She didn't want to be this way. She wanted that easy freedom again, the ability to do whatever she wanted, held down by nothing and no one - what she'd had before the fear had crept in. When had it arrived? Why? There was no reason to obey it any longer. The danger was gone, now; the battle had ended. She was still, to her knowledge, banished from her homeland. All that was terrible had already occurred, and now it was just her. Uncertain, frightening, yes. But surely she could work through it.

She smiled at him, because she knew what he was trying to do. And also, because he just made her smile, even though he brought out that faint shyness in her. She glanced away from him, eyes dragging along the ground rather than meet his face, and then she looked up to the sky, still bedecked with constellations she had never seen before.

"Will you sit with me awhile?" she asked, lightly. She did not know how much he enjoyed the stars, but she would appreciate his company.