When he left North Africa in 1943, Dietrich never expected to return, nor did he want to. There was never a reason to go back, up until now. Here he was, trailing Moffitt on horseback, sweat soaking his clothing, looking out over a landscape he had to call home for a little over two years. He realized he hadn't missed it. There were so many bad memories associated with it that he began to wonder why he agreed to accompany Moffitt in the first place. The air was so hot and dry, yet Dietrich felt cold as the sea of faces of his dead soldiers came up around him in his mind. He kept himself composed, hoping and praying that the voices that urged him to take his own life wouldn't return. Like he had told Moffitt when they began their journey from Britain to Egypt, he refused to go down that road again.

Dietrich loosened his grip on Icepatch's reins as familiar feelings of exhaustion and depression started weighing heavily on him. The mare kept walking, but she kept glancing at Dietrich as if making sure he was okay. After several minutes of him being unresponsive, she trotted forward to walk alongside Moffitt and Snowstripe.

"Hello, Icepatch," Moffitt said. He looked at Dietrich. "Are you alright? You seem a bit… sad."

"I am starting to think… I never should have come back here," Dietrich replied.

"Memories hitting you hard?"

Dietrich nodded.

"You never came here before the war, did you?"

"No."

"I was here several times. Coming back during the war was definitely… an interesting experience. Some places have definitely been tainted by what happened." Moffitt was quiet for a moment. "Did I ever tell you I was in the Second Battle of El Alamein?"

"No. I performed reconnaissance in the lead-up to it. I do believe it was after the battle when I captured you for the first time."

"It was. I remember that clear as day. There was a cobra in your tent that I somehow convinced to leave, because I didn't want you shooting it."

"At least now, I understand why. Now, I could never bring myself to harm a snake, regardless of what they symbolize to others. I no longer see something dangerous, something to be feared. I see… you."

Moffitt grinned a little. "From something initially feared to something you could never bring yourself to hurt… hmm… that does sound like our own friendship, don't you think?"

"I was far more scared of Troy than I ever was of you, but I see your point." Dietrich adjusted his grip on Icepatch's reins, feeling somewhat better. "I have allowed adders in my yard. Many years ago, such a thing never would have occurred. They would have been removed rather quickly. Now, they are welcome company."

"My mother always calls me when she gets adders in the garden. She used to be quite horrified, watching me pick them up, but now it's just, 'Oh, Jack, could you come by as soon as you can? There's another adder in the garden.' 'Yes, Mother, I'll be there in a jiff.' 'Thank you, Jack. I'll have a cup of tea and some crumpets for you.' It's quite funny how casual it is."

"Indeed it is. Given everything you told me, I doubted your mother ever would have gotten used to Anah."

"It certainly took time—and me falling ill—before she accepted Anah." Moffitt looked ahead for a moment, then sighed. "We were talking about El Alamein, weren't we?"

"We were. You did tell me that we will need plenty to talk about this trip," Dietrich replied.

"We will. I just wasn't sure you'd enjoy talking about snakes."

"I do not mind. Anything goes now. We are alone in the desert. We will probably talk about a lot of things. The deepest facets of our personalities, our philosophy, religion, history, magic. Anything goes."

"Alright." Moffitt glanced at Dietrich. "You never told me that you wrote to Professor Tannenbay about his book."

"The thought to tell you never crossed my mind," Dietrich said. "I found his work very interesting, and he is a very intelligent man to converse with."

"I thoroughly enjoyed my classes with him. He was actually fun and easy to approach about work, even around exams, which was certainly nice because my father hates exam season. That's one reason I'm never going to become a professor—I don't want to put up with administering exams and the like. I'm perfectly happy in my office, in the research department, and being able to conduct my own expeditions. I also could never do lectures on a regular basis. Guest lectures, yes, but not daily."

"It is always fun when you bring me along for guest lectures," Anah said with a grin.

"It's fun when the more annoying parts of your personality have not been dialed up all the way. I really don't think you needed to paint yourself to look like an ancient uraeus statue for the lecture I gave two autumns ago, because I already had several lined up on my desk."

