Zalia knelt in the snow as Ember comforted her.
"Zalia… how exactly does this memory storage work?" Ember asked softly.
"It lets me store a memory and leaves only vague ideas of the memory behind. It also… takes the emotions linked to the memory away."
Ember didn't say anything to that but Zalia could almost hear Ember calling her an idiot in the silence.
A few moments later, she heard footsteps as Boreal and Aylie found them. Boreal immediately came up and flopped against Zalia, almost knocking both her and Ember over. She was then joined by Aylie as she dropped on top of Boreal to give Zalia a hug as well.
"Hey you two," Zalia greeted.
Her tears had stopped but she no doubt had red puffy eyes and her voice was hoarse.
She received a complex set of thoughts and emotions from Boreal that conveyed her own grief at the loss of their friend followed by the words, "I miss them too."
She hugged Boreal closer.
For her apparent carefree stance to the world and the joy with which she performed every task, Boreal wasn't unaffected by the loss of their shared friend either. She didn't have a vault in which to store her memories either, though it had turned out to be more of a detriment to Zalia's mental health than a benefit.
She had promised herself that she would restore the memory when she reached a safe place and the Grove would have been an excellent place to do just that. When she'd been there though… it had slipped her mind while she had focussed on telling the others everything she had discovered in Cormaine.
Well, she was safe here, wasn't she?
"Why haven't you restored the memory if it has been harming you like this?" Ember asked, mirroring her own thoughts.
"I… because it is so bad that I don't know if I'll be able to handle it," Zalia said shakily.
"Well, why don't you do it now? You have all of us here to help you," Ember suggested.
Could she do that? Wasn't there more important things to take care of right now?
She needed to try and find a way to convince the Heat and Stone denizens to join the war… but they had said no. Maybe she could convince them to take in more refugees though, a middle ground where they could maintain the safety of their mountain and save some people from horrible fates.
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"It can wait for later, we need to-" Zalia started.
"Zalia," Ember said firmly.
"Ember, I don't know if I can do it," Zalia said.
"You can, I know you and I know you can. I don't know what it must have been like down there and I won't pretend I do but if anyone can come through alright it's you," Ember said.
"I… I'll try," Zalia agreed.
She could feel it there still, a memory on the edge of her consciousness waiting to be retrieved at a moment's notice should she ever require. A memory with torn edges, one she had ripped out of her mind very shortly after it had formed.
She grabbed it and fit it back into the hole in her mind where it had come from.
She could feel the memory begin to settle as the torn edges started healing by a power flowing from Ember. Strength and support came from the bond she had with Boreal, shoring up her pained mind. And Aylie. Aylie clung on to her with all her newly increased strength. Aylie needed her to be well and strong.
And… it wasn't as bad.
The grief was there, the pain, the fear, the stress and the misery of that last hour in Cormaine were all there yet with the support of her friends, her… family, something she hadn't really had in a long time, it wasn't as bad.
Would you like to form a bond with 'Ember'?
"What?" She thought.
She hesitated. Her bond with Boreal had been incredibly useful in the past and she had no doubt that one with Ember would be just as, if not more, useful.
She looked over at Ember who was watching her intently, and accepted.
Congratulations! You have formed a bond with 'Ember'. You and Ember are now able to slightly sense each other's location in reference to each other as well as gain a vague sense of each others emotions as long as the other person is willing.
Congratulations! Your bond with Boreal has deepened. You and Boreal's ability to sense each other's location is more accurate in addition to a deeper sense of each other's emotions as long as the other person is willing. You and Boreal are able to provide strength of the mind to each other.
She shuffled around in the cuddle puddle of people to look at Ember, who just smiled warmly at her.
"I didn't know that could happen," Zalia murmured.
"It's not so uncommon between people. Much rarer to be able to form that kind of bond with another species like Boreal," Ember said in reply, her voice equally soft.
She didn't miss that Boreal's bond had changed in its wording a little bit. It didn't refer to it as a beast bond anymore, instead just being a normal one. Did that mean that whatever the mysterious system was now think of Boreal as a person not an animal? Or, was that due to Zalia's own viewpoint?
And, she could feel them there in her mind. Another presence, Ember, and a familiar one now stronger than ever. Boreal was still lending strength to her mind, helping take the burden of her pain.
So, Zalia lent some back.
The torn edges of the memory had started to heal, the hole in her mind now occupied by the wound, somehow less painful than the void it had left behind. She wasn't sure why the memory had such a… reduced effect now that she accepted what had happened and the memory itself. Maybe the manner in which she had roughly torn it out had lent to the strength of the pain she felt when remembering it through the vault.
"Thank you," Zalia whispered, to no one in particular.
They all helped her in their own ways and she was more grateful for that than she could ever put into words.