The exact set of people in the library changed a bit over that time but the librarian priest is still there, reading something herself.

"Excuse me, would I be able to bring a few books back to my room?" Edmund asks. "It's... presumably... getting a bit late."

"Certainly! Do make sure to leave them in your room or back here before you leave, though."

"Of course!"

Back toward his room goes Edmund, with Oni-Goroshi back at his belt and several books in his arms.

As he's crossing the main hall of the temple, he runs into Dona and her guardian.

"Oh. It's you," she says, although it's more tired than it is derisive. "Abandoned by your summoner already?" ...her heart just isn't in it, though, it's clear.

"Well, yes. I'm not actually enrolled as his Guardian, at least not yet, and apparently they don't let random refugees into the trial chambers."

"Not a guardian? Just a groupie, then?"

"I do also help kill things. And provide invaluable moral support."

"Traditionally I think groupies are more of a parasocial thing," Oni-Goroshi muses. "Zei might be too nice to have proper groupies. He'd just end up befriending them or telling them very earnestly to give their attention to something more productive."

"...what just said that?" she asks, looking at the sword but not like she's confident in her guess at all.

"Oh, sorry. Oni-Goroshi, goddess of blades and purifying flame. ...the sword, yes." Teal flames flicker across her edge as she says this.

"To be clear, swords don't talk as a rule where I'm from either. She's a bit of a mystical edge case."

She doesn't seem to be able to come up with something scathing or insulting to say about that. That's just too weird.

"If it helps any, the concept of a revivification spell was almost as bizarre to me as Oni-Goroshi is to everyone here! When far from home the sky is not the same... or, you know, whatever the idiom is in this language."

(Is Edmund trolling her? Maybe! [Yes.])

"...why am I wasting my time. Barthello, we're leaving."

"B-but... Dona..." He looks anguished between her and Edmund, clearly not wanting to go but willing to follow her to the ends of Spira if she wants him to.

"...I'm reasonably sure it's the middle of the night, milady Summoner. If you want to stop talking to me there are easier ways."

"Self-centered much? I was already on my way out."

"I am inexpressibly self-centered. But I'm sure it's easier to navigate the jungle by day. Are you just that intent on making it to the next temple in the least time possible? Because another saying my people have is more haste, less speed."

"I," she says, drawing as much haughtiness as she can manage, "want to know if my family is still alive—" But she can't keep it up, and just looks away from him again rather than let him see her weakness.

"I'm sorry. Still, if you can wait 'til morning you'll probably make almost as good time through the jungle, at far less risk. If your family's still there to grieve, it's worth a sleepless night making sure they don't have to."

"Don't tell me what I cannot do. Do not presume to know what risks I should take. It is my life, not anyone else's." She's not walking anymore, though.

"Dona..."

"I'm really not telling you what you cannot do. I'm giving you advice, and" - you're getting pissed off at me because you know I'm right doesn't accomplish his goals - "you can take it or leave it."

Pause. "And I'm not talking out my ass. I've been in your place. At least you're going to get your answer."

She folds her arms, turning to face him fully again. And she almost says something mocking but—there's something in his eyes, in his voice, that says he actually means it. He does understand at least some of it.

"...I wasn't there," is what she says instead.