When was the last time he had seen that child?

What Nova had said earlier reminded him.

He didn't especially want to remember.

He was staying with Levitt, wasn't he? That was a little bit before he had been made to go with Diurn, while Lorn and Lyena were finalizing the peace treaty.

... While they were so wrapped up in the peace with DASS, the balance of power in Sturm had been wildly upset, with many of the lesser princes throwing around their political clout and dueling rights to scramble for a place in the new systems being ushered forward.

At the time, he had been little more than a trading card; a little trinket of political power to be squabbled over.

He had been Lyeha, after all.

He didn't want to admit to himself that he understood the feelings of a murderer; but he stared at the ceiling, and he wondered if he would've survived if not for the end of the war.

How much more of that would he have been able to take before he cracked?

... That child's face was blurry in his mind.

He turned, and buried his face in his pillow; he didn't want to think of such things any longer.

... The dream was still real, after all, and if he spent too long away from it, it might end without him.