"Just because you want to know," Amberdrake stepped around a younger tree, still held up by a wooden framework. "Does not mean you need to know."

The healer did glance down, this time, but his mask didn't crack again. He wasn't wearing the fake smile he'd had to wear for so many years, but his features were smooth and calm. His heart, deep inside his expert shielding, was anything but smooth or calm.

I lost him. As surely as though the War took him.

And yet, here he was. And he'd need Drake's help going forward, he knew. He remembered what Sanzo was like when his companions weren't around. If he was left alone...

I must think of him as a client, this time. Answer the need... be his kestra'chern, nothing more and nothing less.