"If you're finding yourself still living in fear, Fool, I'd hope there's a way I can assuage some of your worries."

A sound somewhere between a laugh and sigh escapes the Fool, and he looks aside from the concern he glimpses in Devin’s eyes. His fingers curl around the handle of his teacup again. “Am I so transparent?” he replies, a hint of humour in his voice, but it fades. He gives his head a modest shake. “No, I am not afraid. It is something else.”

For a moment or two more he is quiet, though his silence perhaps says more than his words might; he needs the intervening seconds to gather a protective wall about his composure. He had not expected this sudden loss to hit him so acutely. After all, wasn’t he the one who chose to abandon Fitz, back in their world? Yet it was different somehow, knowing that it was not his choice this time. Perhaps this was how Fitz felt.

He carefully settles his hands into his lap and takes a breath. When he speaks again, his words are accompanied by a smile entirely bereft of happiness. “It seems,” he says softly, “that Fitz has disappeared from Aifaran.” He doesn’t say anything else; there is nothing left to say.