"But it was fun watching you try to guess which one was me."

Moffitt sighed and rolled his eyes. "Cleaning you up afterward certainly wasn't fun. Vanora wasn't at all happy about the absolute mess the bathtub was when I was done."

Anah was holding back a giggle. "I think I should confess something to you, dear."

"What?"

"I could have easily painted myself unassisted, but… your father helped, because he thought the idea was funny."

Dietrich nearly spit out water from his canteen with laughter.

Moffitt wasn't laughing. "Really? You got my father involved with your shenanigans? I'm going to have a long talk with him when we go home."

"That was not the only time, either," Anah said.

"Please, don't tell me the lecture where someone put a donkey in the hall was one he was involved with."

Anah grinned. "He was."

"Wait—" Dietrich laughed a little, "a donkey? Please explain."

"I was doing a presentation on a Ptolemaic pharaoh and thought it would be fun to add a short section on asps and how the ancient Greeks used it to refer to Egyptian cobras. I requested the herpetological department lend me one of their European asps, but someone—" Moffitt glared at Anah, "decided to 'mishear' the word as 'ass' and managed to get a donkey in the lecture hall."

"The look on your face was priceless!" Anah said. "Just standing there, mouth wide open, and then the silence is shattered by you shouting, 'Why is there a bloody donkey in here?!'"

"I can picture that." Dietrich was laughing so hard that he had to wipe tears from his face. "Oh, goodness, if this is the kind of thing one can expect while going to Cambridge, maybe I should take up Professor Tannenbay's offer about taking some classes."

"That really isn't a common occurrence," Moffitt said.

"No, but I can make it a common occurrence," Anah replied. "It gets poor Dietrich to laugh, dear. That is always nice to see and hear."

"I won't argue with that, but him getting a laugh at my expense isn't what we're working toward. Much like his behavior toward Troy sometimes."

"I have gotten better with Troy," Dietrich said.

"You have, but you could be doing a little better."

"Why?"

"Because he's done a lot for you, and all you do in return is act grumpy."

"I do not. I have thanked Troy."

"Okay, what was the most recent thing you thanked him for?"

"Inviting me over for Christmas in 1949."

"Didn't he visit you for your birthday not too long before he and the others went to Korea?"

"He did not 'visit.' He showed up uninvited, and climbed over my fence. All I wanted was a nice quiet day, and he ruined it."

"He didn't want you to be alone on your birthday."

"Maybe I wanted to be alone on my birthday."

Moffitt opened his mouth to continue that argument, then paused. He pulled Snowstripe into a halt. Dietrich did the same with Icepatch, and saw what Moffitt was looking at. The ruins of an ancient village, some distance away.

"Is that it, Anah?" Dietrich asked.

Anah was frozen in place, her expression unclear. "Yes, it is," she said.

"Are you alright?" Moffitt asked.

"I will be fine. Just go."

The horses were prompted to walk first, then directed to canter to get to the ruins a little quicker. Dietrich's blood ran cold when he spotted something lying near one of the damaged mudbrick buildings—the partly scavenged remains of a body, mummified in the dryness of the desert environment. "Moffitt!"

The Englishman came up alongside Dietrich. "Oh…" Moffitt's face paled. He dismounted from Snowstripe, and knelt to get a better look at the body.

"And there are more." Dietrich dismounted from Icepatch, gesturing to more bodies lying in the streets. He turned a corner, entering the main square of the village. Disgust and horror knotted in his chest and stomach upon finding the row of corpses lined up against a wall. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It didn't feel real, and he couldn't explain why. Of course it was real. He was staring right at it, and he wished he wasn't. "What… happened here?" he whispered to himself.

"Dietrich." Moffitt appeared next to him, holding something. "I'm starting to think what happened here… was fairly recent." He held up a small, hollow object made of metal, and placed it in Dietrich's palm. "9-millimeter casing."

Dietrich turned the casing over in his hand. Moffitt was correct in his statement.

