Redhawk Caldera All the walls would fall around me

She waited patiently, relaxing where she sat while he struggled with what to ask. If she knew what it was about she could have given a hint or two, but she didn’t know enough about him or the things he’d been through to try. Instead she radiated steady calm and didn’t stare, letting him know with her body language that she wasn’t bothered with the silence.

The question he finally managed was one she likely could have guessed, but wasn’t the one she’d have expected first. She paused and thought a moment, trying to find a way to word it that might set his mind more at ease. Obviously her last reassurance hadn’t quite been enough.

There wasn’t. She let out a light breath, then looked at him with understanding. It’s one of the most important lessons a healer learns, but also one of the hardest. Sometimes there’s nothing we can do and sometimes we can’t save them. That doesn’t mean we don’t do our best every time. And that’s what you did - everything you could. More than most would even know how to do.

She wished, for Sorana’s sake, it hadn’t been the case. But she knew better than to blame herself. Everyone dies. When it’s our time, no one gets to choose. And sometimes the best we can do is make sure they aren’t alone.

She would have spared Sorana that moment, if she could, but maybe having even an instant’s reunion was better than never seeing him again. Eventually perhaps she’d be thankful to know that, in the end, he’d been trying. And in the end she’d been loved.