"I think you're right," Zale said grimly.
Aila tilted her head, a frown on her pretty face. "Are you worried about her?"
"Yes. I am concerned she is too attached to that fairy."
"What, because she talks about him so often? Or because she seems to miss him so much when he is gone?"
"More the latter than the former," Zale admitted.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Zale. Missing your best friend is a perfectly normal thing to do," Aila said reasonably. "She'll cheer up eventually. She did the last time he visited then left."
She scooted closer to him and began rubbing his shoulders. It was something she had started doing not long after they had their talk about her concerns because she had noticed him rubbing them at the end of a long day. Now she did it every night out of habit.
It was one Zale appreciated. He hadn't realized how nice it could be to have someone around to do things like this.
