"But I can show you where the cache is and reintroduce you to Charp and -" She shrugs, looks at her feet. "Then you can do whatever you want, I guess."

Kidan swallows. "I. Yes, thanks."

"Um, I approve very much of your project," she adds. "If you need help with it or -" She coughs and breaks eye contact again. "...So when do you want to leave? And do you have your own transport or do you want to ride my zebra?"

"My own transport, uh - in less than a week we can leave?"

"Okay. Um, should I go away again and come back in a few more days?"

"You can stay, it's all right."

"Okay." She fidgets. "Um, I can tell you almost as much as Charp can, I've read a lot of my past notes. If you have questions. And you'll believe answers that come from me instead of Charp."

"... Sure, questions. Uh. What was I like in my - past life?"

"He - I don't know how much you remember or from when, I'll just sort of - you were big into public health, before you even met Aly but especially after she died." Lu shudders a little. "Uh, and - sarcastic but terrible at lying - and you were a servantmaker, are you still? I am again, three for three now - um - and you were - he was -" She wrings her hands. "We were -" She stops.

"I know. That's why you're so glad to see me now."

"I dreamed you dying not too long ago," she murmurs.

"... I'm sorry."

"Aydanci lived to be eighty-eight, that's not too bad. Just - yeah."

He nods.

"But - you reincarnate too. So - that's good. Kib was -" She shakes her head again. "Devastated."

"Was he?" murmurs Kidan. "I - I'm sorry."

"Of course he was," she murmurs. "But it wasn't your fault."

"No. But - still."

"But you're alive. At least you're alive."

"I am, yeah."

"That's good." She blushes and looks away again. "I'm glad you're alive. Even if I totally botched finding you."

"You didn't actually botch finding me. Just the. Introduction, a bit."

"By finding you I meant the part where I - indicated to you that you had been found. Not the part where a parrot landed on you."

"Oh. Well."