Moonspear allay; align

I apologize for the delay. Shall we close this up and have another? I am not sure where we are with everything, but if no one had gone to see Valette yet, maybe it is time for Alya to make the trip.

Speaking about this behind Hydra's back -- even with Nikai, her most trusted companion -- felt too much like sedition to be allowed.

"I want to keep my mind open," she replied somewhat reluctantly, only to continue in a rush, "but my eyes as well. I agree that he could have changed, or that his feelings could have, at least. It is nothing we can decide about, anyway. Hydra has always made her own choices. They are usually good ones."

So she did not quite trust Dirge, but she could trust Hydra. And if this was an error in judgement, then she at least knew that her sister would not fall apart as she had so many times. After Cypress, and after Vaati, and even after Aditya, to some degree. As much as they had always flaunted their oneness, Alya knew they were very much different women, with different needs and different strengths. Perhaps Hydra's romance with Dirge was so unfathomable to her for the same reasons her sister had not been quite so taken with Nikai.