((Epic massive collab with
Tiger and
Thorn))
Doormat didn't like the way things were going.
He hadn't liked the way they were going for quite some time. Seeing Laurie again had been nice, and her magic-eye-disappearing-man-friend too; but that didn't change the fact that the clocktower had burned down, children had been shot and killed in the streets, people he actually sort-of-knew were dead, and now...the crowds were whispering about change, in more of a "yes, it's actually happening
now" tone than usual, and that was...unsettling. With the Council gone, who was supposed to look out for the people of Melville? Who was going to let them know what they needed to do?
And so it was that he ended up on the western side of town, well away from the centre of these changes he was powerless to stop, staring at the Wall and all its disorderly markings and wondering how- even if Agnes and Will seemed okay with developments, even if Gwen had outright applauded the news- anything was going to actually
get done in town, besides more arguing, and arson, and murders and probably looting and mugging as well; with no Council to remind them all that this was very much
not what good-honest-upstanding-citizens did.
* * * * *
Thankfully, it turned out that Kahroo
could understand Kree’s words. It said something in response to the shadowkyne’s mention of Reyaah, but one of the words in particular struck Kree. Through the haze of general understanding in its speech, there was a mention of… death? No, not quite. Something indicative of a fallen friend, a bodiless soul.
A nervous pit formed in Kree’s stomach. What could Kahroo mean by referring to its friend in such terms?
Before the shadowkyne could contemplate on that much further, the human spoke again. It was a simple enough utterance, a question regarding Reyaah’s friendliness that Kree was happy to confirm. After a few moments, Kahroo said something about leaving the city and mentioned Reyaah again, but before it could complete its thought a loud crash sounded behind them.
Kree and Kahroo ran after that, ducking around corners and keeping to less-traveled paths as the Wall, somehow at once merciful and ominous, loomed ever closer.
Aerona felt like her heart was pounding - a pretty nifty trick considering she was pretty certain she didn’t have a heart at this point. Even as fast as the perception of a beat was, she noticed a strange rhythm to it, like water lapping at the shores of the Island.
She was usually slow and careful in her escapes from the city - but then, she was usually in a city where life was predictable and orderly and exploitable. With parts of the city gutted by flames or destroyed by riots, some of her usual hiding spots were gone. People were scattered about everywhere, and all of them were jumpy and scared, or jumpy and angry, or cautious and armed, or - well, they were on the lookout for movement. Especially in the shadows.
Their only advantages were the shadowkyne’s natural camouflage and enhanced hearing - at least, Aerona was pretty sure it was hearing distant things when it pricked its ears and edged away from directions that otherwise seemed innocuous - and the fact that Aerona’s fireflies, while definitely
glowing, didn’t seem to cast any actual light beyond the ghost’s immediate area. It was a little disconcerting to see the glow create subtle patches of lighter color on her semi-transparent skin even as it made about as much impact on the shadows around them as a wooden spoon on the bricks of the Wall. Though that still wasn’t quite as unnerving as the times she tried to lean back against a wall only to realize she was phasing through it, feeling only a slight resistance from the wood - no stronger than if she were pushing against water.
But there was no time to dwell on those discomforts.
You’ve seen weirder. ...This is just the first time you’ve been
weirder. They
had to get out - or the shadowkyne did, at least - so Aerona narrowed her focus to the paths; which routes might still be clear and which were likely to be unguarded, what streets the hidden service tunnels were tucked away on, which properties had the highest fences with the smallest gaps between the planks... The Wall gradually took the place of the sky up ahead and looming over, and there were enough gouges and grooves in the stone and mortar that Aerona hoped the lizard-like Outside creature would be able to climb.
Before they had quite reached it, Aerona was startled by a sudden tickling on the back of her neck. Something was crawling there - she reached back instinctively to swat it away, but her hand passed through the firefly with only a searing of heat through her fingers. What in the
Wall?Doormat saw something out of the corner of his eye, a blur of movement accompanied by...little sparkles? He whipped around as a figure darted out of a nearby alley, and recoiled as she very nearly passed right through his left arm. But she didn't look quite like the others, she looked more like Coriander Nix, or...
Another ghost?!Aerona jerked back in surprise, her hand dropping from her neck. They were in
big trouble now - Aerona didn’t have her gun and probably couldn’t have grabbed it even if it had appeared in front of her - the defensive magic wasn’t flooding into her arms, either. Then Aerona realized she could see the buildings and streets immediately behind the man.
