Even now, Need can make herself feel something of how she'd felt at the time. The hollowness deep in her chest. The stench of smoke and blood and the quiet where so many voices should have sounded. The disbelief, the numbness, holding herself together because Vena, pine needles in her hair, was sobbing in her arms. Something had broken in her that couldn't be healed. The options she'd sorted through, such a narrow pool of them, and the fear and resolve as she returned to the one that she knew, objectively, was a terrible thing. Yes. It's still there, even now.

Her eyes have started to burn again. Need swipes at them with her free hand and can only think of sweat or blood. She can't start that now, she can't think of herself too much. Compartmentalize.

She curls her fingers more firmly around Celehar's shoulder, lacking wings to fold. That defeated voice, sighing. Need can feel the shape of this tragedy, even if it's not all lined up neatly. "You were part of bringing him in?"

...She's going to have to not tell this kid about all the extrajudicial murder she's been involved in, Need realizes, he would not agree with her choices. She will not judge Celehar for putting principle first, just, there are a few fundamental differences at play.