Vell stirred the pot, and the scent of vegetable soup began to spread through the tower.
The Yellow Mage sat down, while Sonder set the table.
He watched Vell cook with great attention. He didn't want his things, even if they were just plates, pots, and some ingredients, to be put in the wrong place.
After Sonder sat down herself, she watched Vell while he cooked.
He moved around the kitchen as though nothing particularly unusual had happened. He stirred the soup, tasted it, added something, and stirred it again.
He seemed content.
Even though he was here, there was a part of her that was still afraid. Afraid for him.
She didn't think she could recall what had happened, the fight with him against Endrith…
She paused on that name for a moment.
It was hard to recall.
In any case, the fight couldn't be replicated, she thought.
Who else had as much power as the two of them?
She didn't know what Vell remembered, or what he had told the Yellow Mage, seeing that he had been up before her and may have already talked to Vell.
Vell was humming quietly.
Eventually, he decided the soup was ready.
He carried the pot to the table and set it down, pouring out three bowls of steaming soup.
For a little while, they just ate.
The soup was good.
To Vell, it was heavenly.
After he was finished, as he couldn't think of doing anything else while eating, he set down the spoon with a satisfied smile.
He looked at Sonder with something on his mind to tell her.
"I suppose you should know," he began. "I wasn't just asleep."
"What do you mean?" Sonder asked.
"Good question. I don't know exactly how to explain it. While I was gone, I… let's say I experienced something. It wasn't a place, exactly. At least, not one I could understand as a place. It began in darkness until I remembered to see. There weren't things. Not really. They were more like the essence of things; ideas."
He frowned slightly, trying to find the words.
"This was easier back in that place. I think I was somewhere where ideas existed without needing to become anything else. I don't know if that makes sense. I wasn't entirely myself there either. I was still me, but not in the same way. It was difficult to tell where I ended and the idea of me began. Things changed depending on what I understood. Sometimes, if I understood something, it became clearer. If I didn't understand it, it could become something I couldn't understand at all. It was simple sometimes. But it was lonely. It wasn't frightening. Sometimes, it was beautiful."
Sonder looked at him for a long moment.
She had thought he had simply been asleep.
She had imagined him lying somewhere, waiting to wake up.
She had never imagined that he had been somewhere else at all.
Vell reached across the table and gently placed his hand over hers.
"I'm glad to be here, with you."
Sonder looked down at their hands.
Vell gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
"But there was more to it than that."