The walk back to the house was anything but quiet. Amidst the bustling villagers going about their day, Nan fairly danced around them. She would grab some article of clothing or equipment, then leave Ruuya to pay from the borrowed purse while she ran somewhere else. Between purchases, the girl would quickly rattle off names and numbers, and take off again. After the third pass, Ruuya caught onto their meaning.
Nan was picking out adventure gear.
"Oh!" she gasped, running to a building instead of a stall. "You're gonna want to protect your feet better! The ground gets really rough the further out you go." Ruuya followed behind, catching the door as it began to swing close. She wiggled her toes, suddenly conscious that besides her scimitars, her sandals had vanished as well. Nan continued to ramble, "And you don't want to get bitten by a jumping skull. Trust me, they have a nasty bite!"
Ruuya watched Nan dart over to the other side of the store. Jars filled with colored liquids lined the back shelves, glistening in the glow of hanging lanterns. In the next second, her eyes were drawn to an over-sized, double-edged sword displayed on an adjacent wall. It wasn't fancy by no means, but the sheer amount of fangs on the guard and the chipped, white spiral design gave her pause. Then there were the nicks on the blade and the discolored patches on the edges. She didn't want to even begin imagining what kind of monster could have wielded it.
Yet, despite that, she couldn't pull herself away.
Somewhere to her left, Nan kept up a running commentary. "All of these are pretty much one-size-fits-all. If it even fits you at all in the – oh! Right, yeah, George traded that to Mr. Quikson a ways back." The girl practically ran up to Ruuya's side and whispered in her ear, "George is a Lynel!"
Ruuya opened then closed her mouth, trying and failing to find words. Finally, she settled. "George?" she asked.
Nan nodded. "Yep! He says they all have names like that."
Ruuya turned to the girl, frowning slightly. "Do they?"
"Apparently, it's...some kind of joke?" she said, shaking her head as though no one could actually understand Lynel humor. Then she cleared her throat and deepened her voice, "'You'd expect Lynel to have vicious sounding names with too many "vr""- she managed to roll that - "and "kh" sounds. Perhaps a few apostrophes,' he says. 'We don't. Mainly because everyone expects that. Pummeling expectations into next week is just as important to us as beating the crap out of the next fool who marches into our territory. It's a base science, like astrology and astronomy. The small folk expect us to have names like "Vrekhos" or "Kho'aurrel", but instead they're "George", "John", "Carl" and things such as that. Single syllable, double at most, child. It's more frightening that way'."
Nan giggled. Ruuya clamped her mouth shut, feeling a headache start right behind her ears.
"That is..." Ruuya paused, then tried again. "Why? Why would such a terrifying creature come here and not attack you?"
"He protects us! In the ancient days, he attacked the village bimonthly, but Flow beat him so much that she eventually got him to simmer down and be our defender instead! He's basically her boyfriend, but don't tell her that. She doesn't like to admit that she has eyes for anyone other than Vaati." Nan giggled, hands over her mouth, as if this was the juiciest gossip in the village.
And it probably was, considering.
Ruuya stared at the girl for a moment more, before blinking her eyes and turning away. This was far too much of an oddity for her liking.
"I regret asking," she said, rubbing her eyes with the palm of her hands.
"It's okay! You get used to it." Nan nodded decisively, then unloaded an armful of things onto the counter. How had she even collected a canteen and flint so quickly? The very hairy, long-nailed creature behind the counter didn't even bother acknowledging them. It lazily looked at the assortment of items, then continued reading the book in its – his? - hands.
Ruuya decided to stop questioning so much of the world before her headache grew even worse.
"Come on!" said Nan, tugging on her arm. "We still have to getcha boots! Like I said, it's hard getting a good fit. Everyone has a different size and shape, so boots, shirts, and pants have to be custom made most days. I think you might be able to wear these, though."
Ruuya was dragged past the long tables with baskets of stones to a shelf lined with some sort of footwear. So these were boots? They covered more leg than what she was used to, and the green material would probably go up mid-thigh if worn. She had seen a rough drawing of something like it before in a book. A protective footwear made for masculine adventurers, not...not Gerudo vai. They wore sandals or soft shoes, not these...leg sheaths!
Dear gods… There would be something made for voe on her feet. Her heart raced, and her hands shook just thinking about it.
Nan placed the boots on the floor. "Go ahead! Try them on!"
