The help that she wanted, but then the responsibility that the help seemed to invoke. If anything were to happen to Oliver because of the changing of their plans, and the necessity he saw in saving Lasha Blackthorn's father – Lasha had said, more than once, that the guilt was not something she could deal with.
They were all a razor thin edge. Nila felt it in herself, and she felt it in Blackthorn too. How was it that they wandered forward, as if they were creatures of strength, and as if they had overcome all there was to overcome? They tried to tell themselves the lie that they were heroes now, and all would be well.
Nila wasn't so sure that she believed that. She had not been in the battle against Tiberius, but she could feel the sting off those that had. The haunted look in their eyes, and especially in Oliver's.
