Chapter Text
A coin has two sides,
You cannot separate light and dark,
For it is all shades of grey.
Truth is the space between.
(unknown author)
___
Shadowheart could feel something worming inside her gut, a feeling that she was struggling to identify.
She knew that all these feelings she was experiencing she shouldn’t be feeling, couldn’t be feeling, yet that was the reality that she existed in. She had to push them away, for that is what her Goddess had asked of her. Sure, in the past, she and others in her cloister had exploited loopholes and other such things in their doctrine in order to fulfil their carnal desires, but now was not the time for such misgivings, especially with the looming tadpole problem present inside her head.
But pushing away thoughts and feelings isn’t always as simple a solution as it seems, for those things often found themselves circling back inside Shadowheart’s mind. This problem was particularly prevalent during the misty nights as camp as Shadowheart prayed, trying to steer her mind away from all those distractions and back towards her object of worship: Lady Shar.
Despite her efforts, she couldn’t stop herself from thinking… lustfully. Her campmates were nothing to cough at, yet her focus couldn’t help but return to a particular tiefling, tall and muscular in structure, but soft and caring in actions and words. The curiosity of what it would be like to be bent over and thoroughly taken by her certainly piqued the cleric’s interest.
Shadowheart knew that Karlach wasn’t stupid. She knew that the barbarian had caught her staring on more than one occasion, often meeting her gaze with a quirk of a brow or a coy smirk. That response bothered her, after all, shouldn’t Karlach be mad about her staring? It never made sense to her that the tiefling seemed to take it all in stride.
Perhaps her ten-year streak in celibacy has worn her resolve thin, Shadowheart considers, recalling the tiefling’s main dilemma outside the tadpoles that connected them: the Infernal machinery installed in place of her heart, the very machinery that prevented Karlach from making physical contact with anyone.
Shaking her head, Shadowheart took a final bite of the bread roll she was attempting to eat, pulling herself out of her thoughts. From what she could recall, she had never had a large appetite, so she could sate herself on limited resources at least.
As she rose from her seated position, she noticed her companions chattering around the fire. Astarion and Gale seemed to be squabbling about something or other, Wyll and Karlach laughing and smiling and chattering, and Lae’zel silently watching, grinding her sword carefully on a whetstone. She felt something pulling at the seams of her chest, a feeling that should have been foreign to her, yet that felt all too familiar.
Loneliness.
Gritting her teeth, she opened the front flap of her tent with a flourish and disappeared into the darkness.
___
Shadowheart found herself laughing, walking along a cobbled street with her companion, a beloved friend of hers. The pair found themselves skipping across the ground, noticing the colours of the changing leaves falling off of trees and how the roots of those trees had broken through pavement over time with persistence and dedication.
Amongst the trees was a sturdy old oak, which housed a treehouse larger than any other Shadowheart had ever seen before. The pair found themselves climbing up into it, and Shadowheart discovered that the treehouse actually spanned various branches across the large oak tree, the structure comprised of several stories and various interconnected rooms.
She soon found herself pinned to the ground, her friend kissing her deeply in this particularly lofty room. Their hands were entangled in each other’s hair and bodies, and the pair frantically worked to remove Shadowheart’s pants, her friend then sliding her hands underneath Shadowheart’s shirt, grasping at her breasts, kneading and pulling.
Suddenly, Shadowheart found herself walking across a great expanse of nothingness. Emptiness, darkness in its purest form. She could feel herself finding comfort in this void, a familiar soothing feeling washing over her body.
But that wasn’t the only sensation that the cleric felt herself experiencing. Something deep within her fell into place, as suddenly the landscape around her began to shift once more into a simple room, not dissimilar to the ones she had seen in Baldur’s Gate.
A tall figure was rummaging through drawers, presumably searching for something.
“Can you help me find something?” the stranger asked, her voice familiar. “I think I’ve lost something important, and I need your help to find it.”
Despite the woman’s imposing height and build, muscles rippling as she moved, her voice was gentle, yet firm, urgency apparent in her tone.
“What have you lost?” Shadowheart found herself choking out, the words trying to stay stuck in her throat, that confusing feeling inside her getting stronger and becoming more distracting.
“I don’t know,” the woman said, turning to face Shadowheart. “But I think you do. Only you can find it.”
