The Afterglow.

WAKER

Your attention—drifting somewhere in the currents of this strange world, trying to picture whichever forest of giants Uwaritace must have come from—silently shifts back to her.

She's something you've never really encountered before: she's thoughtful, she seems kind, but her skin is not a mirror for her soul. She's occasionally abrupt in her departures, but you can't believe it's been with ill intent. And she's here now, isn't she? Perhaps your invitation to explore the effects of her relief charm surprised her, perhaps it didn't, but she's humoring you, isn't she?

For someone who feels strongly and reflects most of it on his skin, she's a mystery, but you like her, and it's not only gratitude for the fact that she saved your life. At least, you think there's more to it than that—a genuine curiosity of who she is.

"A foreign has invaded my home and enslaved my kin," she says after a moment, speaking with a distance and calm you cannot fathom. You don't judge her for it, because it seems so utterly Taivas to speak in such tones, but you know that if it had been you saying those words, they would've been laced with many things: bitterness, anger, sorrow.. your failure keeps ripping at your heart with each beat.

Perhaps her heart rips too, just silently, invisibly.

You can't know without asking, and something holds you back. Another condolence bubbles up the back of your throat, but you swallow it. Instead, you draw a half-circle in the dust of the hot, dry ground, brown blades of grass whispering as you bend them. It means nothing, it's just your body idling, your brain working.

"I suspect much the same happened to my home," you tell her quietly, not trusting your voice to carry louder, or your eyes to stay balanced. You cast them down, blinking hard. "We were in the process of being overrun when I.." That night haunts you, storm-whipped and deathly cold. It makes your throat tight, your breath trembling. It takes you a couple of seconds to gather yourself. "When I ended up here," you finish.