There was a long pause in which Adrien opened his mouth and turned his head several times, as if to shift its contents around in the hope that they would align themselves in a coherent fashion. He kept on looking at the book, or rather through it; he intently stared at the word "spaceship" until he had stripped it of all meaning. Then his eyes widened; he remembered what Valerion had told him just a few hours before about not comparing himself to others. He threw his hair behind his shoulders and tried to put a weak smile on his face.

"Sorry", he finally said, "I just had a silly thought, but I think I'm fine now".

"Oh", Valerion said, tilting his head, smiling gently. "If you want to express any worry, as always, please - feel free".