Crimson skin covered in a litany of tattoos, sinewy flesh covered in the scars of old burns, red and black hair braided and adorned with silvery decorations.
“Karlach?” Shadowheart choked out. “Karlach, what are you doing here?” she asked, but received no response from the barbarian.
“I’m here to wake you up, Shadowheart.”
___
Shadowheart opened her eyes to the sound of Karlach attempting to awaken her. Her body felt heavier than usual, and exhaustion still permeated the corners of her mind.
“I’m awake,” she attempts to croak out curtly, sleep still clinging to every inch of her body.
“Thank the Gods, we’re going to pack up and move in the next hour. Didn’t want you to miss out on breakfast,” Karlach sing-songs.
Shadowheart left her tent to saunter through camp groggily, her mind fixated on the peculiar dream that she couldn’t help but retrace through her mind. The woman that had known as an old friend in her dream was a person that she had never even met before, and the events that had unfolded between them left Shadowheart feeling unsettled.
But the strangest part of it all was the role that her tiefling companion had played in her dream. Shadowheart couldn’t help but wonder what Karlach could have possibly been looking for.
I probably just heard her talking in my sleep. It’s not like that dream meant anything.
She briefly greeted Gale, who was tending to the fire, and watched Karlach scoop up a piece of cooked meat, tearing into it with reckless regard.
“Did’ya want some?” Karlach offers. “There’s plenty to share.”
Shadowheart shakes her head.
“Thanks, but I’m not hungry,” she replies, her voice clipped and guarded. “Besides, I have other things to concern myself with.”
“More important than eating?” Karlach questions.
Gale nods in agreement. “Fuel for the body is fuel for the mind, and one must maintain a sharp mind, especially considering our current tadpole predicament.”
Shadowheart sighs, and silently bites into an apple to content her fellow travellers.
“Better?” she hisses, struggling to swallow the crisp fruit.
Satisfying her concerned companions, Shadowheart is now left to her own devices, and as she groggily chews into the apple, she couldn’t help but glance at Karlach’s lips, noticing the tiefling’s sharp teeth tearing into a freshly cooked piece of meat…
Shadowheart chastises herself in her own mind.
No. Absolutely not. I am not going there, certainly not now of all times.
But Shadowheart’s mind refused to relent. An image of Karlach biting into the flesh of Shadowheart’s thigh flashes through her mind, something which she attempts to push away as soon as she envisions it. But the thought persists and grows into something more detailed.
Karlach pushing down firmly onto Shadowheart’s abdomen, licking the marks her teeth had left on her thighs. Karlach’s mouth hovering over Shadowheart’s core, Karlach –
Shadowheart’s thoughts are promptly interrupted as she realises that Karlach is looking straight at her, with a look Shadowheart could only describe as peculiar, and in this moment Shadowheart realises that she could feel a tingling sensation in her head.
The tadpoles. The gods-damned tadpoles.
Karlach had seen everything.
___
Karlach had always been a simple girl. The simple joys of life pleased her, like the cool breeze on a warm summer’s day or an ice-cold beer. Her understanding of herself was solid enough, she was one to enjoy the simple pleasures of life and living, especially after the shitfuckery she had faced in Avernus.
Shadowheart, on the other hand, was someone that Karlach had a harder time deciphering. Shrouded in mystery and deception, Karlach could tell that the cleric’s heart was something deeply guarded, as opposed to how she chose to wear her emotions proudly, her story clear as day for the world to see. Who she was, the Story of Karlach, was no mystery to decipher.
Which is why Karlach was especially conflicted when their tadpole… situation had exposed a particularly vulnerable thought of Shadowheart’s unknowingly.
Karlach didn’t mind Shadowheart looking, after all, there was no harm in the act, but this thought, this fantasy of Shadowheart’s had the cogs in Karlach’s brain whirring.
Shadowheart does finds me attractive… what a fascinating turn of events.
Though Karlach had indeed had her suspicions, the confirmation of such still sent a pleasant warmth down her spine.
Besides, it wasn’t like Shadowheart wasn’t attractive in her own right, and Karlach wouldn’t be opposed to seeing what could come of these peculiar circumstances. But she couldn’t help but feel bad for the cleric, who had left in a hurry after Karlach had accidentally peered inside her head.
Poor Gale was clueless as to what had happened, making for an interesting conversation, to say the least.
