"A group of us will return to it," with a gesture of the hand with the rift shard to make it clear what he means by us, "and with any luck, it'll be closed without any of us dying."

There is no guarantee of that, but they're getting better at it, he thinks. And if he has to die for anything--

"The shard comes from the rift," after a moment, "but not everyone who bears one came through it."