[b]Mirror[/b]

“Very well, you’ve won. You have me, and I will do as I’m told.”

Marcina takes your hand. Without hesitation or reluctance. This is not to say that there is no fear in her face. No, from what you know of Terenians, and the feeling of her pulse as you touch, she is quite nervous. Her heart beats swiftly and her brow is furrowed. Even still, she cannot read you, even still she sees the leaf that might blow her any which way. But if before she sought to cow the wind, now she has surrendered herself to it. Not without trepidation, but she has overruled it and surrendered. Utterly, completely. Take her as you please, show her what you will, in this moment she is yours. 

***

[b]Dolly[/b]

Slate cocks her own head. “I meant questions about my work, but that’s not what I said. She’d pin me for that. That’s what you ought to know about her, Dala Hunters. She is powerful and she is strict. With herself more than anyone else in the world. She has given her heart and soul to her dreams. Dreams that shouldn’t be possible. Dreams that she clings to without ever being satisfied with everything and everyone else who comes to her. But who she needs nevertheless. She needs the biggest family in the world and you’re part of it now.”

She grins again, and you get the impression that you’ve already been hunted down and devoured. And then, well, maybe you have. 

***

[b]Isabelle[/b]

Even here, help is not long away. Rescue drones fly up from below to help you down and to gather the remains of the Emberlight. Little enough remains of it. The sniper round incinerated most of the core systems. But the drive is still in its protective casing surrounded by melted slag, and the lower third exists more or less intact. So there is salvage to recover and something that can be made from this yet. Eventually. Though let’s be honest, even with nanobots assisting you, creating a new Emberlight (if that’s even what you want now) would be the work of the better part of a year. 

There’s also the matter of your own numbness. The sudden daze of feeling sensation cut from your lower body, and then the shot, so fast that it felt like you were stabbed in the chest before the feed cut out entirely. No warning lights blare because there’s nothing left of the automated systems to blare them. There is instead quiet. The gentle rush of the wind through turbulent clouds alone with you as help comes to get you.

You’ve seen into the heart of Solarel, but before you could get there, you were blocked by something dark and terrible. Reflect on what you have found.

***

[b]Solarel[/b]

Where are you?