I loved you too, he could say, if it would do the slightest bit of good. I loved you to fucking distraction whenever you were off saving every poor wretch in Thedas at your own expense, and I couldn't think of a damn thing but your safety for as long as you were gone.

I loved you when you acted like there was no greater imposition than my asking you to be careful and keep me posted. I loved you even when I knew that not a single word I said to you would ever, ever stick in your head or make a shred of difference. I don't need to lose any more sleep over the kind of love that feels like living on the edge of a precipice.

"Safe travels," he says, and returns to his work. Saying it won't make them so. But he'll say it anyway, and mean it as much as he always has.