Her fingers snap, and the room darkens, though not because the lights themselves go out. He sees the sunlight out the window seemingly vanish out of the corner of his eye, a small frown returning to his face as he turns once more toward it.

And the sight that greets him now...

Whatever it was that had overtaken the once bright city in nothing short of horrific, and Gaius feels his breath catch in his throat to see the broken shells of what were once proud spires and buildings. To see the smokey haze that covered the ruined streets, darkening the sky above, and the bodies...

Something twists in his chest, so horribly tight, at the small forms found among the bodies of man and monster alike, and his grip tightens on the armrests of his seat as if he makes to stand again. The image is gone again all too soon after, however, all of the horror and death and destruction replaced by a foreign coastline, serene and picturesque...but he knows the sight of the broken, twisted ruins will remain burned into his mind. As will the profound sadness that follows, a strange sense of longing for something lost.

For his own home, perhaps. For his family, that he'll never get to see again.

It's some moments before he realizes that the young woman is still speaking. Speaking to him, specifically, again gently reminding him of why he's there in her cabin in the first place, and Gaius has to blink away the heat gathering at the corners of his eyes before he can turn his gaze back to her, letting out a slow breath before he very slowly, very carefully, reaches down to pull his leg up on the table between them.

"I'm sorry." And though his voice is low, he means it. Genuinely so. He's seen too much needless destruction himself to not understand the grief the woman must be going through, and he has to take another breath. "To lose your home..."

He can't even begin to imagine how that must feel.

"It looked a beautiful city."