"They're all over the village." Moffitt looked shaken. "No doubt… this was a massacre of some kind. Probably by the G—" He stopped, looking at Dietrich.

"You can say it," Dietrich said.

"…Germans, if this casing is anything to go by."

"Most likely. I highly doubt this was Afrika Korps, not unless some officer went rogue and began murdering innocent people."

"SS, then?"

"Probably Sorcery Division," Anah spoke up. "All of these people were witches and warlocks."

"I would've assumed they would be abducted for study," Moffitt said.

"Not in this case, I guess."

"Why, though? It makes no sense, given their overall mission."

"Somehow, they must have tracked the crystal ball legend to this place." Dietrich found himself needing to sit. "I do remember… Sturmbannführer Augenstein telling me that he had been searching 'all over North Africa' for it. He never mentioned this place, though."

"Well, it wouldn't exactly look good if he admitted to you that he had all these people killed."

"We have no way of knowing who did this, but… it would not surprise me if this was connected to Augenstein in some way."

"That was his mission, after all." Moffitt sat next to Dietrich. "There must be more to this."

Dietrich drew up his knees, sighing. "Someone probably did not tell Augenstein what he wanted to know, either because they did not know, or flat-out refused to tell him. For that, the whole village was punished." A choking sensation rose up in his throat. "This is what I was afraid of happening to my men if I stepped too far out of line. It very nearly happened. He had my soldiers lined up… and he was going to kill all of them unless I told him where to find you and the cobra pendant." He felt Moffitt put his arm around his shoulders. "Here… this place… I should not be feeling sorry for myself, but I… I can see the abyss."

"Don't look at it. Keep walking. Just keep going." Moffitt gave him a gentle squeeze.

Dietrich felt Anah slither over to him and wrap herself around his shoulders. I have to fight it. I can fight it. He felt Anah shift, making room for a heavy presence on his other shoulder. Icepatch rested her muzzle on him. She stayed standing for a moment, then lay down behind Dietrich. "Thank you," he said, quietly.

Moffitt reached over to pet Icepatch. "Good girl," he whispered.

The group remained silent for several long minutes, the hot desert sun beating down on them. Dietrich managed to pull himself away from the abyss in his mind, and returned to reality. "We should lay these people to rest," he said. "Then we will find Anah's original home."


What they found in the village was the last thing Moffitt had been expecting to find when he, Dietrich, and Anah set out on their journey, and it was difficult to conceal his shock and horror. This area was so remote and isolated that it didn't surprise him that no one found it until now. In a way, he was glad that he and Dietrich did. At least they, even though they were strangers to that village, could mourn the lives lost.

Over the next several hours, Moffitt, Dietrich, and Anah dug out a somewhat shallow mass grave just outside the village before collecting the dead. None of them spoke to each other as they worked, but Moffitt kept glancing at Anah, noticing she hadn't shown much of a reaction at all to what had happened. She worked tirelessly, and her expression was blank. She offered no thoughts, nor any visible emotion. Then again, none of them could until the job was done.

Moffitt stopped for water once, and to make sure both of the horses drank. After letting them go back to grazing the sparse vegetation around the village, Moffitt returned to the village square. He watched Dietrich for a moment, noting how gentle and careful he was being while handling the bodies. It broke Moffitt's heart to know that it wasn't Dietrich's first time burying someone. He buried a lot of his own soldiers, Moffitt thought. He looked over at the wall, peppered with holes and spotted with dried, old blood. That is what we were fighting. Not him.

It was late into the night when the last bit of sand was put over the grave. Dietrich's somber baritone broke the silence as he said a prayer for the dead. Moffitt stood nearby, finding himself wondering what this place would have looked like had the SS not come through, or even if Augenstein had just accepted there was nothing here and moved on.

Neither Moffitt nor Dietrich could bring themselves to eat, despite having not eaten anything since they departed from the dock in Alexandria that morning. It was hard to believe that morning, they had been on that ship. It felt like it had been much longer. With that in mind, neither of them could sleep, either, so they continued on their mission.

