...I'm okay. I mean, no, I'm not okay… But I… I have a feeling I will be.

Thinking that had been a lot easier earlier, somehow, when the wounds were still as fresh and raw as they could possibly be. Now though, after they had had the time to ferment, along with the thoughts and memories that made Skara want to just yell at something. Or someone. Or just….

Do something to let it all out.

Skara collapsed onto her bed, letting her body flop onto the mattress. Her entire body felt like it had been replaced with lead, and she didn't even have the motivation or energy to just stand up, or even to lay down in a remotely dignified manner - She really did just collapse onto the mattress, and let her arms and legs flop wherever they fell. Everything just felt heavy.

Getting up into her room without either of her parents noticing how upset she was had been… Stressful, to say the least. She had put on a brave face, and pretended to act like everything was normal when she ran into them, hating every single second of it, before slipping away under the guise of having a proverbial mountain of homework to do, locking the door behind her the second she was on the other side.

It wasn't that they wouldn't care - It was the opposite. They would care. A lot . And that was… Nice of them, Skara supposed. It was nice to be cared about, of course it was. But she just didn't… Want to deal with that right now. With the questions, having to explain what happened all over again, or the… Any of it.

After the day that she had just had, she couldn't find the energy to care about… Anything , really.

Instead, she just laid there, feeling time pass her by.

Her muscles relaxed and de-tensed until it felt like they no longer existed. Skin felt tighter against her face, but also like it was drooping at the same time. There was a feeling in her stomach that she could only describe as a vortex . Her eyelids were sore, felt like they were attached to weights, and as much as she would have loved to escape all of this by falling asleep, her eyes themselves stung to the point of actual pain when her eyelids shut, even if just to blink. That was from all the tears. And more still threatened to fall again if she thought about this too much.

There wasn't anything else on her mind, though.

A sigh escaped her, and her head shifted slightly. There was a poster hanging from her ceiling - The Hexgirls. Limited edition, signed, and everything. Honestly, it was something of a prized possession of hers, reminding her of the concert that she had been to. The one that sparked her love of music and grand performance. She stared blankly at it.

On any other normal day, the sight of it would give her a boost of inspiration and motivation to practice her Bard Magic. To pick up an instrument, to figure out what she was weakest at, and what she needed to practice with more. Figure out what spells worked, and which didn't. To just… Do something . To be productive in some way. To perfect her music and her Magic. To be a better Bard.

Not today, though. Today wasn't a normal day.

Titan, nothing could be further from the truth.

Today had been nothing short of absolute garbage.

And even that was an understatement. Skara slung her left arm over her eyes, letting out a frustrated groan. The events of the day flashed before her again, and she tried to make sense of it all. What… Happened? How did any of this even happen?

Everything seemed to be going… Fine before today, she had thought. There wasn't even anything in particular that came to mind that she could pinpoint as a moment when things began to fall apart. One minute, everything had been… Fine. And the next, it just... Wasn't anymore.

Ves and her had tip-toed around one another for how long? Months? And throughout all of that, nothing had come up like this. They had been to Grom together, and had dated for just a month - And during all of that time, nothing Skara could think of had come up. She didn't act any differently, didn't talk to him in a different way to how she usually did, just….

He had even gone through the whole effort to do an elaborate Grom-posal, and she'd tried to do everything right by him - Didn't that mean... Something ?

Apparently not. And even if it had... What difference did it make now? The end result was still… This. Her in a mess, not knowing what had changed in such a short span of time.

She felt ….Drained. Like she had already cried out most of her tears earlier today, and didn't have any more tears left. She dragged her arm across her eyes, and as she did so, she felt a bit of moisture come along with it.

'Wrong again, Skara.' She thought to herself. She really was starting to get sick of being wrong today.

Feeling the moisture against her arm made her pay attention to her eyes again - They were starting to well up again, just like she knew they would if she thought about all of this again. And just knowing that it was having that effect seemed to accelerate it; now that she had noticed it, her vision became watery, and she felt the tears start to spill over more and more. Her lips quivered, and she wiped her eyes with her fingers and thumb, which met and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her teeth gritted against one another as she tried to force the tears back in.

'Come on, pull yourself together.' Her head told her, like it always did whenever she found herself frustrated with her music, or with her schoolwork, or her Magic. ' You're stronger than this. You… You're supposed to be stronger than this.'