Ruuya stared at the taboo footwear. She rolled her fingers, then glanced at Nan. "Uh… Are you certain there's not something else I could wear? Maybe sandals?"
Nan pouted. "They're just boots, Ruu," she said, hands on her hips. "They're not gonna hurt you."
Ruuya met the girl's eyes, willing her to understand. She knew of Gerudo culture; an explanation of why this was wrong shouldn't have been necessary. So why was this deemed acceptable?
Neither one broke eye contact. The strange beast at the counter flipped over to the next page in his book.
Nan crossed her arms, and tilted her head up. Ruuya snorted.
The silence was odd, but not uncomfortable. Nan smiled a tad, as if she knew how this would work out.
Time stretched on, the clock in the corner struck the next hour, and Ruuya thought. The more she examined the idea, the more her fear dried up like water upon thirsty ground. The prospect of wearing a voe's boot was not entirely embraced, but it was considered. She had broken one taboo already. What was one more?
A tremor ran up her spine. This was not going to end well, she knew it.
She grabbed the ends, then carefully slipped her foot in the boot. She grit her teeth. Were they supposed to be this tight?
Bracing herself against a table, Ruuya stared at her foot. The world didn't end. A yawning chasm didn't open up and swallow her.
It was simply there. And loose-fitting above the ankle.
A tiny thrill ran through Ruuya. It was a small defiance. Still frightening, and painful, but nothing of tremendous consequence. Maybe.
Nan crouched down, making a show of inspecting the boot. She hummed. "How are ya toes?"
Ruuya grimaced.
"Fine."
"You're sneering."
Gods, was she losing feeling in her toes, now? "You would be too, kid," she said, wincing slightly, "if you'd put your feet in these... How do voe stand having their toes crushed all day long?"
"Ummm...they're not...supposed to do that?"
"Not what?"
Nan reached for a larger pair.
"Try these," she said, holding back a giggle. "Trust me."
After ten minutes of trying to remove the first pair, and, at long last succeeding once the manager slothed over and cut them off, Ruuya was finally able to stretch and curl her toes again. Then the goat somehow tricked her into trying on the other boots. These, amazingly, fit perfectly. She could even wiggle her toes a little.
Ruuya lifted her foot, amazed at how snug the boot was.
A voe's boot.
Oh goddess of sands, what had she done? This was blasphemous.
"This is great! You don't even need a refitting!" said Nan. She grabbed Ruuya's arm, holding on tight. "We got everything you need from here. Come on!"
The girl let go and practically danced over to the counter, light on her feet. Ruuya followed her, thoughts still whirling and warring. She stiffly pulled out a few rupees for payment and handed them over to the hairy creature. He nodded, a smile very slowly crossing his face.
"Thank...you..." he droned, slowly. Ruuya wasn't even quite sure if he had spoken. Ruuya nodded and focused on stuffing everything into the small bag hidden under the pile of supplies. She hadn't even half the apparent necessities when she had left home, banished. A compass was unneeded when the sun gave you directions, and the stars were as familiar as the back of your hand. A jar of "reflex potion" sounded silly, and who needed a small knife when you had swords?
Normal Hylians, she guessed. Not everyone had the benefit of learning to survive day by day.
When everything was packed up, the bag was slung over Ruuya's shoulder. Nan took a step back and gave her a once over. Apparently satisfied, she nodded to herself.
"That'll do! You're all set! Well, um… Almost." The girl giggled nervously. "You'll still need Aunty's permission, but I can help ya get it out of her! She never says no to the lamb eyes." As if proving a point, she batted her lashes and pouted.
Ruuya blinked. It was kind of cute, in the same way that a child getting caught stealing candied fruit before Sun's Day Feast and then trying to pass it off as a snack was cute.
Flow wouldn't be so foolish to fall for that. No, Ruuya wouldn't seek permission. Couldn't. There was no way she could convince the old sorceress to let her go.
Nan's hand was gripping her arm again, pulling her away.
"Bye, Mr. Quikson!" she said, waving with her other hand. The voe lifted a hand, and waved slowly. Nan waited just long enough for him to stop before turning, and barging out the door.
The goat-girl wove her through the streets, practically dragging Ruuya back to the house. She occasionally giggled, uncaring of the attention she gained leading a keaton through the village.