Anah was still strangely quiet. She sat a few feet away from the disturbed sand, staring aimlessly. Moffitt knelt by her, unsure of what to say, unsure of what she needed. "I know… this place was home at one point for you," he started. "I'm… so sorry."

Anah didn't turn to face him. "There is no need to be sorry. I did not miss this place." She looked down at the sand in front of her. "A long time ago—long before I met you—I told myself that I wanted to see this place punished. Destroyed. Forgotten. Left in such few fragments that any archeologist who found it would not even reference it in a footnote."

Moffitt gave her a concerned look. "You're not… happy the SS did this, are you?"

"No. I know I should not be."

"Regardless of what happened two thousand years ago, their descendants didn't deserve this. They may have changed for the better in that time. Now, we'll never know."

"That is true."

"Do you blame yourself for this happening?"

"No. I said what I did out of anger not too long after I was granted that second chance. I highly doubted it would ever come true."

"Acting on that anger often has disastrous consequences." Moffitt tried not to let his mind turn to the two Germans he killed out of rage and grief over his brother's death. "It doesn't make you any better than those who did you harm."

"I am… deeply ashamed I had thoughts like that."

"It's understandable, though. The actions of your witch and the people around her ultimately contributed to you being trapped in the temple for two thousand years."

Anah nodded, staying quiet for a moment. "Every witch and warlock has a familiar. Why was I chosen to have a chance at a more fulfilling existence?"

Moffitt kept his voice low. "Why was Dietrich chosen for a prophecy? Why was I chosen to be the snake in said prophecy?"

"Both of those answers, we may never know."

"The same may go for you. At least you were given this chance. I'm glad you were. I didn't think—what is it, nine years ago—that I would have a talking cobra as a companion. Or a friend. I'm glad you were with me in the first few months and years after the war."

"It was difficult watching you suffer, but I am glad to know that I helped."

Moffitt reached over to gently scratch the back of Anah's head. He turned when he heard someone walking up from behind, and saw Dietrich.

"Are you two alright?" Dietrich asked.

"We are," Moffitt replied. "You?"

"The horses seem a bit more alert. I do not know if it is just because it is night, or…" Dietrich looked over his shoulder. "I do not want to stick around for much longer."

"This place is a bit creepy. I mean, we're sitting in front of a mass grave. This was a witch village—"

"It is not just that."

Moffitt felt a chill shoot down his spine. "The stranger from the ship? Have you seen him?"

"No, but unless it is just ghosts or something, I do not feel that we are alone."

Moffitt looked back at Anah. "We should get what we came here for and then get out of here."

"I agree." Anah hesitated a moment. "I will show you the house. I… know exactly where it is." She climbed up to Moffitt's shoulders. "Go to the main square, and take a left into the eastern sector. You will find a narrow street. Follow it to the end. The last building… is the house that I was first conjured in." She tightened around Moffitt's neck, and was looking around nervously as the three made their way through the village.

The horses were never far off, Moffitt noticed. They seemed a lot less relaxed than before, which told Moffitt he needed to pay attention. They see and sense things long before we do. Hopefully, this isn't something serious, but… you never know.

When they found the last building on the street, Moffitt started feeling more uneasy. Anah seemed tense as well. Her hood was flared and her breathing had quickened.

"Should we go inside?" Dietrich asked.

Moffitt glanced at Anah. "Are you alright?"

"In the basement, there are skeletons," Anah said. "Several dozen skeletons. Butchered like animals, bled dry, used to make potions. I was made to kill many of them through my own venom. I was used to threaten them. I remember their screaming, clear as day." She fell silent for a moment. "Do you remember when we were in the SS laboratory in Augsburg, how… Augenstein threatened to give you the ricin potion if I would not talk?"

Moffitt nodded.

"I did not answer him because in that moment, I had no idea where I was. It all felt so familiar. I thought I was watching my witch and her companions… torturing someone. The fact that someone was you made it seem like a nightmare come to life."

"You weren't sure what you were experiencing was real."

"Unsure, and frightened that everything up to that point had been a dream."

