"Yeah. I read a few times faster than people talk and anything really glaring will jump out at me right away anyhow but give me some leadtime."

"Will do. 

I'm sorry."

Sigh. "I love you."

"Love you."

And to Wish.

Liz wakes up. Shudders, looks around - blinks at Maitimë - "what are you doing here, where are we - why am I - stop that -"

"You died. There was an eclipse without any warning -"

" - right, I remember that - why are you here, where's Maira -"

"Also died."

Her eyes widen; she stands up and looks around and doesn't see anywhere to go and collapses, sobbing.

After a couple minutes Maitimë messages Isabella - how long -

You sure you want me precogging on that level of granularity? Means I have to drop the high-level one before it runs out.

No, it's fine.

Liz cries for about twenty minutes and then tells Maitimë to go away.

"I'm sorry. You can have as long as you need -"

"I need you to fuck off and leave me along and why am I locked down -"

"Because you murdered several people, including my grandmother!"

"...there's got to be a way to bring them back, all of them, I'll figure it out -"

"Yeah, that's kind of what we're afraid of."

"You want Maira dead?"

"Yes, I do, actually, she spent most of her free time for the last decade torturing me."

"I don't believe you."

"Yes you do. You know she likes that."

"If you do what you're told -"

"And murder people for her?"

"She never did anything to me I didn't - grow from -"

"That's lovely for you. She erased all my memories to see if I was more pliable that way. She gave me fake ones. She wore the faces of everyone I cared about while she tortured me so now I can't look at them without seeing her, I remember her more vividly than anything else about my life. She made me choose how she'd torture other people. She cut off my skin in ribbons and forced me to eat it, she cracked my skull and let me try to read or write so I could realize on my own that there was brain damage, she unhooked all my muscles from the bones so she didn't have to use her magic to hold me still while she raped me - when there weren't elaborate psychological games she just left me there conscious by magic in so much pain I could never stop screaming -"

"I don't believe you."

"Yes, Liz, you do."

"You're lying, you're lying, she's fine, this is all a lie - Maira -"

Maitimë flinches. "When Isabella started reading me stories she started doing it too, just so I'd never know if I was really safe for as long as the story lasted or if halfway through she'd look up at me and then I'd be on fire - she liked fire - she liked leaving me unable to move except my head, near something sharp, so I'd gouge out my eyes with it, she knew I would, she knew I'd be hoping she'd be careless enough just once I'd manage to do lethal damage before she -"

"Stop it stop it stop it go away -"

"I asked you to kill me, a couple times, did she erase that from your memory - Isabella tried to tell you that the other kids were dead, Isabella said she always erased your memories of those conversations - do you want them all back, someone made a necklace for it, it might be a little kinder than the psionic kind which you can't take off if the clarity of all the memories is so overwhelming you just loop through them in your head over and over -"

"Go away."

"Sure. Here's the necklace. For when you're ready to know who's lying -"

"Go away."

Isabella drops it - your undiverted plan has her crying for twenty minutes and claiming not to believe you and not putting on the necklace within range.

Okay - are there ways to break the news of Maira dying that don't have her upset for that long -

Plan to try something -

Check -

If she talks her into putting on the necklace first - takes a couple tries - Liz is completely terrified and actually slightly relieved to learn Maira is dead. She still breaks down crying.

Isabella writes up the content of the successful attempt, and what results.

"Probably not going to get better than that."

Okay, feel free to solicit more granular checks then.

What happens if she says this instead - what happens if she tells Liz they're on a different planet, so she's less nervous Maira will find them - what happens if she softens that bit slightly -

Isabella relays answers as she sees them.

"All set?"

"Looks like."

So the conversation is had, and leaves Liz whimpering and clinging to the necklace and saying - "I'm sorry, I didn't know, I didn't know -" which is about the best they could do. She waits patiently. After an hour or so Liz has some more questions about what happened, is glad the orcs will get reembodied and the other kids already have, wants and receives assurance that Maitimë is okay, and would like some space, please.

Maitimë leaves.

Hug?

Hug. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. ...I asked Kib if my imagination was good enough and he said 'no but only just', so I was, you know, calibrated."

Hug. 

"Love you."

"Love you."

"Was redoing your eidetic memory a lot a mistake or just - had side effects in addition to being worth it?"