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Alja groaned loudly, planting her head on the table, after drinking whatever it was Seele had given her. Her head was [i]pounding[/i]. She wasn't sure if she'd slept, or if she'd been in a drunken stupor all night. Either way, she didn't feel rested in the slightest. And given that what she'd said to Seele--"[color=d1fffc][abbr=I'm sorry. I wasn't fast enough]Bha mi ro fhadalach. Tha mi duilich[/abbr][/color]"--had come out so slurred as to be nearly incomprehensible, she was [i]probably[/i] still drunk to some extent.

Not as much as she was last night, though. Bits and pieces of laughing with Graves--and crying? She thought?--floated back to her in scattered fragments. She pulled herself upright, grinding the balls of her hands into her sore eyes, and wondered what she'd told him that would have her crying.

But then again, she thought grimly, it's not like it would be a particularly strange reaction.

She wondered where Luci was. And then, strangely, she found her thoughts wandering to Leaves. She hadn't put a ton of thought into where she'd ended up; was this her patron city? In Alja's addled state, she couldn't quite remember. 

Belatedly, she realized she'd been rude, and turned her bloodshot eyes to Seele. "[color=d1fffc]Th'nks, Seele,[/color]" she mumbled out. Now that she thought about it, her headache [i]was[/i] slackening off a bit, and the room was starting to slow its spinning. She slumped down again, resting her head sideways on the table as she met the other woman's eyes. She went silent for a moment. When she spoke, her voice was quiet and bitter.

"[color=d1fffc]'S my fault.[/color]" She heaved in a shuddering breath, casting her eyes downwards. "[color=d1fffc]'F I'd been faster with th' bat--if I hadn't [i]fucked[/i] it up with th' totem room--[/color]" A sob began to creep into her voice and she broke off. She needed...needed...

Sleep. She needed sleep. But...she had nowhere to go. So instead, she just planted her head back down, and let her exhausted guilt carry her off into blackness.

When she dreamt, it was of falling snow on the Grampian mountains.

Red snow.

Snow like blood.