[ the cold touch at her leg helps ground her a little more; river smiles faintly at rousma and gently pats her stomach as she listens to kyle speak.

what does it mean for them to stay here? what happens to their world after eight hundred years without them? does it forget them the way they had forgotten it themselves? what is she looking for? what is she hoping to find? it's too much to think through and she's silent for a moment, still cautiously petting the dog that is not really a dog. ]

I miss my brother. Simon. [ not cassian. ] He's a doctor. He helps me. Helped - he tries to help. He took me away from the place where they were hurting me and he's trying to fix what they broke. But I - I don't think it can be fixed and it isn't safe for us. For anyone.

[ it isn't safe for anyone to be around her - except for here, where the alliance hasn't found her yet and there are more people trying to help her figure out how to cope with her broken pieces.

she's just a kid, she had told kyle once, when they met first and river learned about the living bones. she looks to him now, young and tired and sad and so very lost. ]

I miss him. But I don't know if I want to go back.

[ is that bad? ]