[ Sebastian stands there, prim and patient, at least until she opens the box. When Sieglinde touches the Shard, there’s first a pang of possessiveness, even though he had fully agreed to this. That Shard was perhaps Sebastian’s most precious treasure here in Kenos, after all… Though it was still no more than a meal, ultimately.

However, as tears come to her eyes, it’s easy to push that reflexive feeling away. Sebastian dips down onto one knee next to her chair so that he’s not towering over her so much. It’s a gesture meant to provide comfort, as well as to convey a sympathy and seriousness that he doesn’t completely feel. ]

...It is strange, is it not?

[ He responds with a rhetorical question to her own, and that’s at least honest. He had doubted what Yima had promised him until he had held it in his own hands and laid eyes on it. He has a certainty that she can’t have, after all. By looking at it with his real eyes… He knew. This was his little master, reduced to nothing more than a rock. ]

I cannot explain how it is possible, but I suppose it is little stranger than our own souls becoming such a thing, apparently. These are just… inert in a way that ours are not, apparently. It is why they do not manifest with a body as we do.

[ Sebastian reaches out to first brush his gloved fingers lightly against the Shard, but then to settle over Sieglinde’s small hand more firmly. ]

It is not the same, obviously. But it is a comfort to know his soul was at least saved.