Verity and 99% of the others who'd seen Bill's offer, wouldn't take him up on it right away. Or perhaps ever. But he expected no less. A couple of pats and a little squeeze on the shoulder, for the pink-haired stranger.

"Yea; mayhap, thee and I canst stay the sting of exile with one another, Verity Willis." Stranger things have happened. Who knows what the future will bring. Bill is ready to let the grim subject meander away, like smoke from some great fire, always burning but never welcome. It would consume everything that was thrown into it, if it were allowed to.