Morningside Cuesta thoughts and hearts

His heart gave a dull throb when he learned of the way they'd passed. It was a good death, and he'd known for a long time that they must have been dead, but it still hurt to think about them being so far out of his reach. I will see them when I die, he thought, and it was frightening how much consolation the thought brought him. He could not remember when death had seemed nothing more than a distant idea.

"They hoped it for all of us," he replied, and then felt strange, speaking of them to his sister. Sunspot had known them longer, knew them better. What could he say to her?