[IC Inbox -- Snowblind]

[heavensreader]

Is it worki - oh. Ahem. This is Kesara Freamon. Please leave your message here and I will call back on you as soon as I can.







Wait, is it still - argh, how do I ma-

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[majorlazer]

I don't know.

[He doesn't; it's too early, but he's back where he was, with Steph, and it could have all been a dream. It felt incredibly real, though. He looks down at his hands, and there is no blood there, there is no bruising around his knuckles. He swallows hard.]

I have no idea. But if it was a dream, we all had it.

[Putting a hand over his mouth, Zach tries his best to breathe.]

Steph and I, we're going to get going today, towards you. You gotta stay around where you are, okay? Stay put. We won't be long.

[heavensreader]

It could still have been a dream... [They've shared dreams before, she remembers very clearly. The night's experience feels utterly detached to her. What's between her and torturing a man to death? It just feels nonsensical. She is eleven, and a girl, and not even a very good spy.]

Am I still in the chapel? I think I am but I can't still see. It sounds clearer outside, I don't hear any wind anymore...

[majorlazer]

Looks like you are, yes. I woke up where I was last night, too. Like nowhere we've gone during the night actually happened. It could have been. It could have been a dream.

I went outside this morning, briefly, and the storm was gone. You should be able to move. Just go straight. That's the direction of the tunnels.

[heavensreader]

I'll ask Alexander to point me east. I know where the houses are around the tunnels. Maybe he can find them again for me.

[She's not so much confident of this, as she finds herself feeling an acute need to fake confidence. To ask no questions. To move forward with her thinking, move and not look back.]

Are you in the tunnels again? Is everything - is it the same as it was?

[majorlazer]

Yes, we are. But we're coming to you. We're moving west, back towards you.

[They are. There's something that Zach wants to be certain of, and that it's Kesara is with Steph and taken care of.

After that - he hasn't decided yet.]

Maybe you can leave Alexander on, if you're not sure, and I can keep an eye on the feed and make sure you don't get hurt.

[heavensreader]

Could you do that? [She sounds immediately encouraged even through her efforts at faking calm. She is not, in fact, terribly excited by the prospect of going outside while blind.

But she trusts him.]

Do you think you would be safe? If Steph is with you, she could help you watch out while you guide me, for anomalies and, and other things.

[Angry people who were murdered in the dream, for once.]

[majorlazer]

Yeah, Steph will help too. We'll take care of you, Kes, okay?

[He doesn't have the heart to tell her about the fact that his eyes are still fucked up, that he keeps on thinking that he needs to leave, to run away from them both to keep them safe. He doesn't know how to talk to Steph about it, and even less Kesara.]

I promise, everything will be fine.

[heavensreader]

[There he is with promises again. She means to protest, when it occurs to her that it might be for his sake as much as, more than it is for hers. She falls quiet for a while, unsure.

She doesn't want to hurt him. Never. But she doesn't want to be dismissed. Not after last night.]

What if you meet someone from the dream? Would you be all right?

[majorlazer]

Of course. If we do meet anyone that was in the dream, I'll just - I'll apologize. Make it better. It wasn't our fault, it wasn't anybody's fault. So we move on.

[We don't, really. He doesn't. But he's not telling her that.]

Will you be okay, too?