Damn these blankets. The warmth that seeps into her bones, the softness tickles her fur and skin with every little breath she takes, the way they have been arranged into a safe little nest that is impossible to escape from. They steal her strength. They demand she rest. They even smell correct: the exact softeners, cleaning agents, and perfumes that she used to use back when this was her job. 

Bella groans as she drags herself out of the cocoon the Princess had wove for her. It isn't right. Home is ahead of her now, not behind.

"This isn't over, Mynx..."

*********

"Seawater?"

Bella squeezes her temple. Memories tangle themselves into knots that pull on her head with the same painful squeezing as matted hair against her scalp. What is hers? What is Mosaic's? She shakes her head, and sniffs away her own stupid question. In the time it takes her to recover the maid girl has already run off before she can be told not to bother.

She stiffens at the brush of the hand against her arm. But she does not flinch away.

"...I'll have to teach you some other time about proper vintages. But it's old, old knowledge and we don't have any time for that. No time for anything really. I'll give you a toast, but after that I--"

The hand pulls away. Bella's arm falls to her side, and her jacket flops open. She stares into the hurt, almost reproachful look on the Ceronian girl's face and the wagging tail that has since fallen still and silent. She glares at Ember, trying to crush her with nothing but the force that emanates from her eyes. But there are more memories in the shock and the hurt, and they pull on Bella's shoulders like chains.

"Ember for the love of fuck, do you not understand how much [i]danger[/i] we're in? This stupid rustbucket is older than the Azure Skies! It is huge and it can go anywhere but it is falling to fucking pieces from the inside and who do we have to keep it stuck together? Nobody! There is never a night off, don't you get it? If I'm not organizing everything and keeping us afloat, we die. I don't know if we implode in an asteroid cluster or get eaten by a leviathan or just plain got by the wounded super empire we've gone and pissed off but whatever catches us first will kill us in an instant! And after I killed the Crystal Knight in a hunt I'm not exactly eager to find out what Demeter'll do to my body when she gets it. Just... fuck! You're always like this! It's all excitement and adventure to you but you never [i]once[/i] stop and think about--"

Bella's eyes open wide. Her mouth falls open in shock. Her arm shoots out and she just manages to catch Ember by the wrist in time to keep her from dashing off. Her grip is iron, but the pressure of her thumb against that slender wrist is as tender as she knows how to let it be. Her head droops as her shoulder slump forward. This sting in her chest is going to kill her. This shame. That's not Redana, you dipshit. 

"No. I'm... I'm sorry," her voice is made soft and soothing by the pressure of her guilt, "Fuck. I've been dreaming for five years, it never occurred to me that I'd also need to rest. But you're right. If I break I can't hold anyone up. Vesper is counting on me. And Belja- I mean, and Gemini, and Taurus too after I made her all those promises. And Quajl and all of Beri and even Princess Redana, though she doesn't know it yet. And you, obviously. You... kept your promise. You came back. You even brought me a... nnnngh, maid. I'll reward that. I have to. Ok then. One night, with wine and fireworks and just the two of us. Make it count." 

The glare is back again. But this time, Bella puts just enough smirk to it that she stops seeming cruel. The stubborn, invincible aura of Mosaic is fucking exhausting to maintain, but it's what honor and a mountain of corpses and mistakes under her feet demand. Just one night. Please let it be enough.