He was semi-transparent as well. The tickling vanished from the lantern-makers neck; had that just been a sign of another ghost’s presence?
Kree only hesitated for a fraction of a second before following Kahroo out of the alley. Though there were fewer shadows here, the area was also free of other people --
-- or at least, other people besides the faint-looking human that Kahroo had just run right through.
Kree’s panic lasted only a moment before its eyes quite literally lit up in excitement. “Reyaah!” it cried, bounding up to the friendly human. Pausing a moment with a thought, it turned toward a nervous-looking Kahroo to chatter that it was all right; this was the friend it had spoken about.
"Oh...it's you!" Doormat exclaimed, smiling briefly in spite of himself and crouching down to better converse with the friendly-shadow-spirit-creature. Not that there was much conversing to be done with a creature which didn't speak a word of his language, but...it just felt like the right thing to do. "Where have you been? I think maybe, um-"
Remembering that they had company, he quickly glanced up. She looked familiar somehow, perhaps...of course, she was the lantern-lady! Something...Tolbert? She'd been on his list, too. But, then again, so many people had been. And nothing had even come of it all, so...and now she was dead too.
"Um, hello," he said, a little more awkwardly than intended. "I...like the glowing-things."
Aerona blinked. “...Thank you? They’re fireflies. I didn’t put them here, though.” Not the smoothest reply, maybe, but this
was her first experience with ghostly small-talk and introductions. And anyway - “
You’re Reyaah, you’re the one it’s friends with?” She frowned. “...Who are you, exactly? That can’t be your real name.” She wondered if she ought to give her name first, or even in turn; who knew whether word of her being Resistance had spread yet, or if this ghost had heard it? Aerona was fairly positive this man wasn’t one of the people the Resistance had...targeted, at least - but if he had been executed by the Council, he might still blame the Resistance for creating the circumstances leading up to it. Admittedly, he wouldn’t entirely be wrong...
Doormat tugged absently at a lock of hair.
What did she..?"I'm ah-
Reyaah? I don't...does it call me that?"
He stood up quickly. "I mean, well, you can call me that as well. If you want. But I'm Doormat, mostly. So that's okay too."
“Doormat?” That was an odd name - maybe it was actually a nickname, though why he would prefer a name that implied someone who would put up with people walking all over them to whatever he had been born with, Aerona didn’t understand. But it wasn’t as if that was the weirdest thing she had heard or seen today, so she just went on with the conversation. “Yes, it called you Reyaah.” After an awkward pause, she added, “I’m Aerona. Kahroo, if you prefer shadowkyne names.”
Kree trotted around the two humans as they spoke. Kahroo had dropped the shadowkyne pitch as it conversed with Reyaah, but that was all right. Kree could tell from their movements and tone of voice that they were getting along… Well, perhaps
fine wasn’t quite the word (they both had a sense of nervousness about them), but they seemed to be getting along all right. The shadowkyne sat down beside the two and pricked its ears, listening half to their conversation in hopes of picking up a few human words and half for possible intruders nearby.
(It was strange, now that Kree thought about it, that both of its new friends made such little sound unless they were speaking.)
Doormat glanced down at it, then back at Aerona, or...’Kahroo’, but he liked ‘Aerona’ better. She seemed friendly enough, and if she was with the spirit-shadow-being then...well, she couldn’t be
bad, right? Maybe she’d come here for the same reasons he had. Maybe the lantern-lady, too, wasn’t entirely happy with how things had turned out.
"So...it's your friend, too?” he asked. “I meant-uh, wait...you can understand it?"
Aerona, her mouth pulling up on one side, said, “Sort of. I’m not...fluent, I guess - I can’t translate word-for-word. But I get the general sense of what things mean. It doesn’t want to hurt anyone,” she assured Doormat, though probably that wasn’t necessary since he referred to it as a friend. Glancing back at the shadowkyne, the lantern-maker added, “It says you two were Outside the Wall, and then somehow teleported in? I have…
so many questions about that, but since the city’s sort of running amok with guards - I think we need to get…”
Doormat shifted his non-weight out of habit. Why were they concerned about the guards? Were more of them supporting the changes than he’d first thought? Unless she was mistaken and talking about the normal guards...he supposed he would find out soon enough.
Suddenly realizing something, Aerona turned to the shadowkyne and her voice dropped in pitch again. “I don’t think I asked - what’s
your name?”