On instinct, Ruuya pushed away the bothersome thoughts. She had plans, or at least a skeleton of a plan. It would have to do.
/-/-/
By the time they reached Nan's home, Ruuya was still no closer to executing a fast escape. Nan was too enthusiastic, wanting nothing more to help and rush things along. Alysse had invited her to stay, honoring traditions. Joshua cooked and shared their food, when he could have otherwise denied her a place at their table.
Indebted as she was, to not say a word and flee would be disrespectful. An offense not only to them, but herself. As such, she found herself treading in Nan's wake, the girl running to the stairs and taking them two at a time.
"Nan? Ruuya?" called Alysse. "How was your trip?"
Ruuya swallowed and walked up to the table in the great room where the woman now sat, deep in thought. "Yes, we're...we have returned. Nan thought it best to...take me on a tour of the marketplace."
Alysse was surrounded by small piles of books, around a half dozen cracked open in a semi-circle. The woman turned slightly in her seat, smiling, yet not looking directly at her. Ruuya noted the pair of reading glasses on the woman's beak; they made her appear older than before, wiser too. A fitting look, she supposed, for someone who looked like an owl.
"I thought you two would be gone far longer," she said, still not looking up from her work.
"Me, too." Ruuya leaned to the side, eyeing the weathered book in the center of the chaos. However, there was a sense of control to the mess; a lack of clutter. It was definitely easier to identify something on the table than it had been at Flow's place. "Did you make any progress yet?"
"Not as much as I'd like to," she answered. "I found some words and some letters of one language, but the other two still elude me. The madman who wrote this kept switching between three languages. This one is a variation of Hylian, but so old that I can't match it to anything within the last few millennia… Perhaps as old as… This here is Middle Hylian, a bit newer, but his handwriting is horrible..." Alysse glanced back up, startling Ruuya from over her shoulder. Her glasses slid down her beak a little. Alysse's eyes crinkled in amusement. "Interested are you?"
"Um..." Ruuya cleared her throat. "Can I, uh… Can I take a look?"
Alysse laughed. "Have you ever translated a foreign text before?" Ruuya blinked then chuckled to herself.
"Ah… I usually have some frame of reference, but yes, I have," said Ruuya.
Alysse waved her to come closer. Standing beside the owl-woman's chair, Ruuya was able to pick out one of the reasons the text was so difficult to translate. While every book she had ever read was written cleanly and concisely, often with block letter printing, but handwritten accounts like this one varied from person to person. Some wrote in tiny script, while others would shorthand half the words to save on paper. But all of those paled in comparison to the scraggly mess she was looking at. Sometimes the script flowed nicely, as if written with a practiced hand, but then it would shift into jagged lines, and something distinctly not Hylian.
None of it made sense to Ruuya, not even the few Hylian letters she could guess. She looked up at the owl, amazed that the woman could translate any of this diary at all. It was far beyond Ruuya's current skill. She had thought herself gifted at translating text when she lived among her sisters, but Alysse...
This was a master of the craft, and she still had not completely pieced together this puzzle.
"This is one of the cleanest pages," Alysse offered, gently pushing the page over to her. "Some others are torn or stained with so much ink that it's impossible to say if anything had been written there."
Ruuya continued to stare at the carnage. The only sign of order were several pieces of string laid out across both pages, dividing them into sections and holding them down on the table.
Finally finding her voice, she said, "He really was a madman..." She tapped the edge of the table, then looked at Alysse. "How did you know this was written by a man?"
The other woman covered her beak with a wing, and giggled. "A reliable source. This is a challenge, honestly. Others in the village can't read any of it. And I've barely pierced the surface myself despite years of practice..."
Ruuya mouthed the words, scrutinizing the pages again. Still nothing made sense to her. "Not even Flow," she said.
"Definitely not."
She eyed the owl-woman again. Alysse was visibly shaking from suppressed laughter. "Where did you get this?" she asked, "Not that it's any of my business, but for a book this ruined and poorly-kept to be even remotely legible… I don't know, something must have happened to it."
"Very astute," said the woman, taking a breath.
"A-toot?"
Alysse covered her beak with one of her wings, muffling a giggle. It didn't matter as she was immediately drowned out by cackling bah's right outside the doorway.
"Nan!" Alysse said, shaking her head.
"I didn't say nothin'!" called her daughter.
