At The End Of The Quest There Is Only A Mirror

<Aelf> [> Aelf: Venture forth.]
<Aelf> [You're needed, for Cy's sake. All right, you'll be there.]
<Aelf> [Would expect nothing less of a good UU partner.]
<Aelf> [You'd glide down from the Spire's top like you usually do, but if you fly out into the fogbanks you'll never find your way out again, so instead you take the stairs.]
<Zeimah> [The Spire is quiet now. It looks almost gutted, however, when Aelf arrives - broken windows, shattered furniture, and gouged walls all mark the effects of Zeimah's fury; even imps don't wreck the Spire this badly if they're allowed to run wild.]
<Zeimah> [Chunks of grist testify to at least some Underlings having been unfortunate enough to spawn during the event.]
<Aelf> [You're a Smith. You'd scry for her, but that wouldn't work, because ARC. On the other hand, you don't want to waste your effort. So you fire off a quick scry to make sure she's in the general area.]
<Aelf> [She's around. Okay. You can work with "close by", checking into each bedroom as you pass it in the hallway, and up the stairs.]
<Zeimah> [The stairs are, at least, still intact - although the railings have been devastated. The bedrooms are ransacked, strewn with shredded fabric and spilled cosmetics.]
<Zeimah> [It doesn't take long to find you - you're in the third bedroom that Aelf checks. You don't seem to notice her, though, sitting on the remnants of a dresser and staring quietly at your hands.]
<Aelf> ["Hello?" you call, softly.]
<Zeimah> [You startle, falling off the dresser and staring at Aelf. It takes a couple tries before you manage actual words, instead of distressed trilling, but you do reply. "...hi."]
<Zeimah> [You're marked with blue - you weren't immune to the effects of your rage, and you didn't even notice being hurt at the time.]
<Aelf> [One-quarter of a small lifecake, cut with precise movements, and a blanket. "Are y - " the answer to that question would be obvious. "What happened, if you want to tell me?"]
<Zeimah> [The slice of lifecake is nibbled at slowly. "I...Scott's dreamself came on the memo. He was having a nightmare, an' Vru and I went looking for him, so we could help him calm down."  You swallow, remembering what happened. "But he BT'd before we could find him, and..."]
<Aelf> ["Scott's fine now, and - and Abel and Charta are... recovering, after they used cross-session Prose in order to make absolutely sure the rest of you could be saved."]
<Zeimah> [It is a good thing that you're too drained to become properly angry again. "...and Abel /prosed/ me an' Vru so we couldn't go /help/ and get Scott's realself out of there before it was too late. I...I had to just sit in my Spire and /watch/."]
<Aelf> ["Scott tiered, and Ross kissrevived Abel-and-Charta."]
<Aelf> ["See? It all worked out."]
<Zeimah> [You hiss at the mention of Abel. You are still not happy with how things went. "We could've gotten Scott out /safe/, if Abel hadn't prosed us."]
<Zeimah> ["We were in the /middle/ of getting him out safe, even."]
<Aelf> ["Shhhhhh. He did what he thought was best. You did what you thought was best." Impulsively, you reach out to hug her.]
<Zeimah> [You make a distressed noise and then cling to her, hugging back. You're well-practiced at how your head has to be positioned in order to press your face into someone's shoulder without hitting them in the face with your horns.]
<Zeimah> [Exhausted, you let the barriers drop and weep on her shoulder. You can apologize later, for getting her shirt wet and stained.]
<Aelf> [...well, /this/ is familiar.]
<Aelf> [What was it she did? Soft tuneless humming and rubbing your back? Um. Okay. Yeah, do that.]
<Zeimah> [It helps, although it takes some time before the tears finally stop. It has been a long time since you cried yourself out, and there's been a lot for you to cry over.]
<Aelf> [You eventually pull away and offer her some water. "You're probably dehydrated."]
<Zeimah> ["...thank you." You sip at the water slowly - it hasn't been more than a day or so since you ate and drank properly, but you still know better than to rush this.]
