[72] [action/voice]

[silversnowfall]

[Taken silently within a few hours of one of her oldest friends disappearing, she didn't even have her journal on hand to chance an explanation. A quick one. It was too fast and too late and she was gone.

Over a week later, she wakes up in a greenish forest near some tended shrubs and trees - a cherry tree, says her thoughts, with no basis at all - and tries her best to look nonplussed until she can figure out what in the world is going on here. This is no Keterburg, and she's sure she went to bed in her quiet, frozen hometown just a few hours ago.

When she stands, slow and unfamiliar, one supportive hand brushes against a book bearing her name. So she opens it. Reads things from people she suddenly recognizes, all at once understanding the journal and the forest and the wings again.]

Luceti? [The word comes as a distant almost-whisper. In the journal's camera, Nephry is wide-eyed and scattered for an uncharacteristically long time; when she does regain her composure, she can't keep the surprised note out of her voice.]

Luceti? I...don't understand. How long...has it been since I left?

[[ooc: Thanks to some excellent genes, it may be hard to tell that Nephry's gained about ten years, physically, in the week she was gone. But she has - and has ten years of life and changes on Auldrant in memories to go with them! And ten Auldrant years is a very long time.]]

Comments

[distressedude]

[If it wasn't clear enough by the look on her face, that pause says a great deal more. Ten years was a long time -- in truth, longer than Ion felt he could truly grasp given his age -- and to put that much experience in words couldn't be easy.]

...you know, I've never really asked about the future of Auldrant before, all things considered. [Even knowing it was a future he'd neither see nor truly be a part of, how was it any different from reading the Score?] But even so, that's... a relief to hear.

[silversnowfall]

And I won't tell you much of it, unless you want to know something specific. Though there are some things you might want to be aware of, all the same.

[There's nothing for it but to be blunt and quick and try to hold off any odd feelings about talking to the ghosts of a past who knew a past Nephry.]

I remarried after my first husband's death.

[distressedude]

[There was a strange seniment associated with that sentence, in that for a moment he's not sure whether to feel sorry for the passing of her first husband or congratulate her on the marriage to her next.]

[Though perhaps instead it's simply in the fact that she felt the need to bring it up at all that instead compels him to ask:]

Oh? Is it anyone I would know?

[silversnowfall]

I think you met, once or twice.

[Okay, now the fact that this is still blush-worthy for her says a lot.]

He's an old friend.

/slides in here late hi hi

[distressedude]

[A-Aww, blushy Nephry. Now he's curious!]

I imagine whoever he is, he must consider himself lucky. You seem very fond of him.

[silversnowfall]

I think he had better! [She actually laughs. Hard to imagine laughing at a story with such a sad beginning and middle.]

It's Peony.

[distressedude]

[There is a definite look of surprise on his face at that -- Peony? He never imagined that would have gotten together! Though Ion's fairly blind when it comes to noticing the feelings of people around him sometimes. The romantic ones, at least.]

[But the surprise quickly turns into a smile instead.]

My, I never would have guessed! Congratulations, Nephry. [And then, with a bit of a chuckle himself.] Or perhaps I should be saying Your Highness, now?

[Cause, you know, married an Emperor and all.]

[silversnowfall]

Please don't. "Empress Nephry" is bad enough and if I had my way he would make a law to abolish titles altogether.

...You didn't know about us? We were...together, as children.

[distressedude]

I was only teasing, Nephry. [Though perhaps it's a little too soon after her arrival for that.]

...were you? I admit, I had no idea. I knew from Jade that you were childhood friends when he was staying in Keterburg, but not much more than that.

[silversnowfall]

We were. Things got in the way, but...well. We're quite happy now.