Ruuya looked between the bent over scholar and the doorway, unable to form any words. Eventually, the kitchen door opened and closed, silencing Nan's cackling.
She had an idea of why that was so funny. Veil had often laughed at her when she had first tried to learn Calatian, and later, present day Hylian. Was her pronunciation that awful?
"Nan, go help your father make dinner, please."
The girl sighed, but reclosed the door without further complaint.
"I suppose I should tell you my suspicions," said the woman once she had regained her composure. "I can't read the other two languages and he switches from one then another sometimes every other sentence or word. Even his lists are in all three. But this book... Well, I received it from Flow… And I am a trained linguist and scholar."
Ruuya took a seat across the table, feeling that this would be a long conversation. "A...linguist?"
"Not a word you know, I take it?" she asked, smiling with her eyes alone. It was an odd expression on an owl-like face no matter how many times Ruuya saw it. Alysse clucked. "Ancient linguistics were my passion as a scholar. I trained at the University of Seline in Calatia, under one of the foremost scholars of ancient Calatian and Hyrulean… Ah, well, there's little point in regretting that now. What is past is past."
Ruuya frowned, slightly. She hadn't thought about it until now, but Nan had implied that her parents had fallen into the Dark World when she was all but a babe. That had to have been more than a decade ago, and if they had been gone for so long, then all their friends, family, and coworkers would most likely think them dead.
Ruuya hadn't thought of that. Could she really find a way back when no else had? Yes, she thought, determined, I have to. They just...gave up too quickly.
"I'm sorry." The words felt strange on her tongue. She wasn't used to saying them; the Gerudo rarely apologized to each other. They were thieves, after all, hardened into stone by the desert herself. She was a harsh Mother. "Do you miss it?"
That was probably the wrong thing to ask. Ruuya felt her cheeks heat in embarrassment.
The woman closed her eyes, her expression pained. "Yes, some," she admitted, but did not go into more detail. "But this text... I've seen many documents in my time, but it is far more ancient than most that we had in the university archives, or even the great libraries at Hyrule Castle and Calatia…"
"I see."
"Do you notice the faint blue tint to the parchment?" she asked.
Ruuya squinted, then shook her head. Alysse handed her a sheet of unused paper. Indeed, next to the white paper, the pages appeared faintly blue. "Why is it blue?"
"Preservation magic," she answered. "At first, I thought Flow had done it. She is a powerful Wind Priestess, one with centuries if not millennia of experience in the arcane arts."
"But?"
"It doesn't match her residue."
This was indeed an odd conversation. Residue? What did residue have to do with magic?
"Whoever made this book originally wanted it to survive. I'm not sure that that was their intent in the end, however," she said, pointing towards a different page. This one was mainly ink stains and squibbles with only a few words jolted down in the strange, angular letters. "But they were a powerful mage, considering that their spell lasted so long."
"And the...res'due?"
Alysse nodded, not even registering Ruuya's slight in language. "The book is beginning to yellow and fray at the edges, but a book this old… Well. It should have fallen apart long ago, but this spell and a mixture of preservation herbs brushed on the pages kept it together, though the spell has weakened considerably in recent times. I suppose that's why I finally agreed to do it."
Ruuya licked her lips, glancing between the woman and the book. She opened her mouth, hesitated, then asked, "Alysse… How long have you been here?"
The owl looked down, a tired sigh escaped her beak. She looked up, then adjusted her glasses.
"A long time," she said, blinking slowly. The large father clock struck the hour, three o'clock in the afternoon. "Time works...differently here."
Ruuya felt a spike of panic shoot up her spine. "What...what does that mean?"
"We live longer because of the nature of this world and the strange forms we take," she said. "I am sure of that now, but, if that were the only difference, it would be...almost palatable."
She felt a sudden chill. She didn't like what Alysse was implying. If time moved differently, that meant any number of days or weeks or years could have passed. Everyone she knew could be dead. Jamila… What had become of her? Was she alright? Had someone taken her and…? Gods, Jamila...I have to get back.
Flow had said something about a portal or something in that palace in the mountains, hadn't she? It might hold the answer she needed, or if she found its master… No, Flow said he had already passed, but maybe if he'd left something, anything behind… It was her only hope, she decided, she needed to know.
A fool's hope was still hope.
"I...I have to get -" she said, starting to stand.