But Karlach couldn’t let that distract her from the battle ahead. They have goblins to kill and a druid to free, and she had noticed that Shadowheart was acting cagey, more cagey than usual.
On one hand, she wasn’t sure if the cleric would be able to stand the humiliation from being confronted by her. On the other, Karlach knew that everyone would have to be bringing their A-game today if they were to walk away from this battle alive.
So, reluctantly, Karlach found herself approaching Shadowheart, one question on her lips.
“Shadowheart, is something the matter?”
Shadowheart scoffs, eyes staring at the ground.
“You damn well know what the problem is, and you are the last person I want to be talking to right now.”
Karlach sighs.
“Listen, I get it. I’m not mad, quite the opposite in fact, but now’s not the time to dwell on this. We need to focus on the battle ahead, else we’ll all lose our heads. Got it?”
Shadowheart’s voice softens ever so slightly.
“You’re not mad?”
Karlach shakes her head, letting out a soft chuckle.
“How could I be mad? Look, I don’t know how you Sharrans approach this stuff, but what you experienced is perfectly normal, minus the tadpoles, and besides, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t flattered.”
Shadowheart suddenly turns to look at Karlach, a look of hope, or perhaps trepidation, in her green eyes.
“I’ll… do my best to focus on the battle ahead,” she says softly. “Thank you, Karlach.”
“Look, I’ve got a lot to think about regarding all this, but I wouldn’t mind talking with you about this later?” Karlach offers warmly.
Shadowheart smiles.
“I might have to take you up on that offer.”
___
Tired, yet jubilant from their battle, Karlach and the rest of her companions had found themselves in the midst of a party organised by the refugee tieflings.
She notices the cleric on the precipice of camp, drinking a glass of something red.
“Hey, Shadowheart, how are you feeling?” Karlach sing-songs. “Do you feel like a proper hero yet?”
Karlach’s sudden comment causes Shadowheart to jump, the half-elf dropping her defences once realising who had spoken to her.
“Oh, it’s you,” she murmurs, looking contemplative for a moment. “To be honest, I didn’t expect to care about a bunch of refugees. But I feel good… it feels good to do the right thing for once, to be helping people instead of inflicting suffering. That’s not something that I’ve experienced before, at least from what I can remember.”
A beat of silence.
“But I suspect that’s not why you’re here to talk to me, is it?” Shadowheart continues, attempting to foister confidence. “After all, you did mention wanting to speak with me earlier.”
Karlach chuckles. “You read me like a book,” she responds. “But I think it’s a bit busy for us to discuss such matters, isn’t it?”
“Meet me later,” Shadowheart splutters. “Just outside of camp, near my tent.”
Karlach grins.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she replies, before walking off with a cheesy grin plastered on her face.
Karlach’s chest floods with joy. She isn’t used to that feeling, Avernus had stolen away every positive emotion from Karlach’s body and mind. But this chance at something, even if it were just a fling with a fellow adventurer, has Karlach soaring.
Gods, it’s so fucking good to be alive.
___
Karlach and Shadowheart sat just outside the camp, as partygoers were sleeping… or struggled to keep their eyes open.
Shadowheart passes the tiefling a glass of wine with a nervous smile, before pouring a generous amount for herself.
“Truthfully, I don’t think I’ll be able to have this conversation sober,” she chuckles, before taking a generous sip, and looking over at Karlach. “The wine from earlier is helping, but I think I might need a little more… assistance.”
Karlach was already tipsy, her senses impacted, but in this moment, she’s not inebriated to the point of impairment. She could already feel that her responses would be more… forthcoming, her verbal filter loosened like a lid on a jam jar, but she gladly accepts Shadowheart’s offering of further alcohol.
“Fucking cheers to that,” Karlach agrees, clinking her glass against Shadowheart’s. “I’ll never object to free booze.”
Karlach notices that Shadowheart’s pale skin was more flushed than usual, assumedly from the alcohol in her system. Beads of sweat decorate her decolletage in a way that Karlach decidedly did not mind in the slightest, and she notices how Shadowheart’s eyelashes flutter in what Karlach could only describe as being in a surprisingly coquettish manner.
“So…” Shadowheart draws the word out in a tantalising manner. “About what you were saying earlier. It’s really true?” Vulnerability cut through the cleric’s words, her voice wobbling slightly.
