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Gaspi and Emmy slid onto the bench, and Taurnil took the chair next to Lydia’s.
    “Is he serious?” Emmy asked incredulously when the door was closed.
    “I think so,” Gaspi said, frowning as he tried to take in the staggering news Hephistole had just burdened them with.
    “That’s the craziest thing I ever heard!” Emmy said indignantly. “He wants us to sneak past thousands of ogres and risk our lives trying to steal some broken bits of altar? I mean, I know it’s important and everything, but why us? We’re barely legal adults for goodness sake! It’s…it’s…irresponsible!”
    “Someone’s got to do it,” Taurnil said.
    “Yes but that someone shouldn’t be us! It should be a team of experienced magicians!” Emmy insisted.
    “What do you think Lyd?” Taurnil asked. The gypsy girl had been staring out of the window, and clearly hadn’t been listening to the conversation.
    “What?” she said vaguely, turning her head to look at Taurn.
    “The quest, ” he said. “Emmy thinks it’s reckless.”
    “ Oh, I don’t know,” Lydia answered. Gaspi and Taurnil shared a look.
    Taurn r eached out and rested a hand it on Lydia’s knee. “Are you okay Lyd?” he asked solicitously.
    “ I’m fine,” she answered, turning her head and staring out of the window once more. Taurnil looked at his friends helplessly, but there was nothing any of them could say. When the fire spirit had died, Lydia had been inconsolable. Emmy had sat by her side in the infirmary until she’d finally fallen asleep under the ministrations of the healers. She’d literally cried herself to sleep, but when the gypsy girl awoke, there had been no more tears. She’d barely spoken a word since that day. She walked around with them, joining in with whatever they were doing, but she was like a ghost.
    Emmy had tried to use her powers to help her, just as she had for Gaspi after his battle with the Skelkans at the Measure. She tried to combine neuromancy and healing to soften the edges of Lydia’s painful memory, but it turned out that it didn’t work where grief was concerned. It helped with traumatic memories – gruesome or painful images that haunted or traumatised the mind – but grief was so fundamental to human existence that it had to be left to work itself out. Gaspi knew that Taurnil was fraught with concern for her, and all they could do was keep her company, waiting for her mind to heal itself over time.
    Gaspi looked at Taurnil’s worried expression and revised hi s opinion on his friend’s reaction to the quest. Under normal circumstances there’d be no holding Taurnil back. If you said the words quest, danger and combat in the same sentence he would already be committed! His care for Lydia was the one thing that trumped his thirst for action, and in that moment, Gaspi was certain that Taurnil would do everything in his power to protect and look after his girlfriend, even if it meant saying no to the quest. One thing was clear - Lydia was in no condition to go travelling into dangerous places. The only thing they could do was wait; for the elementals to return, for Lydia to recover; for some basic sense of what they should be doing. At that moment, Gaspi couldn’t help feeling they were reeling uncontrollably from the devastating events of the Measure, and no-one knew when they’d get their footing again. He also couldn’t help feeling they were burning time they didn’t have.

Three
     
    After a long day tending the sick, Shirukai Sestin was taking his ease at a beach-side tavern, looking out at the frothy breakers of the Southern Ocean. He sighed, unable to shake a feeling of dissatisfaction – a feeling that had been growing for the last month or so, and which had become difficult to ignore. He already knew what it was about. The last year and a half had been incredible, but finally, after all that time, he was starting to long for Helioport, and more importantly for Chloe.
    He looked back over the journey