"You're not mean. Or, well, much kinder than I'd have been," Aravis said, as reassuringly as she knew how. "I'd have left, too, though I'd likely have taken my scimitar." She went over to tentatively sit down on the bed beside Rikku, and reached out to pat her arm. That was about as comforting as she knew how to be.

"He was...not well at all. Worrying. He asked me if I'd heard from you, and gave me a fraction of the story. Just that you'd left and Caitlin's name, and that he thought it was the end for you two. I take it that it wasn't."