Closed doors, open windows

With the inevitable difficult conversation with Reynir out of the way, Hildur's other task of the night was to see what she could do about getting the Finn back to his own body. Going to the Finn's dream realm, then reaching into the depths of the dream sea in which the non-mages had their dream realms, which was intended as no more than a decent starting point, turned out to be a surprisingly direct route. There were somewhat appropriate introductions to her charge and the realm's actual owner, after which Hildur brought Lalli back to his own dream realm without too much trouble. Once there, Lalli became much more talkative than he had been so far, asking her various questions about "foreign" magic, what she had done to Reynir and why, when she had brought him back while not entirely sure he understood the exact nature of her ties to Reynir. Once Lalli got all the answers Hildur could provide, he asked her if she had any questions for him with a tone that gave the impression he wished she didn't. She took him up on his offer nonetheless and ended with a relatively personal one:
-Reynir mentioned that someone shot the troll that got into the tank before it could attack him. Was it you?
-Yes.
Her heartfelt thanks seemed to catch him off-guard. She wasn't sure of the reason. She had told both him and Emil that she was Reynir's older sister upon her introduction, leaving them to figure out the details for themselves according to their respective knowledge of how things worked in Iceland. It couldn't come across as that odd to get thanks for saving Reynir's life from her. It took her a while to realize that his mind had probably been focused on the life he hadn't been able to save for at least a week at this point. She was far from being a stranger to the phenomenon, but had each time been surrounded by people doing their best to remind her of the feats she had accomplished rather than her failures. There had, however, been this one time where the circumstances had been so strenuous that neither giving comfort nor asking for it felt appropriate. She had no idea what it was exactly like to be trapped in a non-mage's dream realm while that very same person was the only one able to tend to one's unconscious body, but it was very unlikely to be the right circumstances to properly process a recent death.

What had happened between Reynir and the deceased skald's older bother had made it much easier than planned for Hildur to convince Reynir to let her replace him as the one to relay any news to him in the morning. It took meeting Onni for Hildur to fully realize that the shared last names of several of the Finns involved in the expedition wasn't entirely been the kernel of truth in the well-known "Finland. Ten thousand people. Ten last names." joke. Both Lalli and Onni had actually been close family with the deceased young woman. The fact that they had contributed to enabling people they didn't know that well to go home was now even less likely to have any meaning to them compared to whom they hadn't managed to keep alive in spite of their efforts. She made sure to mention to Onni the fact that that she had returned Lalli to his body as early as the conversation enabled her to do so. The situation, however, became more complicated when having let Reynir pour his heart out to her the previous evening turned to have resulted in Hildur knowing more about the finer details of the actual death than Onni did. Her first reflex upon realizing the facts that she had let slip were new to Onni was to ask if he wanted her to stay for a while. The response reminded her that the man with whom he was talking was still a Finn:
-You're definitely his sister. Please leave if you have nothing else to tell me this morning.

This morning, Mikkel showed up in the infirmary with a cat that looked quite young and news that Lalli had regained consciousness. The story of how his crew had ended up with it was sufficiently entertaining while being fairly easy to follow, which gave Michael something else to try reciting that evening without needing to ask for it. At some point, he realized that the fact that he got to enjoy the cat's company meant that Mikkel's crew didn't in the meantime.
-Don't worry about it. She's here because they all more or less agree that you could use a little time with her as well. Besides, most of us will have to tell her goodbye sooner or later. Provided we don't end up having to give her up to some institution, no more than one of us will be in position to see her on regular basis. I, myself, got used to never enjoying the same company for very long. Lalli never really liked her. Emil is the one who found her. Sigrun can put her in a good training facility. Reynir has contributed in ways that go beyond simply making up for the fact that he wasn't part of the plan, and we have few options to offer him proper compensation without getting him more involved in frowned upon activities than he needs to be. It's a bridge we will cross when we get to it, for now.
One comment caught Michael's attention:
- "Some institution". For me too?
Mikkel sighed:
-I honestly have no idea. The only thing I'm sure of at this point is that they are unlikely to let you go straight home. But wherever you end up, I will try to get a job nearby if the actual place doesn't want me around.
Mikkel had mentioned being on the mission because he frequently changed jobs with a hint of embarrassment. In the present case, it was a relief to Michael as it meant that there would be at least one familiar face wherever he ended up.

