[Hector lengthens his stride to keep pace with Isaac. If the forgemaster thinks he'll be put aside by just that, he's underestimating Hector. He feigns confidence as he replies.]

Only once? Good, then I won't have to hear it again.

[He is not exactly in Isaac's way. He's at his side, where for so long, no one has stood.

'Bless you, Rosaly,' he thinks to himself. When he had stood in much the same place as Isaac, broken and alone and convinced that he was unlovable, she had accepted him. When he'd walked away, she had followed, never forcing him, but always offering him a place beside her. He'd slithered out of the darkness and she had been like the sun, at first too bright to look at, but eventually coming to be a source of light and life, vital to him. He had not even realized all she had done for him until now, seeing the lack of it in Isaac.

He can never hope to offer the same gentleness and patience as Rosaly, but even a pale reflection is better than nothing.]

I know a place in the foothills where we can camp for the night. We should be able to reach it before night falls, if we waste no more time.

['So long as you don't fight me on this, Isaac,' he means.]