Bariyan slowed to a gradual halt to look at Martin more closely. He quirked an eyebrow.

"You look quite a bit older than a few months," he said, but this, too, was accompanied by a smile. It faded as he took the rest of Martin's words into consideration.

Of course he didn't understand fully -- he didn't know the details, and he wouldn't ask. He didn't feel like it was his place. And it would have been strange, for both of them; for one to inquire intensely for details of something that the other might have expected him to know. But it seemed, at least, that something here had been fixed.

Saved, perhaps? Bariyan's smile returned, faded, distant.

"Was that a good thing?"