“It’s a curse, not a gift.” Syenite closes her eyes. But she doesn’t push away the bundle.
“It’s a gift if it makes us better. It’s a curse if we let it destroy us. You decide that—not the instructors, or the Guardians, or anyone else.” There’s another shift, and the bed moves a little as Alabaster leans on it. A moment later she feels his lips on her brow, dry and approving. Then he settles back down on the floor beside the bed, and says nothing more.
“I thought I saw a Guardian,” she says after a while. Very softly. “At Allia.”
Alabaster doesn’t reply for a moment. She’s decided that he won’t, when he says, “I will tear the whole world apart if they ever hurt us again.”