Noctisardor Bypass no context.

Would she have made him go back? If she'd known what happened at the time, she would have been very tempted to not let him. She was completely fine with being selfish that way.

Arbiter wished Pike hadn't kept talking. It was a much better death in her eyes to just imagine Terance had gone down in battle, bleeding out before much suffering could take place. Some wolves out there deserved to suffer -- she'd even wish it on them -- but Terance wasn't one of those wolves. Instead he had suffered and maybe if Arbiter hadn't stayed but really gone looking for him, she could have been there, maybe. That was more of her regret. Now he really was gone -- no chance of him showing up so she could be mad at him for being gone this long. She wanted to be angry... Not this.

She looked down to the ground again. Arbiter couldn't bring herself to speak, for she was sure she'd say something foolish. She was focused more on keeping herself looking impassive as always, but here it was hard. Even though she had previously done a good job letting the wound Terance's absence had left heal over, Pike had picked it open again. And yes, perhaps he had to, but Arbiter didn't want to seem weak in front of him any more than he did in front of her.