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removed it from her cheek. turning it in her hands,
she traced lines with one forefinger. “We came close once. Someone
we tried hard to help died and we were distraught … but it didn’t.
No spark - you know?” She looked up and he looked away, cold with
an unnamed dread. She released his hand with a laugh and said,
“Pass the wine, will you?”
    “No. Forgive
me, I’m being selfish.”
    He reclaimed
both her hands with both of his, elbowing a bread out of the
way.
    “Loneliness
will be there always, even among those able to match you in time.
It doesn’t get easier, but you learn to accept, and the day comes
when you prefer it, believe me.” He was not giving comfort. “I
cannot lie with platitudes, Lowen, I’m sorry.”
    Her face
twisted. “I hate lies.”
    “Yes, I know
that about you.”
    Her gaze
warmed. “I missed you most.”
    “Why? You knew
we’d meet again.”
    She dropped
her eyes. “Did I? There was a chance you’d change it.”
    “True.”
    She stared at
him then, before looking down again. “The connection we had is
gone.”
    “You were a
child two thousand years ago.”
    “But I thought
it would still be, and we’d know each other. I miss it. I miss
you.”
    He nearly
snatched his hands from hers. “I’m here, and I’m not the one most
changed. You miss the girl and her freedom. Perfectly natural.”
    She stared at
him. “Platitudes?”
    He withdrew
his hands and leaned closer to capture her eyes. “No, truth. And,
Lowen, the connection is here, or we couldn’t talk this way.
Acknowledge that and you will acknowledge also it has grown.”
    “Do you?
Acknowledge it?”
    “I just
did.”
    “You’re
stronger, I think.”
    He looked
away. “I doubt it.”
    Silence, then,
“There’s much I want to say, and dare not.”
    His gaze
flicked back to her. “With time.”
    Hers was
intent. “I think there are some things that cannot be said, ever.
The damage will be too great.”
    Cold again.
“Yes.”
    “See? It isn’t
there, not really, the connection we had.”
    Oh, god. He
closed his eyes and opened them again ostensibly to look for the
wine.
    “Don’t shut me
out.”
    His eyes
snapped up, his cheeks taut with strain. “If you can sense that,
then the connection is in place. Stop questioning it.”
    She stared at
him.
    “Don’t you
see? We speak plain, yet we skirt, and we can do so for both sense
the other’s … discomfort. That proves a bond, but push too hard,
Lowen, and we may as well say the unsaid things also, and do the
damage you are afraid of.”
    She reared
back. “Is that what you want?”
    “Do you?”
    A longer
silence. “No.”
    “No,” he
echoed, and then his eyes fired. “Beware my self-control, for it is
tenuous. Know this about me, adult to adult, I am contrary, and
sometimes reach out for that kind of damage … because I can. You
are a living, breathing immortal seer - you know exactly what I
mean. Choose now to back off or fall into the abyss with me.”
    Stricken, she
searched wildly for something to hold onto. She saw his white
fingers squeezing the neck of the wine bottle and settled on the
two glasses she packed. Grabbing them, she presented them to
him.
    His gaze
lowered to the shaking offerings, and he took them, fingers curling
over hers as he removed them. Cold fire. But god, yes, both of them
knew the indistinct shape of the abyss that lay yawning under them,
and it was only a matter of time before they chose deliberately to
tumble into it.
    Lowen, his
nemesis … but he was hers also.
    He held the
glasses, poured, passed one to her. She took it, careful not to
touch him again. They drank in silence.
    Then, “I tried
not to think of you on the Plane, Lowen, but I missed you. You had
my measure and I could have used your honesty there.”
    Her shoulders
lifted and relaxed. Normal tone. She could reply to that. “Was it
hard?”
    “Yes and no.
Mostly it was a surprise.”
    “But you chose
it knowingly.”
    His eyes
hooded as he