She was familiar to him in ways he was still trying to understand. A cipher, an enigma, but more than met the eye.
Zarina had recognized him for who he resembled, and she knew who he harbored in his mind by the way Su went preternaturally still, whispered to Al-Haytham who she was, before retreating from his mind altogether and leaving him alone throughout this encounter. Kevin Kaslana's teacher, older than an ice age, but fresh-faced as newly driven snow. The chill is familiar, something craved that he couldn't have, and Al-Haytham found himself inexorably drawn to her.
There's familiarity where it shouldn't have been. He's hopelessly drawn into a night of conversing, recalling things he never did, and Zarina regards him curiously. How odd was it to hear of Su's memories from the mouth of a man who'd never been to their universe, rattling of events and people he'd never known, but spoke like he did. He wasn't Su, he knew that, but devoid of a past and memories of his own, it felt like he'd seen these things and met those people and encountered that travesty.
Lustrous golds gaze at him, faraway and sad, because a comrade had returned but hadn't. A panacea, maybe.
At the end, before she would depart, she leaned close and kissed his cheek chastely. A recognition, a cool-burning tongue of fire, a thing that would linger.
She had things to do and another person to be, but it felt everlasting. Like this wouldn't be the last time he'd be seeing the Herrscher of Ice.