In the end, the silence stretches on all throughout our meal.
Even after the meal, Celeste sits quietly at the table, looking down at her hands, at the wall, really at anything that isn't people.
After all this time, she still struggles to deal with people. It's something I find both endearing and a little sad.
Naturally, then, I'm the one to break the silence for the both of us.
"How about you, Celeste?"
I'd already been watching her subtly, but once I speak, I turn my head toward her more directly, to ensure she knows I'm paying attention to her now. "Are you feeling better now that it's been a while since you had to exert yourself so much...?"
She'd had to work herself to the bone for days on end, healing the people of Jael until she'd fallen into a coma, then barely recovering from that before she healed the people of Neraw, Celend, and Norguard.
The strain had been intense. It wasn't hard to tell that just by looking at her.
