Oh. He doesn't know. Maybe no one had explained it to him; the spirits aren't exactly a chatty bunch. But it's okay, she can help him understand.

"Back home, my friends and I did a ceremony like this," she begins, watching the water so he can process the information without her seeing any reactions. It seems like a good thing to do, to give him that space. "We had paper lanterns then that we lit so they'd float into the air. We each lit one as a memorial, to remember people we'd lost."

She looks down at her knees then, at the little stones on the ground and the edge of the water that moves so slightly. "I lit one for my parents, my aunt Jenna, all the people my friends had lost... And for myself. For everything I'd lost, and everything I could never be. And that's why I did it tonight, too. It's meant to help us heal by acknowledging that loss and trying to let it go so we can move on from it."