"Growing up I thought I was like him but then we went to war and that was better, it was real, you could lose, and then we did lose and when we came back war had gotten worse, just stupid children all around, trying to do the right thing. And then I come back here, where war was good, and - it's still just stupid children all around."

This is really sort of an unnerving thing to say, given that Spike feels like he is probably the sort of person who really appreciates - not war, war is all uniforms and ranks and rules and reasons, but fighting, violence, the uncertainty of having your back against a wall and knowing that you didn't rig the odds in advance and that if you get out it'll have to be because you're actually just that good.

"Seems that way."

The new Quendi castles look much like the old Quendi castles. Maybe a little less pretty and a little more utilitarian, but only if you're looking very hard for a point of comparison. 

When they're nearly there someone tells Alex that there's a girl and a dog here claiming to know him.

Why didn't - never mind. I want to see her.

The version of Tyelcormo you know wants to see you.

She stops writing notes. (The floor has been absolutely covered in notes, about what's happening and about what she remembers Alex saying about this place and about a bunch of random science concepts she's been trying to draw back out of her brain, in addition to the prayers and the not-panicking and the things Wishbone has said and the doodles that she drew when she got bored.)

OK. Am I coming out or is he coming here?

You can come on out.

Oh. OK.

She doesn't know that she looks super presentable, after two weeks of no showers, but she redoes the bun in her hair and gathers her notes into a pile so that the study doesn't look like a crazy person's been living here, and she tentatively attempts to open the door.

There are Quendi to escort her out to a courtyard. And there is Alex, looking exhausted, and a human she doesn't recognize, and Spike and Drusilla, and a lot more Quendi.

Karen.

So for the record I didn't mean to come here, we were just gonna do a spell to get you back, except it didn't work and it dragged us here and now I have no idea how to get any of us home and I guess as rescue missions go I would classify this one as not super successful.

- I'm really glad you're like alive and stuff.

I really wish you weren't here. He does not hug her like he feels that way.

Hugs hugs hugs. She's so glad he's alive and so glad she's not alone.

Yeah. Sorry about that.

I'm OK, though, apart from the being stuck here.

's good. We're okay too. Made it out. Spike's - friendly, turns out, when he'll obviously die if he annoys you.

Huh.

Well. Weirder things've happened.

Hug hug hug hug. Are there prospects of getting you out of here?

Very enthusiastic hug.

Not so far. Michael and the others don't seem to have been dragged through, so I'm sure they're trying things on the other side, but obviously no dice so far. Wishbone knows about some portal spells but he doesn't have the materials he'd need and he doesn't remember the specifics of how to do any of them anyway.

I'm sorry.

It's that bad here?

It's real bad here.

Hug.

I'm sorry. I'll keep asking. Maybe Wishbone'll remember more at some point. I've remembered lots of stuff I didn't know I knew while talking about cellular biology and subatomic particles and stuff, so - who knows.

It won't really get that bad in your lifetime anyway, but - yeah. Keep trying.

There also might be no way to tell for sure from here whether there is a 'back'. If this is really the past - and it might not be, it might be, I dunno, a different universe that's like ours but running behind - then, uh, we might've already messed things up enough to rewrite the timeline such that - I mean it might all be fine but I'm not actually a hundred percent certain that the world we came from actually exists anymore.

- Sorry. I can be more cheery if you think that'll help more.

That occurred to me too but it makes a lot less sense if you came through hours after we did, why wouldn't things have changed immediately? 

Yeah, we empirically didn't all immediately cease to exist. I don't really know how time travel works in real life, though.

Maybe the others'll get us back.