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"Look," he begins, "not that I expect I'd find this convincing in your position, but -" and then the ground shimmers under them and half a second after that it's not there at all.
They fall.
The ground they hit instead is cold and muddy. The stars are exceptionally bright, and close overhead.
" - what?" says Ryan.
Alex doesn't answer him. Alex is looking out into the darkness, horrified.
It would admittedly be a stronger argument if he hadn't been in the room but he doesn't remember the conversation he had with Karen about that. Probably private, anyway.
"I'll go once she's awake. I just want to - watch her pulse just in case -"
"Normal, normal, everything looks normal.
Do you happen to remember why you two decided not to get married -"
" - big commitment, and we didn't know each other that well," he says. That sounds ridiculous when you're holding a baby. Had it sounded less ridiculous at the time? Maybe he hadn't been as ready to be a man as he'd thought. But the important part was now - now, and the next year, and the next twenty. "I - I do mean to. I'll talk with her about it once she's awake."
Baby-snuggle. "Sorry. 's not the time. Just a little on edge. And you started it. I'd have been - here - if she'd wanted me here -"
"I know. Sorry. I know you would've. I - I don't see her that way.
I told Matt, the first time I mentioned her, that it's like I have a little sister now. So - it's my job not to like you, but not because I'm jealous."
Eventually Karen wakes up. She blinks. She remembers - completing the spell, yeah, the thing she passed the torch to did everything right, and then something happened, and then - right. Right, she got thrown across the room. Awesome. But it - it's over now. She did it.
" - did it work?"
"Oh, good," he says with relief. "Yes, she's alive and well, everything's okay."
"OK," she sighs, and then feels like that's actually kind of a weird way to answer that question. " - the spell worked?"
"Hmmm? The healing song seems to be working fine on both of you."
"You know. The thing. The spell to seal Melkor away?"
She looks over at the corner of the room where the circle was. There is no circle. No candles, no offerings, no anything.
"Karen Teller. You're Ryan Beckworth, that's Wishbone, that's - technically Tyelcormo but presumably the Tyelcormo from thirty thousand years in the future who we are continuing to call Alex for purposes of disambiguation."
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