[@TheMinorFall]

She still had questions for Ketsuoana.  She had questions /about/ him.  But it wasn't the time, and the young woman stayed quiet as he and Tsitua spoke.  It seemed they knew each other well.  She knew even before Cain stepped into view that he too was present.  The way he pulled at her was no longer as strong, after that first encounter, the same as with Tsitua.  But where Nunque had been /knowing/, a connection, the warp and weft of time, and Tsitua was potential and stability, the unexpressive man in the mask was something else.  She couldn't place it, and that bothered her.  There were so many unanswered questions.

The others left.  Ketsuoana simply vanished.  One moment he was there, and then somehow he was not.  And though he was close to blinding, somehow she'd not noticed his departure.  Who exactly was he?  She shook her head, and set the questions aside as the man who'd brought her into this apologized.

Amuné looked at him in silence for a long moment.  "There's no need to apologize to me for that," she said at last, looking away.  "...Mae told me a little more.  Not much -- barely anything, really.  But it was enough."  Her eyes stayed on the stars, searching for familiar patterns.  Even the deepest wilderness of the planet below could not reveal so many.  She'd had a dream once, as a little girl.  It had been back before things went wrong, but she still remembered it clearly.  The stars were falling from the sky to burn out around her as they hit the ground.  One had seemed to be coming right towards her, but instead of being frightened, she had been amazed, reaching her hands out to catch it, even though it was so bright that it seemed to be more likely to swallow her up in fiery light.  She'd never figured out what it meant, or if it was just a dream.  Still, the sense of wonder was something she associated with stargazing, even now.

"I'm not her, Tsitua," the Seer said softly.  "I can't replace her, and I don't want to.  Trying would only hurt everyone.  She was special, and will always be so.  Nor could you replace the father I once had.  Bonds forged are lasting, and they connect us even beyond death."  A flicker of a sad smile crossed the young woman's face, and she dropped her head.  "...No matter how twisted they might have become."  Her father's face, blurred by a decade and a half of separation, crossed her memory.  For all that she blamed him for his errors, for his suspicion, for how he had given her up, he would always be her father.  Some things did not change.

She sighed, and lifted her gaze again, seeking out Tsitua's reflection in the glass.  "I would guess you've heard about what happened by now from Cain.  All of it."  Amuné watched long enough to see his nod of confirmation before focusing again on the stars.  "Then you know lives were lost.  Some of them people I knew."  She took a deep breath, bracing herself for what was coming.  "Do you happen to know their names?"  She exhaled, slow but on the shaky side, when he replied.  Two names.  Both familiar.  One a stab through the heart.  "Thank you."  The young lady closed her eyes and let her forehead rest against the window.  "As they were in life, so may they be remembered in death."  The statement bordered on religious in tone, but she'd be quick to deny it.

Though some had escaped her earlier, it was now that the tears began in earnest, coursing silently down her cheeks.  "That's what I Saw, earlier.  You sensed it, I know you did.  Right before the spar."  Amuné's voice was very soft, and uneven.  "I Saw it, and I knew.  Not -- not precisely who.  I didn't actually See Bart.  There were a couple others it might've been.  But it was always Zane."  She crossed her arms tightly across her chest, as if to give herself a hug, and turned to lean her back against the window.  "I knew, and I could do nothing about it.  Couldn't even say anything."  A brief and bitter laugh escaped her, more a huff of breath through her nose than anything else.  "That's the worst -- when I know, but I know saying something will make it worse.  And this is only the beginning."

A few deep breaths, and the girl wrestled her emotions under some semblance of control, and reinforced her mental barriers where they had weakened.  She dashed the tears from her eyes.  More would come later; grieving was a process, and it took time.  "He thinks he can kill people I care about, that threatening my loved ones will make me submit?"  Her mouth twisted into a grim smile.  "He's wrong.  When he comes for me, I want to be able to crush him.  I'm not a tool.  If it's a fight he wants, then he's got it."  The Seer looked over at Tsitua, her grey eyes meeting his without reservation.  "I'm in.  Whatever it takes, he doesn't win.  Not this time."