"The same as those at the summit recovered from their passing phase," he confirms.

A period of strangeness that they then seemed to forget ever happened. It was so with Aiva. He circles his drink idly, keeping his eyes on it.

"She cared for them. Their physical state was was fine. No injury, malnutrition, no bodily malady in need of healing."

Nothing, then, they could do. Simply an awareness of -- this. Whatever it means. Some sense, some absence of something, some spiritual lacking.