"Usually it's me who doesn't know someone who knows me," Coby said gently. He'd always hated seeing her upset.

"But if you don't know me, then you wouldn't know that already, or remember we've talked about how we both know what it's like, losing yourself."

Coby straightened his spine, letting the change in posture put more space between them without him actually moving away. He offered his hand. "Hi. I'm Coby. As far as I remember, we met in London, when I just had to stop and listen to a pretty girl singing on a street corner." He couldn't match the purity of Curnen's voice, so he didn't try, but they'd always gotten to know each other best through music, and begin at the beginning, so he offered the first song he heard her sing:

Abroad as I was walking one evening in the spring
I heard a maid in Bedlam who mournfully did sing
Her chains she rattled on her hands, and thus replied she
"I love my love because I know my love loves me."