A kick in the gut for sure, Anton's departure had been the third of a painful streak, and none of them had hurt in exactly the same way. Valdis sighed.

"It's less painful now," she commented, "But I wish the past would simply stay there."

She wished she could say the same for the future, but the Dreaming had already drug Amos into this, now it was drudging up the past too.

"And that we could just focus on the present and not...everything else."