<Zeimah> ["...they're all okay?"]
<Aelf> ["Yes."]
<Zeimah> [You sigh in relief at that and continue to sip slowly at the water. "Good." You don't ask if Scott came to visit you - Desmond would, hopefully, have dissuaded him from doing so.]
<Zeimah> ["Sorry I got your shirt all messed up."]
<Aelf> ["Turnabout is fair play. Would be a shitty friend if I didn't come by."]
<Zeimah> [That gets a tired giggle, "Guess it is only fair, yeah."]
<Zeimah> [You startle at the sound of an Unbreakable Union coming to a close.]
<Aelf> [It's called [Multiple Personality].]
<Aelf> ["Welp. Guess it's time to move on."]
<Zeimah> ["...I guess so." You'll /miss/ spending hours with Aelf, though. You weren't expecting the UU to end so soon.]
<Aelf> ["We don't have to do it /now/, though. I'm going to need to find us new partners anyway."]
<Zeimah> [A nod. "I'm gonna miss spending time with you, though."]
<Aelf> ["I, too. But at this point it's a choice between survivability and..." You trail off, making vague hand motions.]
<Aelf> [Slump.]
<Aelf> ["This fucking game."]
<Zeimah> [You nod again and then hug Aelf. "...we can still spend off-hours together, though."]
<Zeimah> ["An' schedule things so that /everyone/ can hang out together. 'S been a while since the last session meeting, anyways."]
<Aelf> ["...dammit, you're right. We need to do that anyway. Figure most other people have UUs coming to a close about now."]
<Aelf> ["We may as well reassign all at once."]
<Zeimah> [You offer a smile. "Makes sense, yeah."]
<Aelf> ["...you asked if you could learn hang-gliding? I'll see who else wants to."]
<Zeimah> ["I do still wanna learn that, yeah. 'd be useful for travelling on most of our lands." Not /quite/ so much yours - you need something that lets you navigate through the fogbanks. But hopefully that'll change once you do the Terraforming.]
<Aelf> [You smile, briefly. "It's not about the /traveling/, you can do that with a cheap jetpack, it's about learning how the air works."]
<Zeimah> [A smile in return, "Yeah, but hang-gliding sounds like it's a more /fun/ way of traveling. Plus, you can't really /look/ at the land while you're using a jetpack, not easily."]
<Aelf> ["Heh. I'll see what I can do. Scott's land looks best to practice on, honestly."]
<Zeimah> ["Lots of high places with easy visibility, yeah."]
<Aelf> ["Also, the /clouds/. When there isn't much wind, puff clouds like that mean bubbles of rising warm air underneath them. Great for longer flights."]
<Aelf> ["Leastways that's what I got from them."]
<Zeimah> ["Ooh." You're looking forward to learning. "That'll be a /lot/ of fun. When do you think the best time to start practicing would be?"]
<Aelf> ["Once I ask who else wants to learn."]
<Zeimah> ["'Kay. What-all should we bring to the session meeting, then? 'Cause a pot-luck sounds like a good idea, at least in theory."]
<Aelf> ["How about you coordinate that?"]
<Zeimah> ["I can do that, yeah." You yawn suddenly and blush a bit. "...sorry."]
<Aelf> ["Hey, hey. You don't get to tell me off for apologizing inappropriately and then apologize to me for nothing I can reasonably tell requires an apology."]
<Zeimah> [A tired smile. "Isn't yawning s'posed to get an apology, though?"]
<Zeimah> [The exhaustion is starting to catch up with you, now that you're calm again.]
<Aelf> ["It looks to me like you don't have anywhere to sleep. Crash at my place?"]
<Zeimah> [A quiet nod, "Yes please." Your Spire is going to take a while to clean up. Most of it of the repairs can be done by your Server player, but some of it is going to have to be done by hand.]
<Aelf> [You rise, help her off a pile of splintered wood (wait, you were in a /pile/? that explains a lot), and walk your coplayer back to the Gate that'll take you back to your Spire.]