The same voice that chastised her for not being able to perfect her crafts was not the same voice that made her feel particularly strong when she was feeling like this. If anything, it just made her feel worse, for not being able to meet the standards her mind was telling her she had to. She was supposed to be stronger than this. She wasn't, but she was supposed to be.

...But she was.

That was what Boscha and her parents were always telling her, that she was supposed to pull herself together, to ace any challenge that came in front of her.

It wasn't like this was the first time she had been sad before.

Was she really just going to let some boy affect her like this?...

…Evidently, yes. She was.

It didn't matter how much she tried - She wasn't going to psyche herself into not feeling like garbage about this. This wasn't like just having a bad day and trying to mentally kick-start herself into feeling better about it. She couldn't just… Talk herself into being happy again, or motivate herself into distracting productivity, or even just not feeling like trash. That just…

...Wasn't how this was going to work.

Turning over onto her side, Skara felt herself sigh automatically, and let out another groan of frustration. In spite of the stinging it caused, her eyes closed as she rolled over. She… Really, really…

….Really hated this.

A few seconds passed, and for a couple of them, Skara thought that maybe the stinging in her eyes had passed. As soon as she was settled into her new position though, it sparked back up again, and made her open them up again.

Willow.

Sitting on her end table, the first thing Skara saw once her eyes re-opened, was the bottle of water that Willow had given her earlier that day. It stood there, right in the centre of the table, empty, and slightly condensed on the inside. There was a single flower pattern on the side of it, as well as a few vine images towards the bottom of the plastic. A part of Skara wondered if Willow had had it custom-made.

It just sat there. And it was the only thing in the dark room that Skara's eyes focused on.

When Willow had left to finally go to her classes, she had left the bottle with Skara, apparently forgetting that she had lent it to the Bard Track Witch in the first place. After that conversation, Skara normally would have called out, or said something to tell Willow she had left it behind, but the truth was that she was still upset and in something of a daze, and didn't even realize herself until a few minutes later that it was still next to the wall they had been leaning against. So, Skara had been left with it for the rest of the day.

She could have just left it there, but… There wasn't any telling what could happen to it there. Who might come and steal it. Or if Willow had even noticed that it had gone missing. So, Skara took it. And tomorrow, she'd return it.

That… That was the least that she owed her, right?

I know what it's like to want to curl up and cry too.

Skara's eyes managed to squeeze shut, the stinging be damned.

That was the other part of this entire mess of a day that had accumulated into… This state she found herself in. Willow, what she had done, and what she had said.

Of everyone that could have seen her, and actually cared enough to stop and ask her if she was okay, Skara hadn't expected… Well, she hadn't actually expected anyone to find her, or had wanted anyone to find her. She just wanted to be left alone, somewhere no one would be able to see her. She didn't expect anyone to find her, and even if they did, she didn't expect anyone to care enough to ask why she was upset.

Willow had stopped though. Asked what was wrong. And even though Skara had tried to get her to go away, she just… Wouldn't. She seriously tried to figure out what was wrong… But she didn't push, either. Didn't try to pry information out of her. Just… Let her speak. Let her vent. And then tried to cheer her up. To empathise. To...

….A part of Skara wanted to be mad at Willow. To be bitter. That would be easier .

What did she know? She was half-a-Witch Willow. She didn't know. She didn't...

. Half-A-Witch Willow; the person who until just a couple of months ago, had been at the absolute bottom of Hexsides social hierarchy. Half-A-Witch Willow; who couldn't even do Magic properly. Half-A-Witch Willow; who had been subject to Titan knew how much crap from pretty much everyone around her, including Botha and Skara herself.

Half-A-Witch Willow; the one person who would have had every excuse in the world to ignore her. The one person who she didn't expect literally anything from.

And the one person who tried to help.

Boscha had hardly cared. And they were friends. And that was just….

...That was just how friendship worked.

It would be easier to be angry at Willow, but...

...A small voice in the back of her head told Skara that if anyone was going to know, it was Willow. Any attempt she made to be mad at the Plant Witch failed within just a few seconds. She just… Couldn't.

And Titan forbid that Boscha ever hear that, either.

After Amity had left Boscha only grew bitter, the snide remarks on Willow and the rest of her friends only increasing as time went by. The fallout from the little Grudgby match that they had against Willow had only made it worse. Boscha's pride had certainly taken a hit, and that was… Having an impact, to put it lightly.

Not to mention Willow's speech during the Owl Lady's near petrification...

It seemed everyone was talking about Willow now, a fact that infuriated Boscha to no end. Bo and Amelia had given up trying to placate her, all of them just waiting out Boscha's tirades.

