[ She can only guess at what thoughts or recollections are running through Paul's mind now, but if they are anything similar to her own... thoughts of mourning and remembrance and wishing that things could go back to the way they were, she can understand what he must be feeling, at least in part. She would not dare to presume she knows everything that he is feeling, or that the depth of her feeling of loss is as great as his.

She hardly dares consider herself equal to him, and even less now given what she has learned about the changes he has experienced and how people hold him in high regard. ]

Well, I would have called it a nightmare, but things seem grim enough as it is, wouldn't you say?

[ She has never been the most optimistic person, but it seems to her that Paul needs encouragement and support, not bleak thoughts. ] Is that truly the only end? Surely there must be another end that you have yet to uncover. I- Well, I would not presume to intrude, but perhaps we can uncover it together.

[ At the mention of a tent, Bastila's eyes lock onto Paul's for a moment before she looks to one side again. ] I- well, if it is not too forward, I would choose the tent, but also find time to be together once we reach the sietch.

[ Of course it is forward and Bastila knows it, but she finds that this is one instance in which she does not wish to hold her opinion back. ]

I see. [ And she does; she knows that nothing is simple, not for them. Perhaps not for any of them. ] You do not have to be all right, Paul.

[ She wonders if he will understand her meaning. ]