He looked at the casket. "That is exactly the most Cassius thing he could possibly have done. And I want him to know — wherever he is — that I heard it. I received the message. I just—" He stopped. The steadiness he'd been holding had a specific quality now, the quality of something that was being held rather than natural. "I'm going to need a while with it."
He stepped back.
—------------
Satou came forward.
He stood at the head of the grave and looked at the gathered people — the seventeen thousand of Vael'kira who'd come, the settlement people who'd followed Lyra through the portal and then looked at the casket.
