"Oh Vax," Alcuin said gently. "Of course you miss her. I can't even imagine what it must be like to have a connection like that to someone. I'm sorry."

He hesitated, not wanting to make it about himself, but also wanting to offer some empathy (and perhaps some distraction from Vax's own misery).

"I have a sister," he said. "Well... sort of. An adopted sister, I guess you might say. I do miss her. Mostly I hope that she escaped from the fate that befell Anafiel... and myself too, I guess." Though as soon as he said it, he wondered if he ought to have thought ahead of time as to how he might explain how Phedre could be a sister but he did not think of Anafiel as a father... well. Too late.