“I see.” Freyr nodded thoughtfully. She pasted a bit of steak with one of the delectable sauces decorating her plate and popped it in her mouth. The meats were genuinely delicious, though slightly thick-cut for her taste. She washed the bite down with a sip of the full-bodied wine that’d been paired with the meal.

“Hmm, good question. I don’t know.” Freyr was genuinely stumped. For over ten years, her entire life had been dedicated to understanding the mysteries of the Cradle. She’d never really considered any world without it in. “I’m not sure ‘it’ will be over in my lifetime. There’s still so much we don’t know about the Cradle. Not least, why it’s been...snatching people and acting so aggressively of late.”

Freyr took another bite of steak, combined with some of the small side salad. “I won’t lie to you. Part of me is screaming: ‘Find them and get as far away as possible!’. But my department, the government, they need me. Without our research, who knows what will happen inside the Cradle; the situation is so unstable it's anyone's call right now. As for Outremer at large, well...a loss of control could be catastrophic. I won’t let that happen.” Freyr’s jaw set defiantly.

“Hopefully, there is something on Rothia that we can use.” She mused, after a couple of seconds, chewing on another piece of steak. Talking and laughter wafted over from the other table on the balcony. "We just need to get at it."