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I let out a quiet breath. “I don’t know.”

That was the truth.

“At the time, leaving felt like giving up control. Staying meant I was choosing something I understood.” My mouth twisted. “Turns out knowing all the rules doesn’t mean you’re actually free.”

Veyr’s gaze remained on me. “You believed usefulness gave you control.”

I looked up. The accuracy irritated me.

“Yes.”

He considered that. “And useful with free.”

I frowned. “What?”

“You confused being useful with being free.”

That one hit. I looked down again. “Apparently I’m not the only person in this room who can be annoying when they notice things.”

His mouth moved. Barely.

I hated that I liked it.

For a moment, the distance between us felt different. Not smaller exactly. More honest.

“I don’t know if she’s alive,” I said quietly. “My mother.”

Veyr’s almost-smile disappeared. “No records?”

“Not that I can access from here. Earth wasn’t exactly maintaining perfect databases before I left. Gone downhill. Not uphill, like Zunator.”

“And you cannot return.”

“No.”

He said nothing. Didn’t offer false reassurance. Didn’t tell me she was probably fine. Just sat with the ugly uncertainty. That was better.

I looked at him. “See?”

“What?”

“We both have things we don’t know how to go back to.”

His gaze shifted. The line landed. I could tell. But I did not push farther.

For a while, we ate in silence. Actual food.

Veyr finished everything I had put in front of him. He did not comment on whether he enjoyed it. I decided not to ask.

The fruit disappeared too. Mostly because I ate it. There was one piece remained on the plate when I pushed it away.

Veyr looked at it, then at me. “You are finished?”

“Yes.”

He took the last piece without asking and ate it.

I stared at him.