Ruuya had originally planned to wait until tonight to leave, but now - Alysse placed a hand on her forearm, a small shock, like a small jolt of electricity from a keese, raced up her arm. She slipped back into her chair, startled.
Don't judge books by their covers. Don't judge books...dear gods…! She...
"You will leave at night if you are that determined to go," said Alysse, staring at her with her light blue eyes, filled with some strange sort of power. It wasn't so different from Minia's piercing gaze.
Dear gods, she'd figured it out. Ruuya nodded, fear twisting her stomach into a knot. Alysse kept talking. "For every day that passes here, five pass there, I-"
"Why didn't you tell me earlier!" Ruuya slammed a hand against the table, disturbing a few of the pages which laid there. She wanted to do more than just that. Much more. Perhaps throw the table onto it side in a fit and dump its context onto the ground. Alysse had lied to her, she'd betrayed her trust. She had invoked the customs of Ruuya's people just to twist them to her own ends. "I deserved to know! My life...my friend..."
"Yes," she said, "you did."
Ruuya blinked. She hadn't expected that. It quenched the flame somewhat.
"But I could not allow another young woman to charge off to the palace alone without supplies or knowledge of what she will face."
"Another…" Ruuya's mouth felt like she had swallowed a handful of sand. "What...who?"
The owl sighed. "My daughter."
Ruuya stared, and swallowed. "But Nan…" she paused, backtracking. "Her older sister?"
Alysse shook her head.
Something sunk to the pit of stomach. It felt like she had eaten a whole hydromelon, rind and all. Dread? Shock?
Neither. It was realization.
"You're a scholar of great renown. Were, I mean," Ruuya began, almost absentmindedly. "Nan's your granddaughter."
"We haven't told her," said Alysse, massaging the side of her head with her fingers. It still seemed odd to Ruuya that a bird-person would have both hands and wings, like the mythical Rito of old. Then again, Nan and her...grandfather had hooves on their feet and furry hands. It might be best not to try to figure out the whims of the gods or why people had certain features in certain forms. "And we would prefer you not to."
She nodded, biting her bottom lip. What could she even say? She had never been good at comforting others, so she settled on her favored tactic.
Bluntness.
"What happened?"
The owl released a snort. "It was twelve years ago." She began to collect the pages of the journal as she spoke, placing them in a pile, then closing and collecting the reference books into another pile beside the first. Ruuya mentally did the math. That was about...forty or fifty years in the Light World. Probably. She wasn't the best with large numbers. "We - Joshua, Bast, Nan, and I - were traveling to Hyrule from Calatia, I had plans to visit the library there to translate a recently discovered volume of the Historica, believed to have come from the age of the Hero of Time."
That...was old. Ruuya couldn't name how old, but it was well before Ganon's defeat at the hands of the Hylian Champion some four hundred years ago. Except her sisters did not denote him a "hero", but a vagabond who had murdered their ancient king. Still, Ruuya nodded. The owl had moved to put the reference books in one of the shelves lining the wall, the one closest to the fireplace.
"On our way, we fell through a portal -"
"Was it made by wizzrobes?"
Alysse looked at her over her shoulder then cocked her head to the side. Gods, her back was still turned away, how the hell...right. Owl. "Wizzrobes?"
"They sent me here…"
"No," she said, resting both wings on the table, closing her eyes in pain for a moment. Ruuya wasn't sure if it was grief or just activity. Even her own mothers hadn't seemed so weak, and she was sure they were both a few decades older than this woman. "Flow opened it. Or so I think."
Ruuya's eyes widened. Things were making less sense by the minute. "But…why?" she asked.
"I...do not think it would be wise to say," she said, glancing at the journal for a moment then back at Ruuya. "Soon after we settled in the village, Bast decided to head to the palace after she heard tales of Vaati and a possible portal to the world of light. They're mere legends, but it was the only hope we had. She wished to find it, reopen it, perhaps save the village if she could and move its denizens to the world of light. She was always so headstrong..."
"Seems foolish," Ruuya scoffed, waving a dismissive hand. "For someone untrained, I mean."
Veil would have yelled at her for her lack of empathy.
"Untrained?" she said, mimicking Ruuya's tone, but harsher, more potent. "Bast was a knight of Calatia."
That was not what she had expected.
"I see," was all Ruuya could say.
