She closes her fingers around the cube with care, and lowers her hand, still watching him.


"... a year," she says, at last. "A year full, and half another in that place. Held unmoving, scorched and blinded--"

A pause.

"-- and mortal, oh yes, mortal still, with a mortal body's needs, but made undying." She gestures with her other hand at herself, and oh, but her smile is self-mocking and bitter.

"Believe me, dear Doctor, when I say it is that you do not want to see what is truly left of me beneath this shape."