"I'm sorry, Noriko." And he was. He was not fond of cages. If he'd had a choice, or a Door, maybe, leading back home, it would be one thing. But this? No. This was a mess. And he hated, even more, that she had been stuck here, alone.

So he held her, and stroked her hair and back, and he remembered how his Tante Mae had done the same for him after he had come back from the tunnels. Noriko wasn't a child, just as he hadn't been one then, and he hoped she could take the comfort he could give. He pressed a kiss to her hair, and held her, and prayed for worlds where people didn't get lost in the chaos and noise.

"Can' take you home, chere', but as long as I'm here, you don' have to be alone."