She beams and throws her fists in the air and says, "I did it!" 

She reaches into her satchel for the paper that confirm this and present it to them. 

Lurulel looks at the paper in obvious (for a Rubbery Man) shock.

<<Truly, you have done the impossible. I cannot thank you enough.>>

Tentatively, he reaches out one of his upper tentacles.

She hands it the paper. "And I got the Bazaar to forgive the Axiles!" 

He pauses in reading the paper. <<I do not know what you are talking about. But I thank you for it regardless.>>

He finishes the paper and tucks it into his breast pocket. <<They all said I would regret spending my earnings learning to read, that nothing would come from it. But now look at me!>>

"Now look at you!" she agrees brightly. "Uh, there was this thing, between the Bazaar and the Flukes, and I fixed it. Do you have the Amber on hand now, or should I come back in a while because you didn't think I could actually do what you asked." 

He shakes his head. <<It is in my dormitory locker. I will retrieve it.>> With that, he rubberies away.

"How d'you understand all that?" the Erstwhile Seeker asks idly. "I just hear wurble, burble."

"Oh, my brother taught me. You'd have to ask him where he learned it."

"Fair enough."

It's not a particularly long wait before Lurulel comes back, carrying a sack and trailing an aging woman with a gimlet eye and a mouth made for sucking lemons. "Right, then," she declares. "You're the girl who- Mort?"

The Erstwhile Seeker (Mort?) cringes slightly, then straightens back up. "Hullo Mrs Plenty," he says with an awkward little motion of his head. "I, erm. I'm not on the Seeking Road anymore."

"Finally came to your bloody senses, didja?" Mrs Plenty sniffs. "Past time, you ask me."

"Not really. A friend murdered me, then the Wastelander here brought me back without my candles and made me realize what a berk I'd been." He fidgets. "...wanted to say I'm sorry. For what I said, back then."

She waves a hand dismissively, almost smiling. "No hard feelings, lad." She turns to the Wastelander with a more appraising look in her eye. "So. Fancy yourself a miracle-worker, do you?"

"I'm not claiming any connection to the Church, if that's what you mean by miracle, but I have done a number of implausible and wonderful things over the past few days and don't plan to slow down." 

She scoffs. "The Church. No, I'm just saying you seem to have a knack for the impossible. I thought you were playing some kind of trick on Lurulel, and I was coming to give you a piece of my mind, but... I suppose it isn't actually harder to get a Rubbery Man into Benthic than to raise the dead."

"That's part of how I managed it! They're interrogating ex-mummies as we speak." 

Mrs. Plenty shakes her head. "It's quite an achievement." She turns to Lurulel. "Well, I was wrong. You've my blessing, lad. I'll send to Flute Street for your replacement, but in the meantime you're free to go. We'll all miss you, though."

Lurulel hugs her unexpectedly. She shakes her head. "Come now - oh, alright -" She pats him on the back awkwardly.

Awwwww. 

"Flute street?"

"It's where the Rubberies live when they're not up here," the Male Specimen contributes, still in his skimpy Anatomical Exhibition costume. "Won't be the same without you, Lu, but it's a damn fine thing - come on, don't I get a hug too-"

There are Rubbery hugs all around (including for Lucy if she wants one), following which Lurulel hands over the sack of Warm Amber. It weighs almost four stone, and it emanates heat like a wood stove.

Lucy would love a hug. Once such goodbyes are all finished, she takes her sack of amber and Mort and heads to the Prickfinger Wastes. 

"Turn around, I have to take my clothes off," she tells him. 

He blushes and turns away promptly.

She disrobes and transforms and picks up her things and says, "Alright, climb aboard." 

He carefully makes his way up through her vanes and spires, perching eventually in a relatively clear space with his arms around a mini-minaret.

And she scuttles over the sharp stone until she reaches the clearing that contains her house. 

"Dr. Vaughan! I'm back with the Amber! And I learned so many things!"

Dr. Vaughan leaves the house and takes the Amber and the valise.

"Oh, excellent quality Amber - what did you learn?" she asks.

"The Bazaar is a person! And Rubberies are the creations of beings called Flukes and the Bazaar was mad at the Flukes but I fixed it and the Bazaar promised to help me socially rehabilitate the Rubberies! And I can cure dead Seekers of their Seeking! Also I know some things about why Seeking is even a thing. I got a Rubbery named Lurulel into Benthic in exchange for the Amber, they were so excited, it's great."

Vaughan blinks. "I hope they take one of my classes, that would be quite exciting. And the Bazaar is - of course, those structures on your shell, I thought they reminded me of something! It always looked strangely organic, but I never imagined - well, I'd better tend to Clarabelle - oh, who's the gentleman on your back?"

"This is Mort, who isn't a Seeker anymore." She helps him down and then turns back and starts dressing. "And the Bazaar is my grandparent, apparently." 

"Charmed," Mort says once he's on solid ground.

"Equally so, I'm sure," Dr. Vaughan says. "In my opinion as an occasional medical professional, young man, you need to eat more."

"I was possessed by a spirit of hunger for three years, and dead for another," he says off-handedly. "Does things to a body."

"Yes, well, start eating more, or I'll look at you quite reproachfully," Dr. Vaughan threatens.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good." She turns to re-enter the house, the sack over her shoulder and the valise under her other arm.

Lucy follows her. "Mum! Mum! I learned so many things about my heritage today!" 

"Ooh, like what?" 

"Like the Bazaar is my grandparent and they love me and they want to meet you!" 

"--What?"

"I was surprised too! But I went to the Bazaar to chew out Fires and the Bazaar recognized me as their kin and loved me from the first, it's wonderful!" Hugs. "Also I healed them from something the Flukes, which created the Rubberies, did, and they've agreed to help me rehabilitate them socially!" 

"That's wonderful." 

"I know!"