[ Okay, but it would have killed him to hurt Nehan.
A memory creeps forward here, brief but excruciatingly detailed as the images flicker past each other, one by one. It's his sister, tendrils coming out of her, then Topaz with the same, and then the others. All of them no longer mentally present, an absence of self in their dull, lifeless eyes. The memory fades as quickly as it had arrived, just a glimpse into what he'd seen. ]
I didn't want... [ he lowers his face, places his forehead against Nehan's shoulder ] ... them to turn you into something mindless.
[ Something to be used and then disposed of. Something that he couldn't save his sister from, fake or not. It's not dissimilar to Nehan's furious thought from before. They've both had their lives decided for them, made the hard decisions in order to survive, and that's enough. They've done enough. They've given enough. ]
no subject
A memory creeps forward here, brief but excruciatingly detailed as the images flicker past each other, one by one. It's his sister, tendrils coming out of her, then Topaz with the same, and then the others. All of them no longer mentally present, an absence of self in their dull, lifeless eyes. The memory fades as quickly as it had arrived, just a glimpse into what he'd seen. ]
I didn't want... [ he lowers his face, places his forehead against Nehan's shoulder ] ... them to turn you into something mindless.
[ Something to be used and then disposed of. Something that he couldn't save his sister from, fake or not. It's not dissimilar to Nehan's furious thought from before. They've both had their lives decided for them, made the hard decisions in order to survive, and that's enough. They've done enough. They've given enough. ]
So I didn't let them.