"I'm so sorry," Cassandra says, "and so glad -- that dying of those injuries brought you here, instead of back to the ship. It was ..."

She swallows, draws back a little further but keeps hold of Tayrey's hands. "We were both right," she says, "and both wrong. I've had time to think it over, and I -- I didn't think I would ever get the chance to tell you. The one who sent the red string did lie to us, and did turn on us, but if we hadn't used it we'd never have been able to break the bubble and get away. You did save us, in the end, even after you were gone."

(That last question she doesn't answer. Mostly because she needs to say this, before anything else.)