Baltigo's underground fortress, a temporary guest room.
The windowless room's only light came from luminous moss embedded in the walls. Its cold, ghostly green glow cast an unreal veil over everything inside.
Boer sat on the simple camp bed, his back as straight as a spear.
He did not close his eyes. He simply listened quietly to-
The sobbing in Robin's room, so faint it was almost inaudible.
Late at night.
Through his Extrasensory Vision, he saw that Robin had not rested after returning to her room. She sat on the edge of the bed, hugging her knees, her face buried between them. Every few minutes, her shoulders trembled uncontrollably.
Ginny pushed the door open and came in, carrying a cup of warm water.
She sat beside Robin and gently patted her back, keeping her voice low:
"Do you need... Boer to come keep you company?"
Robin shook her head sharply.
The movement was so forceful that she almost seemed to be recoiling from something terrifying. She raised her face-within the outlines of his Extrasensory Vision, Boer "saw" the tear tracks still wet on her cheeks, and the nearly shattered struggle in her dark brown eyes.
"It's precisely because... I care about him..."
Robin's voice reached Boer's ears through vibrations in the air, every word like a shard of glass:
"Precisely because I love him..."
"That I have to... stay away from him."
She rested her head wearily against Ginny's shoulder, her voice as faint as sleep talk:
"Ginny... you don't understand."
"Now I always feel... like I'm someone who brings 'misfortune.'"
"The people around me... the scholars of Ohara, Jaguar D. Saul, Elena, and Boer..."
"They always... suffer disasters."
Robin's shoulders began trembling again:
"Now... I'm even afraid I might... drag the Revolutionary Army into it..."
"If I hadn't