[ Bastien nods, letting that information settle. Not despicable. Pitiable. But he only cares so much about the pains of a woman he’s never met, and both roads lead to Byerly unkempt and hungry and standing as a battered wall around his sister, with no wall of his own.

He curls his arm up to scratch By’s scalp and smooth his hair in turns. ]

My father was sick as long as I knew him. [ Offered as a little packet of incomplete understanding. Not the same thing at all, but he’s at least familiar with the concept of a parent stinking and unmoving in bed. ] Something in his lungs. But it came and went.

Did she ever have good days? Or was she just lost to you?