Thalia unflinchingly...did not let him go.
The spring had returned to what it was, and the steam had come back, and the falls were running down the Elsemountain again as though nothing at all had happened here. Yet her arms stayed locked across his chest, tight, as if he would be gone if she let go.
Of course, she had reason. She had spent that entire conversation frozen, watching an architect stand over the man she had crossed time to reach, unable to move so much as a finger in his direction. There are worse things than danger. Being present for it and useless is one of them.
"That was… an Immense One," she said against his back. "How did they even…"
The question did not finish. In truth, it did not need to!
Then she asked the other one.
"And you. My Provenance, are you really fearful all the time? Do you truly live with fear constantly?"
Noah turned in her arms.
He took her by the shoulders and drew her in, and their noses brushed.
"Yes," he said. "Constantly."