There was probably going to be one about this whole situation with Ves too, Skara realised. Another low, deep, guttural groan escaped her.

That, or Boscha would gloss over this in favour of whatever gossip was big that day.

Hopefully the second one.

Once more, she turned over, hoping that somehow, it would help her escape into sleep.

It didn't, though.

The screaming of the bell was far too loud for Skara as she dragged herself through the hall. It felt like someone was shoving needles straight through her ear-drum, and she had to actually cover her ears as best she could to try and block the noise out even just a little bit.

Normally, she hated that bell even on a good day. Her hearing was sensitive as it was - She was in the Bard Track, after all. If you wanted to get anywhere in the Bard Track, you had to have good, well-tuned hearing, to be able to hear the small differences in cords of instruments. A natural downside of that though was that loud, sharp, screaming like the Hexside bell always got to her worse than it seemed to for other people.

Today though, honestly, she was debating if just being hit in the face with a brick would be less painful.

Everything seemed heavier today; from the slow trudging of her feet, to the way her eyelids seemed to resist her efforts to keep them open, to her bag, almost pulling her body to one side; and it all seemed to be due to the empty bottle of water that was weighing down her bag.

It could also have been the precisely two hours and thirty nine minutes of sleep that she had gotten the night before, spent instead tossing and turning, laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling, trying to, in vain, make some sense of the events of the day.

But it was probably Willow's water bottle.

She had just finished storing her books inside of her locker when the teeth of the locker next to her slammed shut, making the upset, exhausted, and barely awake Bard twitch in surprise with the loud, sudden noise.

"What's got you so jumpy?" Boscha's voice came from next to her. Skara turned to see the Witch leaning back against the adjoining locker. She was still wearing her Grudgby captain jacket, despite the season having ended a few days earlier, and going through what set of claws she was interested in wearing today. Right now, she was on flames.

"N - Nothing. Nothing, just... Not a lot of sleep. I was up studying for the Bard test later this week." Skara lied, and tried to pull together her composure. Right now she really… Didn't want to deal with whatever fallout would come from if she told Boscha the actual reason she was like this. She didn't have the energy to deal with that.

Boscha narrowed her three eyes at her and for a moment, Skara felt a small part of the back of her brain freeze up, wondering if Boscha had seen through her small lie. Or already knew.

The look lasted for just a few seconds though. And then, Boscha gave a small grunt before shrugging.

"Well, at least you're over that Fez guy." Boscha checked her nails again, only half in the conversation as she snapped her fingers, a spell circle appearing and changing her nails into longer talons. "Hmm, better."

A sigh escaped Skara - A combination of relief that Boscha hadn't noticed, slight exasperation that Boscha hadn't even bothered to learn Ves' name had not, in fact, been 'Fez', and in depression at being reminded of that entire situation. Especially in such a… Flippant manner.

Boscha had been there when Ves had broken up with her. She had pretty much watched that entire exchange go down. And that had been it, really. Just watched it go down. And she did express her sympathies after it was done, but left her on her own the moment that they had to start heading for their classes. And now, it was like in Boscha's head, everything was over now. Like it had already resolved itself.

Still, it was about as much as one could expect from Boscha, Skara supposed. It didn't mean she liked the Potions Witch being so… Dismissive about it though, even if it was preferable to a tirade. She wished there was some sort of middle ground that she could expect.

This was about as good as it got though.

"...Yeah." She muttered, quietly. Of course she wasn't over it though. That wasn't how it worked.

But it wasn't worth starting an argument over.

Leaning back against the lockers herself, Skara let out another exhale, and let her eyes close. She let herself just stay there for a short while, and just be… Still. It felt like the first moment of stillness that she had gotten since yesterday. She really was exhausted, physically and emotionally, and today hadn't even begun yet. They hadn't even had their first lesson of the day yet. She had an entire day of feeling like this to look forward to.

The bag over her shoulders suddenly felt a lot heavier.

"Skara?"

Opening her eyes again, Skara blinked when she saw that Bo and Amelia had arrived at some point, and Skara hadn't even heard them approach - And for a second, Skara wondered if she had actually just fallen asleep while standing for a short while. It took her brain a few seconds to properly register that her friends were in front of her, and that she should probably actually say something to them.

"O - Oh." A lethargic Skara eventually answered. "H… Hey."

"Are you alright?" Amelia asked. There was a degree of worry to her voice.

