The sky above her righted itself, at least partially. Patches of blurry umber snapped into focus, and there the stars were crisp and vibrant against the black. But it wasn’t stable, it didn’t last; if she looked closely she could practically tell where [color=black]Quinnlash’s[/color] focus was, where she meant to put things back together, and where they slipped from her grasp. Far away, the stars dripped from the sky in shooting strands of silver, falling clear past the horizon, and then lapsing through it. 

“[color=black]Incredible, right? All the things we lost. All the things we never had to lose.[/color]”

The moon high above began to quake, pulling at both ends as if it meant to split in half. Instead, gradually, it became two overlapping discs, still vibrating in the distant, imaginary void, and it was impossible to discern which one lay atop the other. 

“[color=black]So long, alone. [i]Trapped[/i]. What they did to us…what they [i]made us into[/i], taking away all we could ever be. They stole love from us.[/color]”

There was a heavy sound, a long-delayed splashing of water as something cleaved through the lake. A great shadow was cast over the cliff. Standing at the edge, tall enough that its head was level with them, was [i]Ablaze[/i]. [color=black]Quinnlash[/color] stood before it, her back to Quinn, but her tiny voice was as clear as it might have come from her own mouth.

“[color=black]Hate…all they left us was hate,[/color]” she said, and with a rumbling sound, [i]Ablaze[/i]’s eye burst to life, washing them both in dark cherry light. “[color=black]It was always inside us, wasn’t it? Confused, looking for purpose—but we found that too, just like we found love. No, I…I can’t teach you how to hate them. We already know how to hate them. We were just…we weren’t ready, before.[/color]”

She turned to Quinn, practically a silhouette. A crackling like ice. Her horns split suddenly into forking branches, and a dark liquid dribbled down her scalp. The dreamscape sagged, the grass beneath them fractured and sank, the moons dropped like coins into the lake of pitch. All that remained was the bloody tide of [i]Ablaze[/i]’s eye, and the dark figure of [color=black]Quinnlash[/color], reaching out to her with a look of joy so pure, so eager, Quinn might not have recognized her. The girl’s hair shimmered white, just as it had the night before the duel with Roaki—so brief as to be almost imperceptible. 

“[color=black]But we will be.[/color]”

Then the light vanished. The void enwrapped her again, cradled her, held her close to its endlessness as if she were something precious. In that emptiness, Quinn felt the weight of a promise sink her down, slowly, gently, until she could be absolutely certain she would never be alone.

And then she woke up.