While her daughter was sleeping, Lorena quietly left the city to a deeper level of the cave. It was where the underground river was flowing towards some place no-one could see clearly. This was where most of her people, her own parents included, had their dust thrown into after their death so they could take on one last journey and eventually return to the ocean where all life began.

She hadn't been to that place in quite a while. She used to come here often to… think about the past. But she had been trying to move on, and to her it had meant gradually reducing the frequency of her visits to the River of Life until she had stopped coming altogether. Until today.

She heard Rocky's footsteps behind her as she sat on the ledge above the river, her feet dangling in the water. It was always pretty difficult for the stone elemental to be discrete when she moved.

"So", Rocky said as she sat next to Lorena. "What is on your mind? I thought you had decided not to come here anymore."

"I did. But… I've been… thinking about…"

"Who? Your parents? Her?"

The queen didn't reply.

"Usually it was one of those options", the elemental continued. "Well, quite often it was both."

"…You know me too well. While we were still traveling back, that skeleton asked if any human had made it to the Cave before, and… I think you know the rest already."

"So it's her, then."

"I thought I had moved on after over two centuries, but… I guess nothing is as linear as you want it to be. Sometimes a part of you suddenly goes a few steps back…"

Rocky put her hand on the other's shoulder as delicately as she could manage.

"You know, despite everything… sometimes I miss her, too."

This made Lorena stop starring at the river to look at her second's face to see if she was kidding.

"This might be difficult to believe", Rocky admitted. "We didn't get along that well, yes, but… I've had time to reflect and in hindsight, I was really stupid back then. She was a genuinely good person."

The queen smiled.

"Thank you, Rocky."

"No need for thanks, my queen. It is only the truth."

"I don't think you were stupid, though. As good as she was, you had every right not to like her. Or me for keeping her around. I understand this now."

Both women watched the River of Life flow, and both felt they should have had this conversation a long time ago.

After a few moments where the only sounds were those of running water, Lorena lightly tapped one claw on the ground underneath her then spoke again :

"While I was there I heard some Ebott monster was about to marry a human."

"Really? And what did everyone else say?"

"From what I've gathered, the monsters didn't seem to have any negative comment about it. The humans… had more mixed reactions."

Rocky nodded.

"Alright", she said, standing up and extending her hand. "Let's get back home now."

Lorena took her hand and stood up as well. Then they headed back to the other side of the cave. As they walked, the sounds of water were more and more distant until they were just a memory. Their conversation shifted to the present matters of their newfound relations with the people of Ebott, and how it would shape their future.

Rocky expressed her desire to go there as well. It seemed only fair to her. Lorena encouraged her to go for it.

"I will keep everything in order until you return", she smiled.

"I know, my queen."

Once they reached the castle, Lorena went back to bed and Rocky decided that the next day she would officially announce her departure to the guards and then go through the newly-built portal. She started packing her travel bag. She'd had it for a long time and never got to use it before. What to even put in it though? She didn't need much, right?

She was born in the Cave and had never gone farther than a few hundred meters away from it, and as strange and frightening as the idea of traveling felt, it was also exciting at the same time, even if it was only for a couple days.

She barely slept at all that night. Though, despite being the second oldest in the Snow Cave she was still relatively young by rock standards so one night of little sleep was nothing she couldn't handle.

Meanwhile, Lorena opened the book Toriel had lent her before she and Bubbles left Ebott, and started reading. She hadn't been able to get her hands on a new book in literal centuries, so she was very excited to discover it. She ended up spending most of the night on just this one book. Truly Toriel had great tastes. Or Lorena was just excited for any new media to consume. She considered both possibilities for a second and concluded they were most likely both true.