Talia laughed, and promised; she could tell by the speculative glint in Dirk’s eyes that he already had a destination or two in mind. They traded a few more pleasantries with Elcarth, then the Historian—Dean no longer, and that would take some getting used to—took himself off.

Dirk shook his head. “I never, ever pictured myself as a teacher,” he said quietly. “That was always Kr—”

He choked off the end of the name.

“That was what Kris wanted,” Talia finished, watching him. “You’ve been avoiding speaking about him, love. Why?”

“Fear,” he replied frankly. “Fear that I’d hurt you— fear I’d be hurt myself. I—I still don’t really know how you felt about each other—”

“All you ever had to do was ask,” she said softly, and drew him into rapport with gentle mental fingers.

After a moment he raised his eyes to hers and smiled. “And you said emotions don’t speak clearly. So that’s how it was?”

She nodded. “No more, no less. He tried to tell you, but you weren’t hearing.”

“I wasn’t, was I?” He sighed. “Gods—I miss him. I miss him so damn much. . . .”

“We lost more than a friend when we lost him,” she said, hesitating over the words. “I think—I think we lost a part of ourselves.”

He was silent for a long moment. “Talia, what happened after he died? You said some very strange things when you answered my call and came back to us.”

She shook her head slightly, her brow wrinkled in thought. “Love, I’m not sure. It’s not very clear, and it’s all mixed up with pain and fever and drug-dreams. All I can tell you for certain is that I wanted to die, and I should have died—but something kept me from dying.”

“Or someone.”

“Or someone,” she agreed. “Maybe it was Kris. That’s who my memories say it was.”

“I have a lot to thank him for, and not just that,” he said thoughtfully.

“Hm?”

“You learned from him about loving before those beasts hurt you.”

“It helped” she said, after a long moment of thought.

“Loveling, are you ready to go through with this?” he asked after a pause. “Are you sure?”

For answer she kissed him with rapport still strung between them. When they came up for air he chuckled, much more relaxed.

“Hedonist,” he said.