"I will. Or," Drift said, almost shyly, "we could just talk. Not everyone has to be a patient, Rung."

"It's easy to think in retrospect what we 'should' have done, but that doesn't help. All we can do is try to do better." He laughs, looking down at his foot in the water. "Though...maybe I'm not the best to give advice about that."

He catches the motion, tilting his head. "That wasn't the sparkeater."