Fire opened the front door of the tavern, letting Lucy in first then following right after her. He was very thankful that most of the tavern's ceilings were high enough that he didn't have to hunch over.

He turned to Lucy. "I reserved you a room upstairs, I imagine you'll want to get some rest. I will come talk to you tomorrow, it's best if you take some time to clear your mind."

Lucy wordlessly took the keys he gave her. Fire interpreted her continued silence less as fear and more as being overwhelmed by the sequence of events she had just experienced. He gave her a smile before she disappeared towards the staircase.

Fire decided to go to the inn, maybe some of the others were still there, he wanted to tell them what he had seen. The Ender showing up at the Prophet's hill, looking for the escapees was a matter that was much more immediately pressing to the others than to him.

The door to the inn was tall but not quite tall enough, after lowering his head to get through Fire took a look around. There was the usual amount of patrons, some of them familiar, the only one he recognized by name was Shadow, sitting at a table drinking what looked to be red wine. She saw him as well and waved. Fire sat down next to her.

He asked: "I assume you saw what happened at the hill through your projection?"

Shadow took a sip and nodded. "I probably should tell you about what happened here in the meantime. We had a meeting of sorts in one of the rooms, discussed the nightmares. Destiny just straight up accused Fristad, seems like she saw something last night. She generally doesn't seem to be doing well." She sighed. "She almost burned Fristad with magic. I might have to think about modifying my soundproofing spell with a dampening field so that can't happen in the future."

Just as Shadow finished speaking, the door flew open. In came Destiny. She looked across the entire room, didn't find who or what she was looking for and promptly left again. Through the closing door Fire saw her going up the stairs to the rented rooms.

"Speak of the devil," Shadow said.

Fire asked: "Anything else noteworthy?"

Shadow shook her head. "No, not really. It was what you would expect from such a meeting. Kay leads the investigation into the Dreamweaver, everyone else voices their support."

Fire prepared to stand up again. "As much as I'd like to sit here with you and maybe get some of that wine for myself, I'd rather try to talk with Destiny. I don't really know her but I want to make sure she stays at least reasonably stable."

Shadow replied: "Have fun, don't get stabbed."

Fire smiled as he stood up. He slowly went up the narrow staircase and into the corridor. If he remembered Destiny's room number correctly she'd have the fourth door on the right. Lucy was now two doors further down the corridor.

Fire knocked on Destiny's door. At first there was no reply, instead of knocking again, Fire waited a few moments.

The door opened slowly until it was open just enough for Destiny to fit her head through the door. Destiny looked at Fire with a mix of annoyance and worry. While these emotions were not directed specifically at Fire, Fire could tell that Destiny was not in the best psychological state.

"Hello Destiny." Fire said. He now had to choose his words very carefully in order to avoid sounding insensitive, he also decided to completely leave out what he had heard from Shadow. "I'm Fire, Kay and Warnado's friend. I don't think we were ever formally introduced. I apologise for disturbing you." She nodded slowly, clearly expecting him to get to the point. "I was at the Prophet's hill again today. The Ender conducted a raid of some sorts, looking for the escapees. You should be safe for now since nobody gave up information."

She scoffed and gritted her teeth: "Okay. Now, how about why you're actually here?"

Fire nodded. "You got me there. I still haven't really gotten a full picture of what exactly happened after I left the Tower. I don't really know where the others are, so I thought you could help me out with some of the details."

Destiny's demeanour grew grave and she lowered her eyes. She grumbled something but acquiesced and opened the door to her room, letting Fire inside before closing the door behind her.

"Well, I don't know when you left the Tower, so I guess I'll start at the beginning," Destiny sighed, tone starting out mockingly upbeat before shrivelling into bitterness. "David and I found a portal from our world leading to Nexus. We knew there was an evil force on the other side. So, we did the heroic thing and went through." Destiny drifted off ruefully. "We were in Nexus for five damned minutes before they had us in a jail cell. We were kept in a room alongside Tyron and Astro. Well-furnished. They wanted us to talk. We didn't oblige and tried to escape, so they dropped the act. They separated us, shoved us into cells and tortured us for information. Then, Kay recognised Astro and got Warnado to free us. During the fighting, me, David and a few others found ourselves fighting against a group of heavily armed endermen. Things went to shit real quick. David and I were surrounded, and…" Destiny's voice choked up but she fought through it, rage treading sadness into the dirt. She pressed on in a tone of escalating, wild fury that she struggled to repress: "David shattered his gauntlet, causing an explosion. He killed a lot of them, bought us time to escape the Tower, but… he died. Burned half-"

Fire interjected calmly: "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I would know, I lost people I cared about as well."

"Tough shit, we all have-" Destiny stopped herself, before sighing and offering in concession: "So, you know what it's like."

Fire nodded, unfazed. "It was not entirely the same situation as you. While the one I loved was among those lost, I was never sure if the feeling was mutual. There is also the fact that I was the sole survivor of the event that killed them, only by sheer coincidence."

"Okay then, you don't really know what it's like." Destiny stared off with a mix of disappointment and anger. "Listen, I get you probably mean well, but it doesn't change the fact that David is dead." Destiny tried to regain her composure. "But at the same time, you don't seem the sort of person who takes things lightly. So I guess that means something."

Fire said: "It would be a lie to deny that our situations are different. The reason I am bringing this up is that I hope that you eventually do get over everything, however long that may take. I know this because I got over my losses eventually too. But there is something else that didn't go away. You see, after the incident I refused to talk to anyone about it, refused professional help, even when it was readily available. Instead I just looked for things to distract me, at first it was exercise, then academic study. Over the years I just projected my negative feelings onto someone else, someone that I created. I know enough about psychology now to know that that was a bad idea, pretty much the worst thing I could have done. I was human back then, but when I became what I am now that other side of me grew, got a life of its own, and now I have to keep it chained down wherever I go. So, Destiny, what I'm trying to say is: Don't do what I did. The loss eventually fades, but whatever you do to yourself stays with you, even when you live thousands of years."

Destiny's eyes widened. She glanced at Fire for a brief moment in fear, and then her expression became lucid. She nodded and returned to resigned concession. "I understand. At least… I think I do. But, I don't know what to do next. I feel like I don't have a purpose. We were reincarnated across multiple lifetimes to fight alongside each other. To… love each other. Now, we're out of step. He died. I'm still here."

Fire nodded again. "I understand that." He paused, deliberately. "Listen, purpose can help but purpose alone can't fix you. That being said, if you promise me to try not to let emptiness devour you, I might be able to give you a new purpose. At least for a while."

She said nothing but didn't object.

"When I was listening to the Prophet they said I was the champion of some prophecy. In truth, that could be anyone with the right abilities filling that role; the prophecy just makes the people believe it. Anyways, what I'll be trying to do now is create a shelter for as many people as possible. I could use all of the help I can get. Your skills in magic and combat certainly would help, conflict is not out of the question and we need capable people to act as mentors." Fire paused, he was unsure about what he was going to say next but decided to risk it, even if mentioning the nightmares might have unintended effects. "After this nasty situation with the nightmares is resolved, you could join me. What do you say?"

Destiny's eyes lit up desperately, but she suppressed it. "I'll think about it. Might be better than being cooped up in this village."

Fire turned towards the door and prepared to go, he said: "It was nice talking to you Destiny."

As the door closed behind him Fire took a deep breath. That had gone much better than he had hoped; their group might just pull through this conflict relatively unharmed.