Jade Fern Grove klagelied

Footsteps. The knowledge of them came muddy to her mind, swimming laboriously from the darkness of her thoughts, brushing her consciousness long after Mahler had already drawn to a halt. Her steps slowed and her head came up, her single eye resting on him and not truly seeing him for some long beats. Just another stranger in the world, alone like her. Just another wanderer with no port of call.

No, this was not a stranger. Recognition bloomed slowly. It clawed desperately through the fog of her mind and her exhaustion and turned a floodlight on the deepening shadows of her despair, cutting through for just a moment. He was not supposed to be here. She'd deliberately wandered in the opposite direction of Nova Peak.

He'd come for her after all.

The truth would shatter her, so she clung to that desperate thought. He cared. He'd come after her. He hadn't let her leave without a shred of remorse. Maybe... But there was nothing left for her there. Her jaws pressed together in a tight line as her features folded with grief, but there were no tears to glimmer in her eyes this time. She had shed every last tear she could manage for him, and he had come for her, he had not left her to be alone. He cared. At long last, some proof of it.

She said nothing, only waited with bated breath.