“What do you mean?” Karlach questions. “Why wouldn’t it be? I’ve been honest so far about everything else.”
Shadowheart sighs. “I know, and it’s not that I don’t believe that. I just don’t understand… you’re you, you’re a fearsome fighter, impressively strong both in body and mind, and yet you’re also so… gentle,” she murmurs.
Shadowheart looks at Karlach, and Karlach feels her mind tingle. Shadowheart seeks entrance, seeks permission, which Karlach allows, letting her slip into her mind’s eye. Karlach lays witness to a singular thought; Shadowheart gently tracing the ridges and scars on her right arm, her fingers moving with such care, a type of care she had not seen from the half-elven woman before.
“I just don’t know how I could ever measure up to somebody like you,” Shadowheart continues, “let alone whether you would even take any interest in me, and that is not something I expect from you. Even your flattery is enough for me,” she whispers.
Karlach utilises the connection provided by the parasites to send images back in response, thoughts of them holding hands, of Karlach gently holding Shadowheart in her lap, of closeness. Of touch. Something that neither one of them could indulge in.
I wish we could do this for real, Karlach thinks, utilising the parasitic tether. She relishes in the pretty flush on Shadowheart’s face growing deeper in intensity.
“I just feel… exposed. Normally my cards aren’t all laid out on the table like this. After all, Lady Shar stresses secrecy and privacy, and this situation very much has given me the opposite of that.”
“Shadowheart,” Karlach whispers, her voice thick like honey, “there’s a damn good reason why I agreed to sit here with you tonight, and I feel more than just flattery at the concept of you enjoying my mouth.”
Karlach could hear Shadowheart attempting to hold back a sharp whine.
“Gods, I wish I could kiss you right now,” Karlach murmurs. “And I wish you could see the goodness within yourself, Shadowheart.”
“Goodness?” Shadowheart frowns. “I don’t know what goodness you’re referring to. I exist as a vessel, as an agent to deliver Lady Shar’s divine will. I don’t do deeds to be good, or to be kind. I do what my Lady asks of me.”
“But you’re more than that, Shadowheart, you’re more than just a servant of Shar. You’re your own person, and a brilliant one at that too.”
Through their shared connection, Karlach could feel the warmth rising in her, no, Shadowheart’s chest. Admiration… and a thrumming arousal that had refused to quit since the moment the pair had sat in their secluded spot.
An arousal that Karlach also felt within herself.
___
Shadowheart, shirtless and braless, found herself fumbling with her luxuriously plush breasts face to face with Karlach, as the tiefling rushed to unbuckle her belt. Shadowheart pauses to copy the action, slipping off her pants and remaining just in her underwear.
Shadowheart is practically dripping. She could feel her wetness through her underwear as her other hand fumbles with her rapidly hardening nipple. She notices Karlach biting her lip, already two fingers deep in herself, vigorously fucking her own hand.
Karlach let out a delicious moan. Shadowheart could barely keep herself from quivering at that sound, and threw caution to the wind, peeling off her musk-doused underwear and throwing them at Karlach. She heard the woman yelp as they landed, her companion taking the soaked cloth in her free hand and sharply inhaling the smell, before placing it in her mouth and sucking at that precious nectar.
Shadowheart made a show out of teasing herself for Karlach.
“Show me,” Shadowheart moaned. “Show me how you pleasure yourself.”
Shadowheart did not know much of her previous life. After all, most of her memories had been taken from her. But what she did know, what she did remember, was that this certainly wasn’t the first time that she had committed such… misgivings.
Perhaps that explained how she knew what she liked.
Karlach pulls her pants down frantically, and her underwear along with it, revealing her soaking folds. The tiefling resumes fucking herself at the same, thorough pace, clearly hitting a sensitive spot inside herself as moans muffled by cloth, by Shadowheart’s underwear punctuate her thrusts.
Their tadpoles connect, their psychonic energies intertwining, and Shadowheart immediately becomes overwhelmed by sensation. Not only could she feel herself thumbing her own clit, but she could feel Karlach’s hand thrusting inside her, she could taste the remains of her own wetness on her tongue, and she oh so desperately wanted to taste the tiefling. All of her, the salty sweat ridging her muscles, the inside of her damn pretty mouth, the wetness that she could see lubricating Karlach’s fingers.
