He looked up at her concerned gaze. For a moment, their eyes met quietly across the table then his shoulders relaxed.
'What's there to be afraid of, I'm not alone'
He smiled at her.
"Something like that."
She didn't push further which was a pleasant surprise to him. Lilith sometimes understood silence better than most people understood words but most of the time she bulldozed through everything without a care.
Instead, she simply refilled his cup of tea calmly.
"Whatever the system shows you," she said quietly," it's already failed."
He blinked once. He was genuinely perplexed by how perceptive she was. Her words had the effect intended. He relaxed fully.
"How do you know that?"
"Because you're here."
The answer came so naturally that he stared at her for a full ten seconds.
Atheline linked his hands together lost in thought. He took a deep breath and faced her patient gaze.
