"I wasn't exactly planning this either, big guy," she replied, trying to reopen her eyes. Momentarily, she wondered what he was worried about thinking, but it wasn't difficult to work it out. (For her part, she'd spend so long worrying about her feelings that she'd never had time to dwell on the practicalities of ... anything else.)

She managed to keep her thoughts in check, but, given that they were sharing emotions as well as thoughts, her embarrassment was probably palpable.

With marked effort, she tried to change the subject.

"Any idea where to start?" With the people on the ship who practiced magic, maybe?