"Thanks. Is that the kind of sword you know how to use?"

He hefts it. It's longer than he's practiced with, and feels lighter, but "I can manage."

"Great. Anything that lets you actually leverage that rock-breaking strength."

He keeps it down by his side. It doesn't quite drag on the ground, and that's really all he's asking.

...footsteps? Approaching?

Footsteps approaching, along with a light source. Then –

"Mil? Lu!"

"Pietro!" Lucia throws herself into a hug.

Susanna traces her fiend-sight spell, because the people you most want to see often aren't real, this close to the Wound – but they are. She sweeps Emilio off his feet into a tight embrace.

Somewhere in his mind, a snag of confusion – but gods, it's hitting him all at once that they're not dead, and he's crying again, in relief.

(And a little bit in pain. His chest still hurts, and Susanna isn't being quite careful enough.)

"I know you," Anevia says to Pietro. "Irabeth told me when you started training under her. These are your siblings?"

"Yeah. Yeah, they're all younger but they've got magic – except Mil, he's just – Mil."

Speaking of which, hugs for Mil.

It has been enough hugging that Emilio is going to make a semi-involuntary noise about the pain.

"Oh – shit, are you hurt?" He lets go and looks at the dark bloodstain across the front of Emilio's black shirt. "Shit. That looks bad. I should heal you, hang on –"

"It's... ugly and painful but I don't think it's going to kill me," Emilio says. "You should save your healing."

"Fuck off, are you joking?"

Pietro lays one hand on the wound and pushes a jolt of healing through it. It's better than Lucia could manage, even if it doesn't heal him all the way.

Gods it feels nice to have less constant ravaging chest pain.

"You still should've saved it. I was up and walking."

"Su, am I this annoying?"

"You're much worse."

"...thanks, though," Emilio says belatedly. "Really."

"You're welcome, obviously. Mrs Tirabade, where to?"

"We're trying for the surface. I assume your entry-point to these caves is no more climbable than ours?"

"Right in one, sadly. We've got some food stockpiled – Pietro hunted one of those great lizards, and I collected some mushrooms, and we had his rations to work from."

"Water's the bigger problem, but that's not nothing. Emilio, Lucia, are you hungry?"

"Yeah, actually. More than I'd've expected."

Possibly related to rock-moving and arrow-throwing, neither of which he particularly wants to hash out with his older siblings at this time or ideally ever.

"Let's see how the lizard cooks, then."