When Anah didn't say anything for a while, Dietrich spoke up. "With… all of this coming back to you, do you remember where and when you first heard that tune?"

"I do," Anah replied. "It was during the construction of the crystal ball temple." She turned toward Dietrich. "The psychic who was killed to make the crystal ball… before he was murdered, he told me that he sensed something special about me, that the future held great things for me. He said he had a dream the night before involving four animals, and a blood-stained blackthorn flower. This infuriated my master. She was already quite mad with her own power by that point, and so she started screaming that there was nothing special about me, that my only purpose would be to guard that crystal ball for eternity."

"I didn't think psychics could see that far," Moffitt said.

"Once in a great while, a psychic will be selected as a vessel for a particular prophecy."

"And this one… saw mine?" Dietrich asked.

"He did. He was killed before he could tell me more, but the crystal ball made from his brain still contained it. The witch looked into the crystal ball after its creation and wondered if she could alter it to be about her. Fortunately, such things are not possible, but she hoped that by hiding the crystal ball and me, it would never come to be."

"That didn't work out so well, now, did it?" Moffitt asked with a slight grin.

"No. It was never going to work. A prophecy will play out, even if it must take winding roads and detours. Nothing can stop it."

"Even death?" Dietrich asked.

"No one knows, because it has never happened before." Anah glanced at Dietrich's wrists. "Why do you think I was so afraid when I learned you actually tried to end your own life? I had no idea what would happen if you succeeded."

"Fortunately, you didn't," Moffitt said. "Not just because of the prophecy. That became secondary." He turned his attention to the horses. "Do I need to be concerned about the fact that they've been pacing in front of the building across from us since we came to this street?" He looked up, and cold terror piercing his gut when he spotted a shadowy figure in a window in the tallest building of the village, looking through the scope of a rifle.

"Move!" Dietrich shoved Moffitt out of the way. The two fell to the ground just before a bullet struck the wall of the house, creating a puff of sand and dust. The silence of night allowed them to hear their mysterious companion pulling back the bolt on his rifle. They scrambled to their feet, making a mad dash toward the horses.

The shadow kept his rifle trained on Moffitt as the Englishman jumped into Snowstripe's saddle. Snowstripe was already taking off when another bang was heard and a bullet hit the ground behind them. Moffitt looked over his shoulder, and gripped his reins when he saw the shadow moved to a different window, taking aim at him once more.

Snowstripe seemed to think he was back in the Scots Greys. He navigated the narrower streets of the village with ease, dodging bullets and leaping over piles of debris left by the SS. Eventually, Dietrich caught up with them when they left the ruins of the village, heading into the vast expanse of open desert to the west. No cover. Just dodge and run until this stranger ran out of bullets.

Moffitt was slightly ahead of Dietrich, so he kept looking back to make sure his friend was still with him. For a moment, he wondered if they lost their attacker. He looked back one more time, and spotted something white approaching.

Is that the Akhal-Teke I saw on the ship? It can't be… Moffitt faced forward again, and leaned down to urge Snowstripe to go faster.

Dietrich looked back, and let out a curse in German when he spotted the white horse as well. He managed to get alongside Moffitt. "How do you want to do this?!" he shouted.

"I don't know!" Moffitt said. "Is he gaining on us?"

"Right now, no, but we cannot allow him to do so!" Dietrich looked at Anah, holding tight to Moffitt's shoulders. "Anah! Can you see anything ahead that can help us?"

"There is a wadi up ahead, about two miles!" Anah replied.

"Split up when we get there," Dietrich said.

"Split up?!" Moffitt stared at him with wide gray eyes. "Are you mad?!"

"Possibly. We need to make it more difficult for him to follow us somehow."

Moffitt was still hesitant. He released his breath. "Alright."

"Pick a direction and stay with it when we reach the wadi."