"Yeah, I'm - I'm sorry, I'm just tired." Skara answered, rubbing her eyes with one of her hands. "Just -"

"She means about what happened with Ves." Bo said.

That made Skara blink awake. "How did…"

"Everyone is talking about how he dumped you." Boscha spoke up, before turning back to her nails. "I'm surprised you hadn't noticed."

Blinking just once, Skara felt her stomach drop. Really, she hadn't been paying even remote attention to her surroundings at all ever since she'd gotten here, being more focused on trying to be actually awake. She took another look at Bo and Amelia, like she was silently asking them if that was true, but the look on their faces alone confirmed it.

By chance, she saw someone just behind Amelia, who looked like they were looking over. Like they knew about what happened. As soon as they realized that she could see them, they looked away, trying to look like they hadn't been looking in the first place. They did know.

How many people had been watching her since she had entered the building?

Skara's gut felt like it froze over. She knew that the rumour-mill always moved really fast - she'd watched it happen probably hundreds of times at this point, saw how brutal it could get - but that everyone had already heard by now…

As if she didn't feel like garbage enough as it were.

The sound of laughter made her eyes dart over, to the other end of the hallway. In her current state, her mind instantly assumed that it was laughter directed towards her, and instinctually snapped towards it -

Willow was standing by her locker, and her group of friends was surrounding her. She was saying something, though what it was, Skara couldn't hear from this distance. She could see Willow though, miming something as the rest of the group broke into another round of giggles.

...Oh .

So that was how it had started so quickly.

It… Wasn't a surprise, honestly. It shouldn't have been, anyway - Skara wasn't sure why it was. Of course Willow would take the opportunity to gloat over the fact that she had found her crying. That made sense.

That was how this worked. It shouldn't have been a surprise.

Now it was going to be all over the school within a week, if not a day or two, and she would have to deal with the fallout and everything that brought with it. Anxiety wriggled throughout her whole body. It felt like worms were in her gut.

"Ugh." Boscha's face twisted into an irritated glare. She was watching the scene play out in front of them just like Skara was, clearly more invested in that than whatever conversation was happening beside her. "Why anyone pays attention to her of all people is beyond me." Boscha then summoned her scroll, flicking through it and, if Skara had to guess, started typing a quick status update for Penstagram. Probably admonishing Willow in it - Indirectly vague-posting, of course. For plausible deniability.

Another round of laughter came from Willow's friends - Now the Plant Witches face was red, either from laughing too much or from embarrassment of some kind. It was impossible to tell which.

"...Hey, um…" Skara started to ask, extremely tepidly, towards Bo and Amelia, "What… Did you hear, exactly? About me and Ves?" She… Needed at least a rough idea of how bad things had gotten.

Amelia and Bo glanced at one another, before Bo answered. "The rumours haven't gotten that bad yet. We just heard that he broke up with you and that you didn't show up to Bard classes."

Again, Skara blinked. That was it?

"You were too good for him anyway." Boscha suddenly said, though still with a distanced tone.

A forced chuckle escaped Skara, and the fake laughter grated against her ears, but there was a slight bit of legitimate relief in it too. She had… Expected much worse right out of the gate. But maybe that was just because Amelia and Bo hadn't heard the full rumour. Maybe it hadn't fully circulated yet.

Or maybe Willow was just screwing with her.

"Why, what happened?" Amelia asked, the worry sounding up again. "Is it worse than that?"

"No, it…" Skara sighed. The anxiety and tired irritation built up inside her again. "...I don't want to talk about it right now. Just drop it, okay?"

Tearing her eyes away and walking away from the group, another sigh escaped her as she prepared to go through the day and face whatever humiliation that would come from Willow finding her during a moment of weakness.

Nothing happened.

Nothing major, anyway - There were a few people who she could tell were looking at her, but nearly all of them gave her a wide berth, and didn't look in the least bit amused. Granted, pity wasn't much better, but it was better than just being mocked. Heck, even the number of people who were just glancing at her were far fewer than she had expected.

Her first class went by nearly completely without incident, the only thing of note being her teacher asking her if she was alright when he realised that his student hadn't written a single thing in her notebook, and reminded her to pay attention. That was the closest thing to anyone even acknowledging the situation between her and Ves.

A couple of people did seem to notice in her Bard class later on in the day. She caught sight of a couple of people who were looking at her while she exhaustedly attempted to play notes with her harp, but that was it. If Skara were less paranoid, she might have even put their looks down to the fact that her drowsiness was making her miss notes she normally wouldn't even slightly struggle with.

