Jedao tries to have faith in that brief, aborted, vehement denial. Really, it's easier to just shunt his worries to one side. Eiffel asked for comfort, in a way Jedao very much enjoys giving it, and he's not going to let himself ruin it by fretting. He doesn't doze but he zones out, or at least zones away, back into the meditative world of repetition and sensation, until a shift under his hands brings him back to a keener moment-to-moment awareness.

"How do you feel about taking some of the aspirin now?" Jedao asks a while later, after Eiffel's breathing changes again, drifting back towards wakefulness.