"Physically? I've few details to offer. But your absence? Without doubt."

At times she is given to think little stings so deeply as that — but that's a foolish notion. A child's. The world is full of other, greater hurts.

Get stabbed a few times, and you know absence is a real pussy answer.

"Nothing is permanent. Do what you can, use what is available to you. And hold to those you might." A gesture to the tentflap. "If there is nothing else, Warden?"