#adropofshadow

Eury can sense here aether within these waters. It is neither formless nor has it fully taken shape but even their senses can tell it is not whole. The fracturing of their world has already destroyed them; the breaking of their partner is the last fraying thread of their sanity. Eury knows how these shards work, know that when Mnemosyne's aether finally emerges from this pond it may well not even be her anymore. That it may be a new life, devoid of memory of all the adventures they once shared, the times spent. A soul that does not even know this place that had been so painstakingly carved into all that made her smile.

They know when she emerges, they may have to accept that she is gone. And that may well be the fatal blow to what remains of their heart.

It should have been them.

It was they who had so foolheartedly opposed the Convocaton's plans, that insisted they had a better answer, they who refused Themis, refused Venat and vanished in their search of better answers. If they had been strong enough to find one, if they'd been more than just bluster then—

But Hydaelyn had sundered the star all the same.

Eury still remembers that moment with painful clarity, the split second of acceptance of their fate, before the sharp yank of Emet-Selch's aether. He had reversed their summoning spell, pulled them forcibly through the rift into which he had escaped with Themis and Lahabrea. But Mnemosyne… Mnemosyne who had hidden herself away so carefully had evaded his search a second too long.

They should have been with her, they should have tried to help her! Now she paid the price.

Colour drains from this place each and every day. Eury tries their utmost to upkeep it, but their aether will not take as hers once did. They have access to this hidden sanctuary but it knows its master and it is not they. So they wait, and they watch. Watch each day as the sun overhead fades to night, as the grasses and the flowers turn a monochrome pall and the warm winds give way to stagnant air.

"I'm so sorry." Euryphaessa's whisper is the only thing to stir the water. They do not know if she can hear them, they expect she can't. "I was so determined to help you, to find a better way for everyone, that I failed to realize all I ever did was abandon you. I left you alone in this place we once shared and you endured everything by yourself. I'm sorry."

They have no means to atone, no penance that is worthy of all the ways that she has suffered. But they tell themselves, just as they tell her each and every time they come here, in the space between the heartbeats that echo in this place.

"Whenever you are ready to emerge, whenever you come back…" Whether she remembers them or not, whether she forgives them or not—