"She didn't have a plan," said Alysse, weariness settling into her tone. She tied the pages of the old journal with string, sitting it on top of the bookshelf where anyone could just go and snatch it. Leaving a beautiful book like that in the open was just like asking someone to take it. Ruuya's hand twitched.
Ruuya quieted those thoughts, and stopped flexing her fingers. Alysse sighed, though whether in relief or weariness, she couldn't tell. "But she made it to the palace with little hassle."
"How long did it take?"
"Exactly?" Alysse asked, bent over an old wooden chest next to the bookshelf. She opened it, withdrawing an old worn scroll and a strange, red cloak. Then, using the bookshelf to regain her balance, she slowly climbed to her feet, a few of her joints audibly popping. Ruuya winced. The owl grunted. "Somedays are better than others."
"Oh."
"It was about a week before she returned," she said, her voice flat. How could any mother remain so calm while speaking about a deceased child? "Injured. Bloodied. Half-dead. But she brought with her this map. I wish for you to have it. Take it with you."
Ruuya took the proffered scroll from the owl and untied it. Gently, she unrolled the aged parchment, noting that it glowed with a gentle blue evanescence. Preservation magic, her mind supplied.
"You didn't tell me this story to convince me not to go?" she asked, frowning slightly.
The woman sighed, shaking her head. "You're much as she was," she said, looming over Ruuya's shoulder and studying the map. "I could no more stop you from going than I could stop Nan from taking up the sword, or the river from flooding our fields each spring."
"You didn't send the wizzrobes, right?"
She gave Ruuya an incredulous look. "I'm not a sorceress." Odd thing to say, considering that electric jolt she had felt earlier. It must've been just static then. What was the old bird drying her clothes with, Flow's oven? A lightning rod? "I…"
She turned away, shoulders bent slightly with grief. In the firelight, she saw tears glistening in the owl's eyes. Ruuya instinctively placed a hand on her arm, but Alysse pushed it away, straightening her back.
"I have to protect Nan," she said. "I have promises I must keep."
That fire. That bone-deep will to protect even while exhausted, burned out, and in pain. That was something she could respect. It was the first time she had ever seen it in anyone outside of the desert, though. Maybe a woman did not need to be a warrior or thief to be strong, after all.
Ruuya blinked. It was a realization that struck her as odd. It went against the old chant: strength through sacrifice; sacrifice through pain; pain through retribution. It had been ingrained in her since childhood, but it had never sounded so hollow as it did now.
She hadn't thought she'd find such resolve in some dusty, old scholar.
Ruuya nodded, and decided to change the topic, pointing to an odd, ovular shape on the map.
"What is this?" she asked, pointing to the word. It was Hylian, but older than the dialect Ruuya was familiar with.
"It reads "mirror" in ancient Hylian, though why...who can fathom," she answered, then pointed to another word. The ink was much fresher, Calatian, though the handwriting was so atrocious Ruuya could not read the script. "This one, well...is labeled "prison", the word under it is "Darknut"."
Shit. Darknuts? What kind of death trap was this? Perhaps if she was lucky, Bast had left a weapon or two behind when she had fled the fortress.
"Why would a...good person need those things in…?"
Alysse's eyes darkened for a moment, then she answered her with a nonchalant shrug. "This is the Dark World," she answered. "Darknuts, hinox, and such ilk are a common sight here."
Yes, that was probably a good enough answer in this realm, considering the monsters that wandered not so far from Outcast Village. Still, the doubt was beginning to sit in, nibbling at her feet. What was she getting herself into? Did she really want to die in this wasteland, alone, with no one to remember her?
Do I have any other option?
"It may be there to guard his prison," said Alysse. "Which is apparently in the dungeons -" she directed Ruuya's gaze to another ancient Hylian word, partially faded - "on the lowest level. Bast...mentioned a secret entrance in the colosseum in her final days."
"That sounds...dangerous."
The owl sighed, with her back bent and spectacles on the tip of her nose, she appeared far older. Worn, like a frayed page in an aging book. "I will not deny that," she agreed. "It is your choice to go. If you chose not to, however, you are still our guest and welcomed among us."
Ruuya flattened her lips, determined.
"I have to." She smiled bitterly, then echoed Alysse's words: "I have a promise to keep."
/-/
(Authors' Note: Alysse has a chronic illness, some days it's worse, some days it's better. This is one of the former. Vaati will be here next chapter, even if it takes us 10,000 words to get there!)