Hearing such a sound, Tear's first instinct had been the desire to reach out and place her hand over his, to ease his discomfort however she could. But not only was she stopped by the tiny chick still in her grasp—her own self-restraint held her back, a small voice telling her that it wouldn't be right for her to do that yet, if at all. The explanation had only just begun, and already it was hurting him.

At most, she could only nod at both his statements, lips pressed together tightly. It was only after a few moments of thick silence that she tried to speak again, her voice soft in her efforts to try and keep her own composure.

"Three months after receiving knowledge from the Sage, an incident happened at the laboratory that brought back the crystalline beings some of the others have talked about." The strength she had to place into keeping her words from trembling was more than she had expected, meaning she had to stop to breathe again before trying to continue again. "I don't know how it started, but it costed us all dearly in the end."

At the same time, another reasoning slipped into her thoughts: that future wasn't promised. After all she had done in Auldrant, it was a hope that she had to cling on to no matter what pain it might cause. Saying it out loud didn't mean it would come true, she had to believe that.

But grief was a powerful motivator, and the thought of what could happen in the coming months meant she had to look at him, the hair that had fallen in the way only partially obscuring the efforts to keep herself in control.

"That might have been when our group truly started falling apart, and that was the last time I last saw you."