Um... alright, quick mental image: imagine a bookshelf where every book is the same story, more or less, except maybe one character is a girl in one of the copies and a boy everywhere else, or somebody made one pivotal choice or another, but mostly things happen? Um, happen along the same lines, and time.

[She'll invite him to dinner and have Leo explain it; he has the most experience, and is in fact a magical scholar to boot.]

So, the first Ilya I met? Probably from a different copy of the book than you, if you can't remember this place yourself.

[She goes up on her tiptoes and reaches up to tousle his bangs reassuringly.]

...hey. Hey, it's gonna be alright. This place is... really shitty in a lot of ways, I won't lie. But you've got me, and Asra's going to be thrilled to see you again too. We'll take care of you, Ilyushka; I promise.