"One." Nanoha answered with a slightly sad smile. "She's not here, though." She finished, which explained the slightly sad bit. Honestly, even back home, Fate occasionally spent weeks to months overseas on various missions, and this wasn't even the longest they'd been apart. But it was one thing to be separated by mere distance, confident that she was fine no matter what danger the world could throw at her.

It was quite another to deal with the sickening fear that CERES was right, and she was dead. Vivio, too.