That gentle touch to his hand is arresting; the Fool gazes down at his fingers, lifts his eyes to his face. "Fitz," he begins, but perhaps his words were too soft, for Fitz is already speaking again.

"You should know that a life without you is incomplete..."

It isn't so much that he doesn't hear the rest--he does--as it is that the beginning makes his heart clench in his chest with longing for something that he can't have. The Fool closes his eyes and turns his face aside for a moment, mastering himself, then considers his reflection on the surface of his tea.

"We may yet return to the Six Duchies," he points out quietly, lifting his eyes to Fitz's again. "That is the way of the Dreaming here, as it has been described to me. You may see Molly again, have the life with her that you always wished for." A pause, and a wince. "...I would only be in your way."