Dragoncrest Cliffs i know that sweet warm taste, and the bitter trace

storm right down that hill / if i don't, no one will / follow me right through the chaos

blixen isn't ready. this should be easily apparent to any witness. in a time of peace perhaps she could have found time to get her paws firmly under her. if only fate were kinder -- instead she has been forced to watch her world crumble around her one piece at a time. she can't blame the ones who left -- or so she tells herself in spite of the prickling of fury at them for abandoning drageda, abandoning her. there is still a heda out there. 

the decision to return to trigeda has already been made by the time vercingetorix and aure and blodreina depart; she does not go to say good-by. instead she goes and sits by the cliffs where nomi fell, staying there until @Mallaidh retrieves her. not all is lost. she has mallaidh. she has @Artaax and @Dio, @Tux, @Tirgatao and @Bobby. a sliver of what drageda once was, to be sure, but she loves them wholeheartedly. and waiting for them in trigeda? helix -- who she misses with surprisingly fierceness -- and hopefully ajatar, heda.

this whole house is doomed / even the big parts get consumed / prepare a grave for menelaus

they do not leave immediately after the others. it's a long journey, and one blix hasn't taken before. she wants them to be as rested as they can be. the anger in her has been all scooped out, leaving her hollow but calm as they prepare. blodreina had told her she could grieve -- it'd advice that she'll take on eventually, but not until she guides what remains of her kru back to safety, back to home. 

strange that the cliffs hold no meaning for her now, when shoftly before she was so fiercely connected to them, the thought of leaving would have been akin to tearing a limb from her own body. 

the night before they head out, she curls close to mallaidh, breathing in her comforting scent. do you want to try and find your mother? mallaidh asks, ever sensitive to her partner's feelings, but blix shakes her head. she's not artaax -- she can't look back now or she'll never be able to return. nomi comes to her in her dreams saying nothing -- not a spirit, just the jumbled fragments of her unconscious.

dawn breaks as they pass the northern border of drageda. blixen releases a breath she didn't realize she was holding, but she does not look back.

it never hurts to give thanks to the navigator / even when he's spitting out random numbers
i knew what those figures meant / and what they hoped to represent
when I was younger