Moffitt nodded in acknowledgement, but he had a terrible feeling about how this idea would work out. When they reached the wadi, Moffitt guided Snowstripe down into the dry bed. Dietrich and Icepatch were galloping along the northern edge, looking down a steeply sloped hill into the wadi. Don't get yourself killed, Dietrich. Moffitt found himself praying hard for Dietrich's safety. The uncertainty of why they were being chased made him sick. At least back during the war, he had a pretty good idea of why the Germans went after him and the rest of the Rat Patrol. Here, he had no idea who was chasing them, and why.

As he and Snowstripe dashed down the length of wadi, Moffitt found himself not caring about the why, only about actually getting away.


Dietrich had noticed in the village that the stranger had plenty of opportunities to shoot him, but he hadn't. The man's focus was on Moffitt, and only Moffitt. Someone did send a snake head to our quarters on the ship. They are after either Moffitt or Anah. Not on my watch. Dietrich stayed outside the wadi. He could easily keep an eye on Moffitt from his vantage point on the crest of the hill.

He knew that both horses looked almost identical from behind, but Icepatch was smaller. Then again, watching them galloping from behind could still be confusing, especially at a distance. Dietrich hoped that would throw their pursuer off, but he knew it wasn't something to reliably count on. There had to be something more they could do to throw this person off.

He glanced down when something slithered toward them. A Saharan horned viper, minding its own business. It stopped, freezing and keeping faith in its camouflage as the horse ran by. Dietrich noticed that Icepatch didn't rear or otherwise get frightened of the snake. Part of him wondered if she simply didn't notice, or perhaps it was because Moffitt trained his horses to not fear snakes.

We can use Moffitt's ability to our advantage here. Now I just need to get to him. Dietrich searched around for a more gentle slope down into the wadi. When he found one, he turned Icepatch toward the slope, galloping down to the dry riverbed below. He leaned forward, but kept himself firmly in the saddle as he urged Icepatch to gallop as fast as her legs could carry her. It didn't take them long to catch up to Moffitt and Snowstripe.

"Is he still after us?" Moffitt asked.

"Yes, but I have an idea," Dietrich said. "Summon snakes."

"What?"

"Summon snakes! I doubt his horse is as unafraid of them as ours! I know there are snakes around here—I just saw a viper up above the wadi!"

"You're sure that's a good idea?"

"Do you have a better one?"

Moffitt was quiet for a moment. "No, not really." He looked ahead and closed his eyes. Anah had gotten very still on his shoulders.

Dietrich looked behind him to see several snakes of various species slithering into the wadi, either from between rocks or coming down from the hills. There weren't many, maybe a dozen. Egyptian cobras, saw-scaled vipers, Saharan horned vipers, all congregated along the bottom of the wadi, preventing anyone from passing forward. Dietrich imagined this would be the nightmare of everyone with ophidiophobia. As he and Moffitt made their way out of the wadi, Dietrich looked back to see the white horse stopped completely a few feet away from the barrier of serpents. The rider struggled in getting the horse under control as it reared and backed away from the row of snakes. Dietrich turned to Moffitt, a huge grin on his face. "I say that was a resounding success, my friend!"

"Hopefully. I don't think it'll keep him off us for very long," Moffitt said.

"How long can you keep those snakes there?"

"For about another mile, then the connection will sever."

The two continued riding through the night, with no sign of their pursuer returning. Open desert eventually turned into rocky outcrops and hills, with plenty of places to hide. The sun was beginning to peek over the eastern horizon behind the men and their horses, casting long shadows and painting the landscape deep reds and oranges. The coolness of night was rapidly giving way to the characteristic extreme heat of the day, but Moffitt and Dietrich found a shady spot under a cliff, granting them and the horses a chance to rest.

Dietrich winced as soreness pulsed through his body while dismounting from Icepatch. "You were right, Moffitt. Riding for hours is… quite strenuous."

Moffitt nodded. He was slower to dismount, and looked like he was about to collapse after getting his boot free from Snowstripe's right stirrup. Dietrich was quick to catch him, but Moffitt was moaning, "I'm fine. I'm fine… I'm alright. Just… very tired."

"Well, sit down," Dietrich said. "Drink your water."