Kree perked up at Kahroo’s return to shadowkyne pitch. Its name? “Gaa Kree!”
I am called Kree, it replied. After a moment’s thought, it added, “Kraa gaa-ii Reyaah?”
What do you and Reyaah call yourselves? Kree now felt quite silly for never asking this question of the human who understood it… though it supposed it couldn’t have known Reyaah’s true name until now, and for a time both of them had had bigger things on their minds than full introductions.
“Its name is Kree,” Aerona told Doormat, before considering the shadowkyne’s question. She wondered if it could pronounce their names...though so far it seemed like they shared many of the same sounds, even if the shadowkyne’s were a bit...shriekier.
“I’m Aerona. This is…” Looking at her fellow ghost, Aerona slipped out of shadowkyne pitch and said, “It asked us our names, too. Doormat is what you want me to tell it?” she asked, unable to keep a trace of skepticism from her voice.
"Well..."
Doormat thought about this. He didn't mind the name, the connotations didn't bother you nearly so much when it was the one you'd been using for years, but...it would feel odd having this shadow-spirit, 'Kree', call him that. It seemed
equally odd that it wasn't already aware of his name but...well, maybe it hadn't been sent by the Council after all. Maybe it was a different kind of spirit altogether, or...maybe it
was to do with the Council, but they hadn't given it his name, because how were you going to
find someone just by knowing their name? Surely they'd just told it what he looked like, or something. That
had to be it!
So now that it came up, and Aerona was asking, he wasn't sure what to say. What did she want him to say? She didn't seem sure he
should be using that name, or why else would she ask, and with such a less-than-totally-favourable tone?
"Erm...or Ezekiel, I suppose?" he supplied helpfully. "You can pick. I don't mind. I use both. I use Doormat more, but I get if Ezekiel is better here, and...um, yeah, Kree is a good name. Aerona too."
Aerona nodded slightly, and told Kree, “He goes by two names - Ezekiel, and Doormat. We’re - ”
Something moved further along the Wall, towards the Wallfare agency, and Doormat turned quickly. This one didn’t look much like a ghost…
Aerona and… Ezekiel
or Doormat? How strange! They were nice-sounding names, but Kree wasn’t sure how well it would be able to pronounce some of the sounds. It would try its best, though! For the human with two names, Kree thought it would have an easier time with “Ezekiel,” so it would probably end up going with that.
These thoughts took a back seat when Kree simultaneously heard something moving in the distance and saw Ezekiel turn in that direction. It turned as well, throwing up a quick partial camouflage for good measure, and saw what looked to be one of the human-hunters moving along the Wall. Kree backed up cautiously and made a low sound to its companions -- while its general protocol in these situations had been “throw on camouflage and run in the opposite direction,” it didn’t want to risk losing Aerona and Ezekiel again. And in any case, they’d probably have a better idea of what the best place to go or other course of action would be.
Aerona sucked in a surprised breath on pure instinct, and the fireflies around her flickered rapidly. “We have to go - they can’t find Kree!” she hissed. She started to dart off, but hesitated, glancing back at Doormat. “Are you coming, too? Don’t suppose you can do that teleporting trick again?”
He looked at her blankly for a moment.
Why...what would happen if they found Kree? Maybe...Doormat remembered how he'd reacted when
he first met Kree, and wondered...if he'd made that assumption, then would others also mistake it for a fearsome creature-of-the-forest? That would explain why his two companions seemed so agitated...not to mention, if the guards really
were on the side of the rioters, they wouldn’t exactly like a spirit-of-the-Council...and he didn’t want to lose track of Kree in any case, not when he’d only just found it again!
"Um," he began, biting his lip to shut himself up as he hurried after Aerona; "I can't...yes, let's go."
Aerona turned and attempted to sprint for the Wall - very quickly, however, she realized that the lack of traction was slowing her down, and out of sheer frustration rather than logic, she switched to gliding, throwing her energy into it the way she would send it to her legs to increase the length of her stride. It seemed to have the same effect.
At the bricks of the Wall, Aerona pressed her hands against the bricks experimentally. They didn’t go through - probably the Wall’s magic. She had asked the fish for a way to unravel a bit of the magic on the Wall once. It had been one of the very few times the fish had told her to make another wish instead. It wasn’t a huge loss, though; Kree couldn’t have phased through the bricks even if they were entirely mundane, after all.