Notably, the Human - Luz. Willow's friend - Didn't even seem to pay her any attention at all. She barely seemed to acknowledge Skara's existence whatsoever. She even walked past her and didn't even glance. Just passed her by to pick up her Bard instruments, and began to practice. Just like normal.

As the day progressed, Skara only got more and more anxious and frustrated; she heard nothing at all about her. The longer it went on, the more convinced she got that something would happen. That before lunch, or at lunch, something would happen that made this explode.

But at lunch, nothing happened either. People just went about their days as normal. Like the rumour didn't exist at all.

The rumour definitely did exist though But no one was saying anything to her now. No pity, or laughter, and barely even a small glance.

Nothing.

Where were the knowing glances? The giggles barely hidden behind hands coupled with knowing pointing? Where were the people asking stupid, sarcastic questions?

She almost wished that it would happen - Just to be over and done with it.

The further the day got with no sign of anything wrong, the more anxious Skara grew. It didn't make sense; the rumour was definitely out there - That was how Bo and Amelia had heard in the first place - but it was like no one was acting on it, like it was barely even a blip on the radar. After what had happened between her and Willow though, what Willow had seen, it should have been more than that, and the fact that it wasn't - It didn't make sense.

Eventually, she broke off from Boscha after lunch had finished, and took off toward her next class early, determined to get through the day so that she could return home and curl up again. Maybe she could actually get some sleep; sooth the headache that was raging behind her eyes. She was only half lying to Boscha earlier; she did have a test to prepare for soon, and before she could even think about that, she still had to actually process yesterday in her head. The last thing she wanted to add onto that list was a splitting headache and a paranoia streak.

Not that she could do much about the latter, though.

Every time there was laughter near her, she jumped, half whirling around to see if the person was staring at her, as if this were the moment it all came to hit her in the face. Each time though, the culprit wasn't even looking her way. She rushed through the hall, chewing on the inside of her lip as she kept her head down.

It - It had to be at her, right? The laughter had to be at her. Look at one of Hexside's top Witches, fallen from grace. Her uniform felt itchy, her eyes heavy as everything suddenly seemed to be too loud for her. Everyone could see that she was in disarray; her hair was probably roughly pinned, and her eyes had obvious bags around them. She looked a mess, and even she knew it.

Any second now it would all come crashing down. Any second -

Too wrapped up in her thoughts, she didn't see the other person coming down the hallway.

"Oof!"

Her breath escaped as she ran into someone, stumbling backward and looking up to see none other than Willow.

The Plant Witch was rubbing her shoulder from where they collided. For a half second, her eyes were focused on the shoulder in question, and didn't look at Skara. As soon as that half second passed though, they sought out the culprit, and blinked when they realised who they had run into.

"Oh! Skara." Willow... Acknowledged. The two stared at each other awkwardly, Skara's eyes darting around as she realized they were alone in the hallway. They didn't say anything for a few seconds, both as lost as the other as to what to say. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you. Are you okay?"

Skara didn't reply - Instead, remembering the one debt that she did owe Willow, she dug in her bag, pulled out the water bottle that had been weighing her down, and thrust it towards Willow.

"Here." Her voice was rushed, pushing the word out - And it really was an effort to push it out.

This worked - She could just give back the water bottle, and get this over with; move through the rest of the day without having to worry about this water bottle reminding her of her breakdown yesterday.

"...Thanks." Reaching out to slowly take the water bottle, Willow searched Skara's face. The bags under her eyes, the way that her eyes constantly darted around, the speed that she spoke with, and the urgency in her voice. Willow blinked as she took the water bottle, and then asked, "...Are you okay? I… I know yesterday must have been rough on you."

The weight that the water bottle had caused Skara didn't fade in the slightest.

Why? Skara just blinked, dumbly, not sure what to say to that. Why? Why was she pretending to care? Sure, yesterday she couldn't just ignore Skara crying - Her conscious or whatever wouldn't let her - but now?

After she almost certainly had spent the whole morning telling all her friends about it, using her new popularity to get back at her?

What was the point? Why bother? Why pretend ?

Willow asked again, "Skara? Are you - "

"Who did you tell?" The Bard finally snapped and just outright blurted out, the words coming before she could really even think them through clearly. She resisted the urge to clasp her hands over her mouth, both immediately regretting her decision to speak, and feeling her desire for answers force her to pay attention.

