April 10, 2019, 5:12 PM. Minute after Alexis’ body faded into glowing blue dust.

Rufka stormed into the room, able to feel something pulling her forward. Like one of her mum’s spells, that guided her to a buried trap. Except she knew this was Lexi. And that Lexi needed her.

When she entered, the same room she’d left Lexi to eat her second dinner in was… shattered was the best word she could use. Looking at the cracks running through the stone, the window, and even the fruit, Rufka paused.

Had Lexi been experimenting again? No. She’d promised she’d tell Rufka. And she’d kept her word the last couple weeks, always making sure Rufka was near when she poked at her broken System.

So what?

Rufka turned as Beth charged in with Westley right behind her. Rufka’d always been amused how often Lexi would correct herself while they were in private, first saying Roberts, then Westley. Shaking her head with a smile, Rufka noticed Beth was pointing at the spot the pull was tugging Rufka towards.

“There, she was right there!” Beth screamed in a tone Rufka wasn’t familiar with. It seemed especially high-pitched for the human.

“Beth, I don’t see any…”

Rufka stepped closer to the pull, kneeling down and running her hand through the space. There was… a snag. Or hiccup, as her thiani might say. Rufka smiled for a second before turning to find Beth and Westley standing over her.

“I… I think it’s my fault,” Beth said, her eyes unfocused. It had been amusing to Rufka when Lexi did that. Cause she’d usually come back with some sort of rant or babble after. But seeing Beth do it caused something in her gut to shift sideways.

“What is your fault?” Rufka asked slowly, feeling a gentle tug from the connection, which seemed to have gotten caught in her hand. And a sudden wave of affection, as if Lexi were trying to tell her everything was alright.

“I… I think I killed Lexi. With my…” Beth trailed off, her eyes shifted to take in the rest of the room. Avoiding the spot where the tug came from, Rufka noted.

“She’s not dead,” Rufka stated. Despite the emptiness that rose inside her at the thought of another dead thiani, Rufka knew it wasn’t what had happened this time. She didn’t understand how the pull told her that, but she knew it was telling her Lexi was alive.

“Listen. I was here. I watched it. My Umbra. I lost control, Rufka. It… it tore her apart,” Beth said, her pale green eyes finally meeting Rufka’s own lower eyes.

“Perhaps she will be Restored,” Westley suggested, though Rufka noticed how he stepped away from Beth and kneeled beside her.

Rufka didn’t respond. She didn’t think she could trust herself to. Even though she could feel Lexi, Lexi felt… distant. And if Beth had destroyed her body, with the state Lexi’s System was in… and Lexi wasn’t able to Restore herself. Well, Rufka knew many methods of punishing people. Even people as dangerous as Beth.

But Lexi wouldn’t want that.

Instead, unable to help herself, Rufka growled out, “Vaus-tainted Zebian-fucker. When I get her back, you better stay away from her.”

Beth’s eyes seemed to narrow for a second as she met Rufka’s glare. But then she turned away as Westley stood up. “What did you do, Beth? Exactly?”

As Beth described her apparent loss of control, and the way that her Umbra was leaking out in an aura of thinly constrained destruction, Rufka returned her main focus to her hand. She flexed it, and concentrated on the feeling of her thiani.

“Where are you Lexi?” Rufka asked, running her hand through the snag, and once more feeling that burst of affection. And… maybe… something more?

As Rufka closed her eyes, she realized she could almost see Alexis, lying on the ground, Smoulder at her side as she stared up at Ukila.

And the stars that surrounded Akilo’s sister planet.

Rufka looked at the snag again, and a shudder went through her as a thought struck her.

“When are you?”