“Can you climb?” she asked the shadowkyne. “It looks like there are places to grab - there, and - “
She faltered as one of the fireflies darted out from the cloud around her and hovered, winking slowly but brightly, near the hold Aerona had been indicating. The sense of her Price’s weight increased by the slightest amount - now that was just unfair, she hadn’t even made a wish!
It at least came with a bit of intuition, and so she could tell Kree, “Follow the firefly light if you can’t find holds. I’ll come up with you - maybe Ezekiel, too? And we’ll help you find more. I’ll distract the guards if they find us.”
Kree looked up at the section of wall Aerona was referring to. It most certainly looked like a workable climb, but the shadowkyne was a bit hesitant. It had tried climbing the Wall before, back when its goal had been to get
into the town, but something in the magic of the Wall had always ensured its failure. But then again, hadn’t the Wall been mostly focused on keeping the Outside creatures, well, out? And Aerona had clearly been able to climb the wall from the inside before.
Kree tested the grip, placing a claw over the hold that Aerona’s firefly had indicated. It pulled itself upward, slowly at first, but then moved to the next with more confidence when it found that there was no subtle force pushing it away. Quickly it climbed, shielding itself with as much light as it dared use -- it had been using more light than it had been able to store in the past few days, and this would be a bad time to run out.
Doormat had never been a great climber. He hadn’t been terrible, either. He just hadn’t really done a lot of climbing (why would you even
need to?), and he had
certainly never tried clambering about on the Wall like this before (because that was
forbidden, and for good reason!). But without a physical form and the associated weight to slow him down, he found that even the slightest groove or outcrop of stone responded to the touch, and it wasn’t really very difficult at all to ascend after his shadowy companion.
(though it did feel strange to be doing this, when he’d been taught his whole life to respect what this construct represented: protection from the outside, the good of Melville, sanctuary for humanity).
Aerona waited until both Kree and Doormat had begun climbing the wall before she started up - to her relief, the wall didn’t seem to be repelling them, at least not from this side; some of the enchantments weren’t the same on both sides of the Wall. Aerona was surprised the builders had known enough about ghosts to intentionally add the phase-proof feature, but right now it was actually more of a convenience than anything else.
She was familiar with climbing the walls - sometimes she’d done it with magically-enhanced strength and there had been one time with disturbingly-memorable, frog-like pads on her fingers, but the motions were all very familiar. And of course as a ghost, there wasn’t nearly as much weight to lift. Aerona had the feeling climbing was almost unnecessary in of itself - she’d found her feet hovering just off the ground multiple times already - but to ascend something as huge and solid as the Wall, the ghosts needed the idea of rising in a way their dead brains could understand.
Her stomach still twisted and shuddered when she glanced over her shoulder and saw how high they were. And still a ways to go - though they were making good progress, the firefly was darting quite quickly from groove to crack to gap for Kree…
Just as they reached the lip of the wall, the top edge where you could stand - if you dared - and look out over the Outside in all its dangerous, wild freedom, Aerona heard a shout of surprise from below; she twisted her head around fast enough to have sprained something if she were alive. She could see some of the streets like the tunnels of an ant farm from up here - and through one of those tunnels she caught glimpses of guards. “They’re here - come on, up and over!” she urged her companions.
Doormat almost lost his grip at the shout from below, and then the shout from Aerona; but he managed to catch himself and not-fall (which would have been
terrifying), and only froze in place like a startled rabbit for a moment or so (which was
fairly good, all things considered) before scrambling onward and upward.
Kree silently cursed its long and at the moment
way too heavy tail as it redoubled its efforts. It was hopefully camouflaged enough that the hunters couldn’t see it this high up, but it really didn’t want to take any chances for either itself or its friends. As it finally reached the top, it made sure to pull its tail up over the lip of the Wall with it.
By the time the guards reached the Wall and had a clear line of fire, the only sign of the escapees was the blink of a light from a single spectral firefly.
Kree let out a breath -- Aerona and Ezekiel had both made it before the hunters could attack. It seemed to recall that hunters stood or patrolled up here on top at times, but there didn’t seem to be any nearby. Aerona must have known just which location would be safest to climb -- that or the Wall-hunters were too busy with all the chaos in the town.
The shadowkyne looked over the edge to the other side of the Wall. It was a
long way down -- the structure was higher than any of the trees in the nearby forest -- and it knew, of course, that trying to climb on this side would prove futile. But if there was one good thing about the magic in the Wall, it was that the repelling force didn’t so much
push outsiders away as…
Giving itself only a moment to think this idea over, lest it think better of it and allow itself to remain stuck up here, Kree dug its claws into the stone as best as the Wall would allow and let itself more or less slide down the side. The Wall seemed happy to be rid of the Outside creature, and Kree’s trip down this side of the structure went much more quickly than the journey up had.
