Chapter 143: Deal

"And what do I get?" Medusa asked, her voice quieter now, guarded.

"I don’t know yet," Leon admitted. "But it’s not going to be me locked in this field for the rest of my life. That’s not negotiable."

Medusa’s jaw tightened. "Then there’s nothing to discuss."

"There’s plenty to discuss," Leon said. "You just don’t want to hear any version of it that isn’t exactly what you asked for."

She shot him a sharp look at that, though she didn’t deny it.

Leon pressed on. "You said forever. Fine. What does that actually mean to you? Because if it means I physically can’t leave this ring once I agree, that’s a problem."

"If it means something else, maybe we can actually find something that works for both of us."

Medusa was quiet for a long moment, her fingers picking idly at a blade of grass beside her.

"You don’t understand what it’s like," she said finally. "Being bound to something like this. Waiting."

"Then explain it," Leon said. "Instead of threatening me with it."

Her eyes flicked up to his, something uncertain behind them now, the earlier hostility noticeably thinner. "Why would you even care?"

"Because I’m stuck with you either way," Leon said. "Might as well understand what I’m actually dealing with."

That answer didn’t seem to be the one she wanted, judging by the way her expression flattened slightly, though she didn’t push back on it either.

"Before you," she said slowly, "I don’t know how long it had been. Time doesn’t move the same way in here. There are no visitors, or conversation. Just this field, and the grass, and the sky that never changes."

Leon said nothing, letting her continue.

"When the ring finally found a wielder again, I thought maybe that would be enough," she went on.

"Someone to talk to, even occasionally. But wielders come and go, Leon. They use the shield, they benefit from it, and eventually they die, or lose the ring, or simply stop reaching for me at all once they’ve gotten what they wanted."

"So you decided the next one wasn’t allowed to leave," Leon said.

"I decided I wasn’t doing it again," Medusa snapped, some heat returning to her voice. "Watching someone use me and then vanish. If you’re going to be here, I wanted it to actually mean something."

Leon considered that for a moment. It didn’t excuse the snake tidal wave or the venom or the attempt to choke him into submission through sheer intimidation, but it did reframe things slightly. Less calculated cruelty. More raw, desperate fear dressed up as a demand.

"That’s not the same as what you were asking for," he said finally. "You didn’t ask me to stay in touch. You tried to trap me here permanently."

"Because asking nicely has never worked," Medusa said bitterly. "Nobody stays because they want to. They stay because they have no other choice, or they don’t stay at all."

"That’s not true," Leon said.

"Isn’t it?" Medusa shot back. "Arthur rejected you. Your own father threw you away. Why would you be any different toward me, once you’d gotten what you actually wanted?"

The words landed harder than she probably intended, judging by the slight flicker of regret that crossed her face immediately after saying them.

Leon’s jaw tightened, old anger stirring beneath the surface, though he forced himself to keep his voice level.

"That’s not the same thing," he said. "And you know it."

"Do I?" Medusa asked.

"I’m not Arthur," Leon said. "And I’m definitely not Teon. I don’t use people and discard them the second they stop being useful. If I say I’ll stay in contact, I mean it. But that’s different from being trapped."

Medusa studied him carefully, searching his expression for any sign of insincerity. Whatever she found, or didn’t find, seemed to ease some of the tension still sitting in her shoulders.

"You actually mean that," she said slowly, not quite a question.

"I do," Leon said.

She was quiet for a long moment, the snakes in her hair settling further, drooping loosely now, no longer tense and alert the way they’d been since she woke.

"What are you actually offering, then?" she asked finally.

Leon thought about it carefully before answering, choosing his words with more deliberation this time.

"I’ll come back," he said. "Properly. Not just when I need something from Aegis. I’ll actually talk to you, the way we did back at the library, the way we did earlier tonight before all of this happened. You won’t be ignored."

"That’s it?" Medusa asked, though her tone had lost most of its earlier edge.

"That’s a lot, actually," Leon said. "More than most people get from anyone, honestly. I have things I need to do out there. Answers I still don’t have about what’s actually happening to me."

Medusa considered that, turning it over slowly.

"And if I refuse?" she asked. "If I say it’s this or nothing?"

"Then we’re stuck exactly where we started," Leon said. "You keep half of Aegis locked away out of spite, and I keep finding ways around it when I actually need the full thing. Neither of us wins anything from that."

She didn’t answer right away, her gaze drifting out across the quiet field, the same endless stretch of grass and sky that had apparently kept her company for longer than either of them could properly measure.

"I don’t like this," she said finally.

"I didn’t expect you to," Leon said.

"But it’s fair," she admitted, grudgingly, the words coming out slower than anything else she’d said so far. "Fairer than what I asked for, anyway."

Leon exhaled slowly, some of the tension he hadn’t fully realized he was holding easing out of his shoulders. "So we have a deal?"

Medusa glanced at him, something complicated behind her eyes, not quite trust, not quite resignation, somewhere uncertain in between.

"You’ll actually come back," she said. "Not just say it to get what you want right now."

"I will," Leon said. "You have my word."

She studied him a moment longer before nodding slowly, something in her posture finally loosening properly for the first time since she’d woken up.

"Fine," she said. "Deal."