Kanaya is definitely young, there, younger than Karkat is now. Depending when Nill met her and the path of the timelines, the lack of a glow might be a clue - and then again, it might not. So long as Nill doesn't ask, he doesn't even know her worry. Her tears are easy to take as coming from something else, given the situation they're in.

Is it pain? Is it upset at her position? Hell, it could be both. Her smile doesn't carry enough weight behind it, and he can't take any comfort when she says what she does. Waiting--just waiting. His lips press together. He knows, too, how long it took that things even progressed this far. He knows she's weaker than a troll, but that still doesn't tell him any estimated time of death, just that she can't walk this off.

"You're sure?" he asks, stubbornly hoping still.

It's the unfairness that sticks with him still: both that she has to die, but that despite its inevitability it still has to take so long. It means pain for her, and danger for the both of them as they wait--no matter how superfluous that might be in her case.

But if something came, then what? Tribute or monster, it would put him in danger, and he'd have to worry for her--but is there any point in defending someone so near death? Safer though it may be to let the hypothetical take her and buy himself safety with it, that would be a coward's out, too cruel. He could never do it. But he'll need to move eventually if just for food and water, yet he can't leave her, either. He couldn't carry her without more danger, and the only reason they're here is because she can't walk anymore.

Unfair, unfair, unfair, it repeats in his head. It shouldn't have to be this way.