“How do you want me?” Shadowheart asks breathlessly. “Tell me what you want.”
“Shads, you’re fucking perfect,” Karlach rasps. “All I want is you, I just want you here… pleasuring yourself, enjoying yourself. Not holding back.”
Karlach moans.
“Don’t hold back, Shadowheart. Please.”
Shadowheart could feel her heart quickening, that feeling inside her stirring once more. She increases her pace to match Karlach’s, attempting to insert a finger inside herself.
The cleric felt a sharp pain in multiple places. Both from the wound on her hand and from where her finger attempted to penetrate. Her cries match Karlach’s, both recoiling in pain. Shadowheart notices Karlach spit out the cloth from her mouth, a concerned look painting the tiefling’s face. The psionic connection between the two snaps.
“Shadowheart, are you okay?” Karlach asked, no longer caught up in pleasuring her own sex.
Shadowheart nods, hugging her own knees, suddenly feeling exposed.
“Sorry… my hand was playing up. I was hoping it wouldn’t play up tonight… I didn’t mean to hurt you, Karlach.”
“You didn’t hurt me, Shadowheart,” Karlach reassured. “I can handle pain. I live it every day. I was more concerned about the other pain, not the one in your hand.”
“Oh…” Shadowheart’s face drops. “Right. That.”
“It’s okay, you don’t have to talk about it,” Karlach reassures. “Did you want to stop?”
“No! No! I’m happy to keep going,” Shadowheart clarifies. “I just… might have to try something else.”
“May I ask something?
Shadowheart nods.
“Do you usually penetrate yourself when you… you know, go for a wank?”
“I’m not sure,” Shadowheart responds. “I think… I think it’s been an issue for a long time for me. It’s hard to remember. Besides, it’s not like I’ve indulged much in recent memory anyway. But I wanted to give it a go… I wanted to feel it, I wanted you to feel inside of me.”
Karlach’s gaze softens.
“It’s okay, Shads. You don’t have to hurt yourself for my sake. You’ve been doing such a good job.”
Shadowheart let out a soft smile.
“If you want, Shadowheart, we can try this again, just like how we were doing it before. We can use those wormy things in our brains so you can feel what it’s like to be fucked without hurting yourself, okay?”
Shadowheart contemplates for a moment before nodding.
“I’m in. Just… I should probably warn you. I might have some trouble again.”
“Alrighty, soldier. Let’s give this thing a go, shall we?”
Karlach tosses her bra off, before looking at Shadowheart once more. The connection between their tadpoles tingles once more.
“If you like, you can copy what I’m doing,” Karlach suggests, clearly noticing the nervous feeling rising in Shadowheart’s chest.
Shadowheart watches Karlach lick two of her fingers before copying the action, putting two of her fingers in her own mouth, coating them with saliva, before dragging them across her cunt as Karlach did.
“Like this?” Shadowheart asks, her breath hitching.
Karlach nods.
“Perfect, just copy me, okay?”
“Okay.”
Shadowheart feels pride rise in her chest at her precision in copying Karlach’s movements. She feels the connection between the two of them open once more and pays extra attention to copying each and every sensation.
As Karlach circles her clit, so does Shadowheart, and Shadowheart feels herself grow with confidence as she fell into a steady rhythm.
“Karlach,” she whines, her voice ragged and breathy. “Karlach, I need you... your fingers. Now.”
Karlach grins, dragging her fingers down from clit to slit. Shadowheart’s response was instantaneous, and as she lets out a small moan, Karlach begins to tease her entrance.
Shadowheart increases her pace as Karlach decides to throw all caution in the wind and plunge two fingers inside herself.
Their moans harmonised in a beautiful song of ecstasy and lust. The peculiar pair lost themselves in this moment of pleasure.
Shadowheart feels both a foreign and familiar sensation building within her. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt like this, yet her body recognised it, welcomed it back like a shopkeeper greets a regular customer, like how someone holds a friend they haven’t seen in years, like how someone clutches onto something precious, something that they don’t want to lose.
When the mind forgets, the body remembers.
Not only could she feel her own pleasure building within her, but she could also feel sensations attributed to Karlach’s self-ministrations. A building pressure within herself where nothing existed to create it.
