Even. Even as he says the words. Even as he drags that darkness from the ever-present whisper at the edges of her mind. She doesn't want him to know it. Doesn't want him to be holding it. If she'd had stillness in the darkness down leaving her door.

Even that moment had nothing on the stillness his question had brought her to.

She frowned, flickers of emotion chasing through the egg shell mask that was too easy to pull close to her after so many hours with Vaisey, the candle light casting shadows to chase it all. She reached up her free arm, the one he wasn't touching, to start pulling the pins from her hair, even as her eyes fell on his hand.

Because she couldn't. Because she was a fool. She can't say either, can't bare either in this darkness, or looking to him just yet. She starts with damning herself further. "This time, or last time?"