I wait for light like water from the sky;

[Kagerus]

Kagerus

{ and in my dreams I've kissed your lips a thousand times }

Where I expected a warm, welcoming embrace, I instead receive the stiff and tentative toleration of a relative stranger; Ilma's figure folds not around me but instead accepts my touch as if it could not be avoided. Noting that, I cut the embrace short well ahead of time, stepping back such that the gesture more resembles a chest bump than anything intimate.

Maybe she --
No, I correct myself, not allowing myself to believe that somewhere along the way I fell out of Ilma's favour. Something else must be going on.

And sure enough, the explanation comes. Bit by bit, as though to exemplify just how the memory loss impacts not just Ilma in general but also Ilma in the exact present moment. A jolt of emotion runs rampant across my face to know that the formative memories of our friendship belong to me alone now, useless there until such time that either she regains her memory or we start a friendship anew. Grief, I would call it. I grieve the loss of my dearest friend's memories.

Svedka chimes in with his own interpretation of the situation at hand, stating at last that Ilma would be safest here. "Yes," I agree, looking from the stallion to the mare. "Here is best." Despite not knowing the leadership or political climate of Tephra whatsoever (by conscious choice, of course), so far our family has been allowed to live her without a single quibble. It reminds me much of the Hyaline of Solace's youth.

Do you think in the dreamscape you could find her old memories?

"Well, it wouldn't be too hard, considering a number of those memories are mine, too," I allow, mulling the idea over with a tilt of my scarred face. "It certainly would be worth trying before heading to the mountain. Though, by the looks of things," and here I offer Svedka a scathing, prudish glower (one that is made in jest... halfly, anyway,) "you haven't been exactly racing to return to what may once have been normal. And, to be honest, I do not begrudge you that."

"So, if you would like to try that at any time, Ilma, please feel free to approach me." I offer a widespread smile. "Until then, I am just happy for us four to be here... Who would have thought. Hyaline's once-council together again.."