For a moment, there was total complete staticness between her and Willow. Nothing moved, and neither of them breathed. It actually seemed like the rest of the world stopped moving too, since no one else was around to shatter the moment's stillness.

When Willow finally did move, her expression morphed into one of abject bewilderment.

"...What?" She sounded shocked and confused, her eyebrows scrunching up in confusion. Her eyes narrowed, and one eyebrow rose above the other. "Who did I - What?"

A second passed, and Skara blinked again. Normally, Skara would call out someone for playing dumb in this situation, but the way that Willows face shifted, the way her voice strained and twisted, and the way she stammered over her words -

She legitimately had no idea what Skara was talking about.

Somehow though, that just made the feeling of franticness that had been building inside her begin to boil over. "Yesterday! Who did you tell about yesterday? Was it Luz? Amity? Why do people know about what happened with me and Ves and - And why isn't anyone asking me about what happened when you found me?"

"I… Have… No idea about the last two things." Willow flatly stated, blinking as she tried to even process what Skara had just blurted out at her. "What - Whatever those are, I don't know, but - Why in the Titan name would I ever tell anyone about our talk?"

Again, she sounded legitimately confused - Like the idea hadn't even occurred to her.

….It hadn't, had it.

"You were crying and in distress!" A sudden franticness of her own had entered Willow's voice, like she was concerned that this was even a topic that needed to be talked about. She was clearly taken aback, and trying to figure out what exactly Skara meant. "A - Am I supposed to just tell everyone about that?"

"Yes!"

It came out as a yell.

Willow froze, and Skara did too. For a solid fifteen seconds, neither of them moved or said a word. All Skara could think of was that she was thankful more people hadn't been around to hear that.

There was a look on Willow's face that she couldn't even begin to describe or decipher. Her eyebrows were furrowed, but curled upwards. Her mouth was hanging ever so slightly open, and there was a… Something in her eye that she couldn't quite place. Shock? Surprise? Confusion?

After the fifteen seconds were up, Skara's shoulders slumped, and she let out a defeated sigh. "That… That's just how it works."

"How… How what's always worked?"

"...This!" Skara's arms flung open. "Hexside! School! This whole… Thing! People talk about the bad and the embarrassing things that happened to the people around them and then everyone mocks them and the person who told everyone gets social points! That - That's how this all works! That's just what happens!"

That was how Hexside had always worked for Skara. Pretty much every day was a drama circle where people would bicker about small, stupid things to try to get one up on each other and gain some kind of social standing. And something like what Willow had, what she could reveal to people about Skara - That was a proverbial goldmine! It was just how Hexside worked .

How it would work with Boscha… How it did work with Boscha.

"...Why?" Willow asked.

"It… It just does."

"Why, though?" Willow asked again. "What exactly means it has to work that way?"

"It… It doesn't - It doesn't work like that!" There… Wasn't a reason. It wasn't physical. It wasn't like there was a series of events that meant that this was how things worked. It didn't make sense, but it just… Was, and Skara didn't argue that. "It… It just... Does."

"...Maybe that's how it works with you and Boscha…"

Skara lifted her head to look at her.

"...But that isn't how it works with me. Or how it should work at all."

And again, Skara just blinked.

Was... That even an option? It had always been such an ever present force that Skara hadn't thought to even question it. Everyone around her always seemed to work this way. Wasn't that just… How it worked?

But she couldn't find herself doubting Willow here either - Somehow she just knew that she was being genuine here.

"...Maybe you should... Think about that." Willow tried to give a small smile, her lips barely quirking up. It quickly fell though, as she saw the…. Bewilderment on Skara's face. For the second time today, and the third time in two days, Willow asked, "...Are… Are you okay?"

There were a half dozen questions that ran through Skara's head now.

How did Willow just… Not take part in this? It was ever present - You couldn't just… Not be involved in it, Skara thought.

If it wasn't necessary then… Why was this how Boscha worked?

Why didn't Willow just… Tell people?

...And if she hadn't told people about her and Ves, who had?

Today though, unlike yesterday, Skara answered Willow's question without resistance. But also without any certainty or conviction. Her face fell towards the ground again, and her answer came out a few seconds later, as a quiet whisper.

"...I don't know."

QuirkQuartz: This was a tricky chapter since we had to figure out Skara's dynamic, but ho boy - Hope you all found it interesting!

JuliaCorvia: Hope you all enjoyed the look into how Skara is dealing with this all. poor thing. Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed!