[For a moment, Liem does contemplate letting go of Matt’s hand. Perhaps he’s been holding it overlong; his sense of decorum suggests that this contact is probably more intimate than is really expected of someone Matt has only met three times.

But he still remembers the relief that had seemed to sink into Matt when he’d touched him on that rooftop in Venera; and before that, he remembers Matt’s hurt when Liem had pulled away from him in the caverns beneath Achamoth, scarcely after they’d met.]

It isn’t that you got hurt, [he says quietly.] It’s that you chose to sacrifice your hand because you wanted to do something meaningful. Or to have something meaningful.

Maybe you do know what you’re doing, but I still don’t want you to be in a situation where you end up spending pieces of yourself like currency.