After a long pause, Faelan looked up. He tried to smile. "I know."
The truth was, Sirius would have been glad that there was a party. He would have been right in the middle of it, telling Faelan to stop thinking about veils and what lay beyond them, and how to find them, and definitely not to think about pushing someone through with the distant hope of pulling someone back again. He would tell him to stay the hell away.
But Faelan couldn't stay away. Padma needed him to solve her problem. He needed to solve her problem, needed Padma back to her old self, free of fear and smiling again. He needed someone to smile again.
"I'm fine," he said again. "Really." And actually, he did feel better, because looking at Oliver, he could tell his brother actually wanted him to be.