The others had taken advantage of the fact that being in Emil's dream realm enabled Lalli to understand them to inform him of the reasons his body was set up the way it was and the nature of the contraption Mikkel had connected to his arm. This had included what he should and should not do if he ever managed to regain consciousness. While the various aches and weaknesses where a constant reminder of the reason it was better for him to be back in his body sooner rather than later, there had been a definite downgrade in the taste of the food, his ability to understand the others and what he could do to pass time. The amount of recovery needed by his body made talking straining, so spoken Swedish lessons were immediately discarded. Getting read to was briefly considered, but Lalli's level of Swedish was too low even start trying to understand Danish. Emil finally settled for talking to Lalli about himself with anecdotes similar to those that Lalli had used to keep Emil's mind focused off the troll voices. Unfortunately, the toll the travel had taken on Emil's own body had resulted in him needing to take a nap while Lalli wasn't quite tired enough to fall back asleep. As Sigrun needed just as much rest as Emil did and Mikkel was constantly in and out of the large room they were all sharing, Lalli found himself watching Reynir playing a game that he knew to be meant for two people alone. Lalli had never cared much about how the Icelander spent his days, as long as he was available when his particular brand of magic was needed. He had never thought much about the fact that he had been spending so much time with Tuuri. After all, if things suddenly became dangerous for the non-immunes, it saved everyone the trouble of locating the two of them separately. However, Tuuri and Reynir had continued talking to each other, and at some point, even managed to share one last game of cards, even after the two of them being in the same room had turned from practical to a hazard. Now, the image of Reynir playing a game that Tuuri liked alone was yet another reminder of the fact that she was gone. Lalli remembered how he had ended up in his current state, trying to keep that giant from harming Emil at any cost despite the fact that running away would have guaranteed at least one of them would make it to camp instead of having a high risk of getting both of them killed. One of Onni's explanations of what a friend was had been that the really good ones became like family. It had taken Lalli a long time to be able to confidently use that word for himself and Emil; he was now starting to wonder about Tuuri and Reynir while not being sure it was relevant anymore.

xxxx

Both Hildur, who had more medical knowledge, and Reynir, who could quickly tell Mikkel if anything was wrong, showed up in Lalli's dream realm that evening. After asking a few questions and encouraging Lalli to report anything that felt strange to him, Hildur told Reynir that the care Lalli was getting could continue as is for now. As the two of them departed, Lalli grabbed the tip of Reynir's blue flowing sweater:
-Come back after you give news to Mikkel.
-Uh… okay.

When Reynir came back to the dream world, he found a duckwalk leading form the edge of Lalli's dream realm the closest to him to the raft in the swamp's center. Lalli was sitting cross-legged on a part of the raft that would let it hold is Reynir stepped onto it from the end of the duckwalk, which he took as an invitation to do so. As he sat down, he noticed that a chessboard was floating in the raft's hollow center. The most obvious possible meaning of that made him raise an eyebrow:
-I clearly remember Tuuri saying you have no interest in chess.
-That was before. Tonight, I want to try playing. But I don't know how to do it and you obviously do.
Reynir remembered his own reasons for setting the board up and that Lalli was very likely to share at least a couple of them at the moment. He had been recently looking for a way he could help Lalli beyond what Mikkel and Emil's combined efforts were already taking care of. If Lalli was actually asking for his help, he might as well go ahead and give it.

Hildur and Reynir had talked a little before going to check on Lalli, only to figure out that Reynir still needed a little time to think before they could have a real conversation again. The glimpse she caught of him and Lalli apparently playing a game together in the latter's dream realm only further convinced her that the time wasn't quite right to try making up for years of actively obscuring the truth from him. She suddenly decided that there was no good reason to make Onni wait until the next morning to learn of Lalli's recovery going smoothly as far as anybody could currently tell. Right after giving the news, she remembered that dream sea had been reported to be much harder to cross for Finnish mages than for Icelandic mages and asked Onni if he had any interest in being brought to Lalli's dream realm by her:
-I am perfectly able to go there if I wish. But it is still a feat reserved for strict necessity. If Lalli is indeed recovering properly with the care he's currently getting, travelling only to see him would put both of us at unnecessary risk.
What would… a couple of things suddenly slotted into place, making Hildur extremely grateful for the extra protections she had been able to cast upon Reynir over the years, and leading to a much better question to ask:
-I've been needing to dodge something that seems to be looking for specific people each time I've been coming here, on the off-chance you or Lalli were the ones it was looking for. Do you happen to know anything about that? I really don't need to know why it's going after you, I just need to know what it is so I can do a better job of making sure I don't accidentally end up helping it find the two of you.
Onni let out a sigh:
-It's unfortunately impossible to answer the second question without answering the first. It's very unlikely to be anything you heard about in that magic school of yours.