Wapun Meadow If you'll ease my mind

Jace's tale of woe closed around her heart like a cold fist. Bazi whined softly when he concluded his recount of the past few months with a flippant comment about heartache, as though it were nothing more than a little blip. For once, she felt no need to best him by telling her story - just as dramatic, and fraught with exactly the same flavour of issues. They were birds of a blue-eyed feather.

"Hey, you didn't suck - leadership is.. really, really hard, actually," she soothed, buffeting the bridge of her nose against her friend's scarred and weathered shouldered. "Who was the girl..? Is it OK to ask?" There was a gentleness in her voice that surprised even Bazi, who wasn't known for her emotional sensitivity.