Doormat thought he recognised the area. Then again, the whole Wall looked more-or-less the same...regardless, there wasn’t time to dwell on that now, because there were
vaguely angry sounding people down below and he wasn’t
toosure about...and then, well, Kree was sliding down the other side of the Wall.
“Um...Aerona?”
It wasn’t
supposed to work like that, was it? Stone didn’t work like that!
He braced his hands against the rampart and leaned forward, watching with some confusion as his small-shadow-spirit-friend reached the bottom of the slope.
Aerona smiled thinly. “There’s magic on the Wall; different Outside creatures can interact with it differently. Some good, some bad, some neutral. I’m not sure it’ll work for us, but a fall shouldn’t do anything to ghosts anyway.”
Outside creatures? Thought Doormat.
I guess something like Kree wouldn't originate in
Melville, that would be silly! "Yeah, we can fall," he put in, remembering that first time he'd crossed beyond the Wall.
Aerona glanced back down into the town, where the guards were quickly starting to split off, heading for the ladders leading to the turrets scattered along the wall. “Great - let’s do it before the guards pull out some sort of secret Council anti-ghost weapon.” Aerona wondered how Ezekiel would take that casual suggestion of the Council creating secret weapons, but only for a moment; someone below finally took a shot and a bullet passed between two of Aerona’s fireflies. “Yep, time to go!” Even with the threat of guns and potential Council secret weapons behind her, Aerona had to close her eyes and distinctly
not think about what she was doing before she stepped off the edge of the Wall.
Even if he'd been so inclined, Doormat didn't really
have time to consider secret weapons. A bullet whizzed by them and he yelped, ducking reflexively. And now Aerona was stepping over the edge and obviously she
wanted him to to as well, and it wouldn't hurt them of course, it hadn't before but it was still a
really long way down.
Another bullet whizzed by, and he hurriedly tried to gather-his-thoughts-up-and-push-them-away, before jumping after the others. Doormat wasn't able to keep his eyes open, or keep from flailing his arms unconsciously, but at least when he hit the ground it didn't hurt and he was just...standing there, and that was a little anticlimactic.
But there were guards that could maybe see him, or maybe couldn't- and even if they could, would they know or recognise him anyway?- and they weren't very happy; and probably after Kree so, regardless, he took off after the shadow-spirit-creature as they fled into the woods for the second time in just a few days, Aerona close behind..
Now that they were in Kree’s home territory, the shadowkyne led the way. It wasn’t sure if or how long Aerona and Ezekiel would be staying, since it seemed that their main goal had been to help Kree out of the town, but in the meantime it knew the safest parts of the forest to hide out in.
As the Wall disappeared behind the trees, Kree finally slowed down to a trot. Glancing back at the others, it asked Aerona what its and Ezekiel’s plan was now.
“...Good question,” Aerona admitted. She reached up to brush some hair out of her face - odd that that could still happen in death. “I have to go back to the town; I need to find - a friend. A few friends.” Glancing at the fireflies, she added with a sigh, “But after that...it depends. If it’s not safe there anymore, I might have to come back Outside, and
stay here.”
Not safe there anymore... Doormat supposed it wasn't, really. It wouldn't be for...a long time, maybe never again, and he didn't really want to think about that because Melville was his
home and had always been a
good one. .
He turned to face Aerona, frowning slightly. "We can't...we can't just leave Kree here! But...I probably need to go back too, at least at some point, probably today."
Doormat had left everyone he knew in the middle of it all! That was
very irresponsible of him. Well, except for Kree. He and Aerona had helped it out, he supposed that was a good-person-thing...but now, were they really just going to leave it here? It'd taken him so long to find the shadow-spirit again! How long would it be next time? Weeks? Years? Who was he going to talk to in the meantime? Only dead people seemed to be able to see him, and he didn't have many friends among the ghosts. If Alex had come back, maybe. But Doormat hadn't seen him around. He was probably just fully-properly-dead.
It was starting to ache where his heart used to be. He wondered.
Kree’s ears drooped. Though it liked the idea of Aerona’s company, especially now that the Town was so dangerous, it knew that the human had a home -- had its own friends, as it had said -- there. And though it could not understand Ezekiel’s words, Kree could tell that it was as distressed as Aerona, and likely for similar reasons.
