"So what's that look for," Darras says, because sure and he can see that look on her face, and read it. "Is it that strange for me to ask that of you?"

Especially after everything that he's told her, and everything she's seen. And all of it within a few hours. It's enough that he feels wrong-footed. Adrift, like. He looks down at their hands, the interlacing of their fingers.

"You're something constant," he tells her. "Even with--everything that's between us, even if you're running off to some meeting that can't wait--and that's not even so surprising, when I think of it, I should have guessed it. That's why I asked."