And as both of them moan, experiencing each other’s releases simultaneously, Shadowheart couldn’t help but feel that a small piece of her heart become unlocked with the most fragile of keys.
___
Shadowheart forces her sleep-crusted eyes open, noticing dawn trickling in along a hazy sky. She found herself laying near Karlach, a strange, hazy feeling washing over her body.
“Morning, Shads,” Karlach whispers. “Hope I didn’t wake you.”
Shadowheart shakes her head groggily, brushing hair out of her face.
“You didn’t, promise.”
Karlach let out a soft sigh of relief.
“Phew, had me worried there, soldier. How are you faring?”
Shadowheart wipes her eyes, noticing Karlach was sitting up, looking out at the horizon.
“I’m okay, thank you.”
The tiefling turns to face Shadowheart.
“Thank you for last night,” Karlach grins. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to do anything like that. Though I am sorry that I couldn’t touch you. I would have liked that very much.”
Shadowheart chuckles.
"I appreciate the sentiment, Karlach.”
“Since we can’t, y’know, cuddle you or anything, do you want to play a game instead?” Karlach asked, her voice low and soft, yet with a clear edge of enthusiasm. “It feels weird to just… lie here in silence.”
Shadowheart nods, her competitive nature stoked by this idea of Karlach’s.
“Let’s do it. I’m intrigued to hear about this little game of yours.”
“Okay. It’s called ‘I love’. I used to play it with my friends from home, before I went to Avernus. Basically, you’d say ‘I would love’, then name something you really want right now. Like… I’d love to have a cold beer back home right now. Or… I’d love to have some fresh ice cream.”
“Hmm…” Shadowheart contemplates. “I’d love… I’d love to be reading a good book right now. Not just any old book, but a good romance novel. I don’t remember much, but I do remember enjoying those the most.”
“Oh, so you like those types of books, huh?” Karlach smirks. “I’ve seen you reading around camp before, but I didn’t imagine you were reading about that,” Karlach waggles her eyebrows, revelling in the blush building up on the Sharran’s pale cheeks.
“Shut up,” Shadowheart jokingly quips, with a smile peeking at the edges of her lips. “Besides, isn’t it your go now?”
“Oh! Right! Hmm… I’d love to… Gods, this is harder than I remember it being. Oh, I know! I’d love to have another toe on each foot. You know, next to the little one, kind of like a thumb? That way, I could use my feet like hands. Imagine all the things that I could hold!”
“Karlach, what on earth are you talking about?” Shadowheart asks, a look of confused disgust on her face.
“You know how monkeys can use their feet like hands? I wanna be able to do that.”
“That is… bizarre, to say the least. But honestly? I wouldn’t expect anything less of you. It’s somewhat endearing.”
“Endearing?” Karlach wonders. “Nah, if anything it’s practical, and you know that I’m a practical type of girl. Besides, you’re just stalling giving your next answer.”
Shadowheart chuckles.
“Okay, okay, I yield. But you better not make fun of me for my answer,” she supplies. “Or let it slip to the likes of Astarion. He would tease me dreadfully for this admission.”
Karlach mimes a motion of using a lock and key, before pretending to throw the key away.
“I’m under lock and key, Shads.”
Shadowheart giggles.
“Okay, okay! Well… I’ve heard you humming to yourself in camp before, singing little tunes… and I would love for you to sing louder. I have always thought that your voice sounded really sweet.”
“Awww!” Karlach coos. “Shadowheart… who knew that a woman so icy could have such a sweet core?”
“I have many secrets, Karlach,” Shadowheart replies. “Secrets are a lady’s best weapon.”
___
Shadowheart found herself praying for longer than usual that morning. She couldn’t help but stare at the scar that marked her right hand, a stark reminder of Shar’s influence on her life. Pain and punishment, the doctrine she lived by.
Shadowheart had pushed the boundary, she had begun to tear at the very foundations her faith stood on. The remnants of memories… of reading books warning against the dangers of self-pleasure, how she was taught to use seduction as a method of manipulation, the ways in which they were encouraged to practice these methods on other Sharrans in the cloister.
She knew that what she had done with Karlach was different. This wasn’t a simple folly, a childish tryst, one’s typical one night stand.
There was a feeling, an emotion behind it, one Shadowheart knew that she couldn’t risk attempting to identify.
This was dangerous.