There was not much it could do for them when they went back, but… After a moment’s thought, Kree walked up to the pair and sat up on its haunches to better see their faces. It let out a soft crooning sound and nudged its snout gently into Ezekiel’s and then Aerona’s hands, letting them know that it was their friend and would be there for them without needing any words.
The gesture from surprised Aerona, but she smiled at the shadowkyne. “Thank you.” She moved her hand in a motion of petting, and again had that slight feeling of resistance from the creature’s muzzle. Addressing both Kree and Ezekiel, Aerona explained, “I won’t leave Kree alone out here for long. Either things have gone well in there and I’ll be able to leave without needing to sneak out...or things have gone poorly and we’re back to the aforementioned ‘leaving Melville for good’ option.” There was technically a third possibility, that things had gone poorly, the Council could restrain or kill ghosts, and managed one of those on Aerona - but the more she thought about it, the less likely it seemed that the Council had any such weapons or restraints. Surely they would have used them by now. So the chance of being killed again or captured was low. Pretty low. She was hoping. Her Price would probably find some way to keep her going, if nothing else. Darn fish.
Doormat wasn’t sure how or why, but he could almost
feel Kree’s snout against his typically-very-insubstantial palm. He’d pulled away as the spirit moved on to Aerona, flexing his fingers, the ache in his chest spreading out into a kind of helpless acceptance. Aerona's words were a little reassuring, he supposed, but that didn't change the fact that
he had to leave Kree behind. Doormat couldn't leave Melville...probably quite literally, if what he now suspected was true. And Kree couldn't stay there, so...
“I guess, if you can come back either way,” he said. “But I-
Kree, I…”
He stopped, unable to ignore that familiar shimmering-waterfall-curtain as it rippled into view. Doormat knew it couldn’t be resisted. The mirage felt like it was singing to him now, a melody without words but with lots of
memories. Home, the scarf, the fire. It was…different from last time, in some ways, but would end just the same.
“I'll miss you, ” he said, casting his gaze only briefly towards Kree (because the shining-curtain was so
enticing, and it was difficult to look away for any length of time). "Aerona, you can...actually go back this way too, I think. If you're close enough."
Barely aware of what he was doing, Doormat raised his hand to brush his fingertips against the shining-floating-curtain-thing.
Aerona leaned forward a little, having edged back in surprise and instinctive wariness when the shimmering thing had appeared. It looked almost like fabric, but like fabric if it were stitched from light and water. She had been about to point out that, if they were able to leave Melville, then he could probably come see Kree again - but the curtain completely distracted her. “How…” The lantern-maker faltered when she realized Ezekiel was reaching for the curtain - maybe she was supposed to touch it, too. Aerona reached out for it and made contact she couldn’t feel.
The fireflies around her all glowed at once and at full intensity, and then some, until everything went white and the sounds and smells of the Outside forest were swept away.
For a moment, there was nothing except a slight tickling on Aerona’s incorporeal skin, presumably from the fireflies - then with a lurch they...landed? Arrived? Something happened, and suddenly they were surrounded by buildings and the Wall and the smell of smoke again. The fireflies had landed en masse on Aerona’s arms and shoulders, but now they floated up around her and back into their slowly-winking haze.
Kree watched them go silently. It glanced back in the direction where it knew the Wall lay -- where it knew Aerona and Ezekiel had gone -- and then slowly dropped back to all fours.
It had been a very long, and very strange, past few days, and Kree knew that this wouldn’t quite be the end of it. The shadowkyne was certain that it would see both of its human friends again, perhaps soon, perhaps after some time had passed, but for now…
For now, Kree simply needed to rest.
Doormat broods for a bit by the wall, where Aerona and Kree run into him on their way out of the town. Introductions are made, proper names are finally learned, and eventually they decide to all go over the wall together to help Kree out of Melville. A few guards notice them on the way, but they manage to get over the top in time.
With the help of convenient Wall magic on Kree's end and ghostliness on Aerona's and Doormat's, they make it down to the other side and run into the forest before the confused and angry guards can catch up to them. There they discuss what to do next -- Aerona and Doormat both need to go back to Melville, but the former considers that she might have to back Outside permanently if things go too far south. Doormat's teleportation curtain appears again, and after some heartfelt goodbyes he and Aerona use it to get back into the town.