"You need to rest as well." Moffitt slowly sat down against the side of the cliff. His breathing was heavy and he was restraining himself as he drank from his canteen.

Dietrich found himself struggling to show restraint as well, but forced himself to stop drinking and untie his knapsack from Icepatch's saddle. He sank down next to Moffitt, and opened his knapsack to find something to eat.

The sun continued rising and shortening the shadows. Dietrich had taken out another tin of cookies he bought from the ship, and several bags containing dates, nuts, and granola that Anah made just before they left Britain. The chocolate covering the cookies was already partly melted.

Moffitt sighed heavily. "I could go for a spot of tea now. How about you?"

"Eat a little something first, and get hydrated before you have your tea," Dietrich said. "That cannot be the only thing in your stomach."

"Oh, cluck, cluck, cluck. Bloody mother hen," Moffitt grumbled. "You're one to talk. You're eating biscuits slathered in chocolate as your breakfast!"

"At least you seem to be in a better mood."

"I expected that creep to have caught up with us by now. I guess not." Moffitt stood to get his travel kettle and fire supplies from Snowstripe. He knelt down to start a small fire, and added some water from his canteen to the kettle.

Anah had slithered off of Moffitt to bask just outside the shade, not too far from where Dietrich was sitting. She had been quiet for the long ride, and seemed just as tired as her two human companions.

Dietrich moved to get closer to Anah. "Do you feel like this is helping at all?"

"What is? The trip itself?" Anah asked, turning to face Dietrich.

"Yes. I know… seeing where you were first conjured was difficult."

"Well, it does not help that someone seems to have a bone to pick with us, but… I do feel more… reassured, I guess. Things are different. Perhaps I will be able to face the temple with more confidence."

"That is good to hear," Dietrich replied.

"What about you?"

"What do you mean? This trip is not about me."

"This place haunts you as much as it does me, and I sense that when we get closer to the places where the Rats caused you so much grief, it will become more painful for you."

"Still—"

"You and Moffitt may have undertaken this journey for me, but the suffering you both endured here should not be ignored." Anah looked over at Moffitt as he brewed up tea for himself and Dietrich. "All three of us have past horrors that we will be revisiting. None of us could have confronted them on our own. Together, though, is another story." She turned back to Dietrich, and slithered over to him. "This trip was never about just me," she said in a low voice while climbing onto Dietrich's lap. "Moffitt badly needs to confront his own past. The stress he faces about becoming a father has done his mind no favors, and I… have no clue how to help him."

"It was difficult on the ship, listening to him having nightmares. He was put through things that no one should ever be put through. We all were."

"You had your fair share of bad dreams on our way here, including one where you would not relax until Moffitt touched your shoulder. I did look into your dream, out of curiosity." Anah wrapped her tail around Dietrich's left wrist. "I still wish I could have done something to prevent this from happening in the first place."

"Could I be honest with you, Anah?"

"Of course, dear."

"You blaming yourself for not having seen my suicide attempt is as frustrating as watching Moffitt blaming himself for, well, everything. It happened. Nothing can change that."

"I know, but—"

"Am I here today?"

"Yes."

"Then there is nothing to be upset about."

"You are here, but that does not change that this will haunt you for the rest of your life."

"It haunts me, yes, but a lot changed as a result."

"True. You are happier now." Anah climbed up to Dietrich's shoulders. "We would like to keep it that way."

Moffitt came over with two cups of freshly brewed tea. "There you are, Dietrich. Enjoy."

"Thank you," Dietrich replied.

"Do I need to be worried, Anah?" Moffitt asked, smirking.

"About what, dear?" Anah asked.

"About you being so cuddly with Dietrich?"

"No. I like your shoulders best. Dietrich and I were just talking, that is all."

Moffitt nodded, and took a sip of his tea. "We should head out once we're finished. We've got a very long way to go before we reach Tunisia, and I'd like to get as much distance between us and our friend as possible."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Dietrich said. For now, he would enjoy the tea, but he couldn't shake an ominous feeling that the strange man and his horse would stop at nothing to catch up to them.