Did I not tell you the story? It was Men reaching the Moon that made us realize there was a point to being alive...and he sends the memory.

You hadn't told me that.

I'm very, very glad for you to have had something to live for before I came back.

It was really good for us. If it hadn't happened Imliss would have never run into Curvo, we didn't interact with humans...we were fading...

She shudders and leans against him with one ear pressed against his chest to reassure herself of his warmth and solidity and heartbeat.

He has all three.

You needn't mentally prepare to leave or anything, it'll be another century.

Yeah, okay. God bless the space race, that's all I can say.

It was so courageous and silly of Men! I loved it!

It's amazing, what we've managed to achieve.

And how fast. Fifty years from World War I to the Moon - that's the time we spent in Formenos - if we invented like Men -

Different infrastructures.

I know.

Well, that certainly explains why Curufinwe was bothering to go through university.

They know things we don't. They learn so fast. As a collective, I mean.

Well, there's a lot of us.

Yeah.

...Also frequently more willing to take risks. And, uh, I think a lot of recent human advancements were war-derived.

Crossed my mind, yeah.

I'm not glad the wars happened. But. If the end result is that I got you back--

I wouldn't choose to make that tradeoff. But I have a hard time being sorry that it happened.

I mean, at some point I might have poked the soul thing. I didn't do it often, hurt too much, but I might have.

She got herself killed and left a gaping wound in his soul.

If ifs and ands were pots and pans...I'm just glad I have you now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ambarussa stop by to visit a few days later.

"Hi! ...Wow."

Amras is only half-visible, and only that because he's trying. Both of them give off the impression of something fey and terrifying. "Hi, little sister! How's the castle? I was going to make fun of you for bankrupting the family but I'm completely sure it was Tyelcormo's idea."

"Hey! It totally was, is that just sibling teasing or should I be working harder to talk him out of that kind of thing?"

"We are not going to go bankrupt but I hear this world has, like, problems or something, which money could fix." Amrod hugs Tyelcormo. Amras waves at him.