"You're just going to say you're seventeen into perpetuity, just out of the spite of not knowing when your birthday is. And I'll start getting gray hairs. Is that what you want?" Krem said it with such a lot of tease and amusement in his voice, that it was clear he wasn't serious.

"If I can help you figure things out," he said. The water moved around them, around their legs, and Krem smiled at Thomas gently. "Or if you just need to lay down and not think, I'm happy to help with that too."