(Morgan's even more nervous than she is. In a sense, he's never been here. Not in this body, anyway.)

She knocks.

"Su-Yeong? What - where have you been? What happened? How do you have magic now?"

"It's a really crazy story - can I-"

The little goat shyly looks up.

Tobi opens the door wider, gesturing.

"Of course, of course - I've been so worried, what happened-"

She steps inside, breathing out all the stress that had built up. Tears prickle in her eyes as she sighs - she's home, really and truly.

As Tobi shuts the outside door, footsteps approach the living room.

"What's goin'…"

"Susu? You're home!"

Su-Yeong nods, rushing forward to scoop up Peony.

"Yeah, I'm home. Have you guys had dinner yet?"

"I was about to get started on it, actually. Guess I'm cooking for three tonight!"

Su-Yeong helps Tobi prepare the food. He's obviously curious, but gets the hint the first time she steers the conversation away from what's happened to her and tells him "later." Dinner passes similarly, both adults content to let Peony tell them what she did today.

Once the dishes are put away:

"Pea, why don't you go play with Morgan a little before bed?"

(At "Morgan," Tobi looks up.)

"Oh, Su…"

Suspicion!

"You're not coming along?"

Su-Yeong chooses her words carefully.

"I gotta tell Tobi about some scary things that happened to me. I can tell you in the morning, if you still wanna hear. Besides, Morgan's a part of me, and he can tell me what you did after."

Peony finds this mostly satisfactory!

Tobi sits down next to Su-Yeong on the couch, once Peony's outside.

"So, what happened? I went home after - you got fired - and it was empty. And Peony hadn't seen you, or - or any of the other staff…"

"I… did come home first. But - when I looked in the mirror, my eyes were…"

She closes her eyes, flares her magic a little, and opens them again. For a moment, they're a husk's eyes - glowing so brilliantly that the pupils are white and everything else is red.

By the time she continues, the change has faded.

"And I knew that I was - a husk. A monster. I couldn't possibly go outside, because they'd kill me. And I couldn't face you and Peony, because… I was angry. I had magic, and all I could think of doing with the magic was marching right back up that hill and murdering the whole Vasillia family. So I - ran."

Tobi nods slowly, putting his arm around Su-Yeong's shoulders.

"Okay… but now you have normal magic? This didn't happen to Morgan - the human one, I mean - I don't think?"

Headshake.

"No, I - that's the crazy part. I swam out to that island, the one with the forest, and… waited to die. I knew I couldn't survive for long, that I'd probably burn myself out, but it seemed like the best solution. Because I didn't want to be killed by the guard, or to hurt someone innocent on my angry revenge quest. And then, just this morning, a girl showed up."

"She's… not from around here. Really not from around here; she's got a totally different way of doing magic. She was able to use that magic to…"

"To un-husk you?"

Another headshake.

"Not completely. But she was able to… peel Morgan and me away from each other? Before, we were both trying to use my body. So he would take control, sometimes, and I wouldn't remember anything that he did. She did some magic with - runes, she said - that let Morgan be in his own body. It isn't perfect, but…"

"But you're home now."

"Yeah."

Su-Yeong leans happily into Tobi's warm body.

"She's out investigating some stuff she was curious about, right now. Gave me a miniature phone in case we need to get in touch with each other. I think I'll wait until bedtime before I call her, if she hasn't already before then."

"Sensible. So, what's next?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. I wanna get a magic teacher, but I don't know where to start looking, y'know? I'm not exactly about to ask the Vasillias - I probably wouldn't be able to afford anyone they knew, anyway. But - I dunno, apparently I have really strong magic now, so I want to make the most of it."

It's then that Peony opens the door.

"Hey, Susu, your friend is outside. Can we let her in?"

(Su-Yeong remembers that Hali's phone-rock can find hers.)

She smiles at Peony, standing up.

"Yeah. Thanks, Pea."