I don't need to defend him when what you're saying is ridiculous.

[ What she says is reflexive, and not gentle, but neither is it cutting or cruel. Nina would like, very much, to completely dismiss this. It's much larger than she can afford to deal with right now; it takes all her much-sacrificed for priorities and smashes them into little tiny pieces, if it's true, like a madman with a mallet loose in a shop of porcelain dolls.

She does not want it to be true.

But Alina's desperation cuts her. Her terror is more convincing than her logic, and Nina can sense how badly Alina needs to be believed.

She wants to take hold of Alina's arms and forcibly remove them from her arms and walk away. She wants to cut the fragile cord she senses reaching out from Alina, something that is keeping her from spiraling, and just leave. She's deserted. This isn't her problem.

...but she just can't do it. ]

Damn it. [ She rips herself away from Alina and turns her back, staring up at the wings of the dragon to say an emphatic: ] Fuck.

[ She turns back around. ] If I say I believe you, do you have any idea what it means we have to try to do?