"Leave an addendum that you'll attempt to come back. We can try once a year, an anniversary of sorts, to bring you home to visit. Or every five. If Underhill is feeling kind, perhaps it will allow us that. I don't want to remove you entirely, but it's not going to take long for your siblings and others to recognize you've not aged since the last time they saw you. I don't want your people frightened of you."

For the long term, it wouldn't work, but at least for a year from now, he could give her a meeting with her siblings to say goodbye in person. He lifted his hand and wiped at her cheeks, brushing away her tears. "If I could make it easier on you, I would."