Maybe if I'd said something sooner... maybe we would have had more time.
[Imagining Nona curled up in that cold room all on her own, covered in blood... he's not going to be able to forget it. Just like he couldn't forget Lilith.
...
He lets out a tense sigh as he grips Temenos's fingers, his own palms shaking slightly.]
...
I know there's nothing that we can do now. And if she's going to end up wherever I'm going... I can find out from her. If she wants to talk about it, that is.
...
[Still, bravery doesn't cut away the pain or the fear, and it doesn't provide any more answers to questions that can't be answered for now. He doesn't know if he can believe it.]
...I don't know how brave I am, Temenos. I want to be. But...
I wonder if it's okay that I don't feel very brave right now.
returns to this five hundred years later to rewrite half the tag
[Imagining Nona curled up in that cold room all on her own, covered in blood... he's not going to be able to forget it. Just like he couldn't forget Lilith.
...
He lets out a tense sigh as he grips Temenos's fingers, his own palms shaking slightly.]
...
I know there's nothing that we can do now. And if she's going to end up wherever I'm going... I can find out from her. If she wants to talk about it, that is.
...
[Still, bravery doesn't cut away the pain or the fear, and it doesn't provide any more answers to questions that can't be answered for now. He doesn't know if he can believe it.]
...I don't know how brave I am, Temenos. I want to be. But...
I wonder if it's okay that I don't feel very brave right now.