, it made her think of the matter in a new Light, and she didn't much like what that Light illuminated within her.

“Every time I see her I think of my brother and remember her cowardice. She should have been at his side when he went into battle. She should have been there with him and the rest of her pack but instead she was here, in the safety of her uncle's camp." Ulla punctuated her feelings on the matter by spitting down into the pit. "I hate her, ULf. I would have blotted out the sun from the sky if it meant I could cause her pain. I would've challenged The First itself for the chance to make her feel the shame that is rightly hers."

"You would have? Meaning that isn't what you plan on doing now?" “Well, no. I don't know how to blot out the sun and The First isn't answering my summons to take up the challenge." Her expressions softened slightly and she glanced over to him knowingly from the corner of her eye.

“Instead, I've decided to try and put it aside for now and do as you tell me."

"You doing as you're told? If you can carry out that miracle then I wouldn't write off your plans for eternal darkness or defeating The

First."

She snorted out a laugh and elbowed him in the ribs. He found himself smiling despite himself, and some of that sadness dissipated.

"You are a shit," she surmised with the embers of her laugh still glinting in her dark eyes.

“But I think that I've been sufficiently humbled enough in these past weeks that I can learn to set aside my grudge and to follow your lead."

"I jumbled? You?"