Sabine finally looked back at Meesei when she touched her. "The others? Meesei, I have seen everything before they even talked about it." Sabine's gaze did not last long before she looked down and to one side again. "You are not...present anymore. When I see you, you are distant. You hardly speak. You forget things. Each time you go into the book, it gets worse, and there is nothing I can do about it because all you do is tell me to trust you. I have told myself I can trust you hundreds of times up until this point, and each time you get worse."

After a couple of huffed breaths, Sabine's eye began to redden. "I am not a scared little girl anymore. I have learned. Learned enough to see what is happening to you, even if you cannot. So...no, I do not know if I can trust you. Not anymore. Not with that." Sabine pointed to the book nearby. "You are searching for a grain of sand in an ocean. You have no guarantee. You cannot even say that you would find a solution at all, even if it should exist. You need to stop. I need you to stop. Or, at least...go back to the schedule you had at the beginning. Otherwise things are going to start falling down around you and you will not care. You will get angry like you did before, or maybe you are now, and then push everything else away. Please."

[hr]
"I think you are confusing what I am trying to ask," Fendros said He did not break eye contact. "The question wasn't about the effectiveness of such a plan, or whether I would make such sacrifices to save Meesei. Certainly, I would." He raised a hand. "I have just always seen taking lives as a last resort. You have suggested to do so without any second thought. Here and before."