Rene kept looking through bookshelves without quite knowing what she needed to look for, mostly because she didn’t want to just…do nothing.
She would say she could have prevented this earlier—back at the gravestone—but she knew no amount of assurance would have convinced her to ignore Lord Dazuz’s threat back then, nor could she imagine not having Tara. She felt slightly obligated to try to do something, though.
A mix of responsibility, annoyance, and dread kept her going right now.
Matteo and Tara returned in a few minutes, and Rene paused her search to look over at them. Tara slightly gestured for her to come a bit closer, holding out a score book to show to Adelinde, and Rene obeyed the request.
“Matteo found this,” Tara explained. She pointed towards specific lines of lyrics. “Itzun reacted to it, so it should be helpful.”
Rene read over a few of the lines.
“A third island to ‘guide the way,’” she murmured. She looked between the other three. “Sólstaður is probably the best option to try first?”
“It is the closest,” Adelinde agreed. “And the only one nearby to exist for the same time as the first island.”
“We can always try,” Matteo pointed out. His smile seemed to be the best he could muster at the moment; she admired his effort, at least. “Better than to go somewhere and it turn out to be nothing than not do anything and still be unable to find something useful.”
The others murmured some agreement.
“Eyset would probably be our best choice for where to head out from,” Rene said. “It might be a few days before trains actually head out, but that can’t be helped.”
Tara closed the score book gently, hesitating a moment before quietly speaking.
“…I know it should be done soon, but…Itzun would have told me if there’s an extremely short window to prevent it.” She looked up at Adelinde and Rene. “Do you think we could go back out to the arts festival for a few more hours, or stay at the palace? I…want to feign normalcy, if possible.”
Adelinde offered her a kind smile, especially after Matteo seemed to agree with Tara.
“It wouldn’t hurt to try,” she said. “And if nothing else, Mark might want a fair warning if we’ll be traveling.”
No one had any protests, so they left to try to resume the morning’s mood.
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…
The more Rene thought about it, the more she worried. The kids had enough to do—between Matteo’s friends, who had came by the palace, and then proceeding to ask if Tara could join them and opting to hang around the courtyard—that they didn’t exactly notice or otherwise didn’t have enough time to ask after it, and she knew Adelinde saw but waited to bring it up.
They ultimately stayed at the palace for dinner, mostly because Mark half-insisted and Matteo’s friends were still there. The loudness of half a dozen teenagers served as a slight distraction, at least.
After dinner, the teens all went back outside—with the exception of Tara, who was requested by Mark to draw something in particular so she found a good place to do that—and Adelinde, Rene, and Mark went to the music room. Rene let Mark take the guitar, entertaining some small talk when it came up and otherwise focusing on Adelinde’s piano playing.
Somehow, she could tell Adelinde was playing from thought but without really going into a darker place. It didn’t seem like anything she put a great amount of effort into thinking about, either, but maybe her thoughts just ran a better course with her brother and wife there.
Only an hour or so after dinner a councilman or someone similar came to get Mark. Shortly after he left, Adelinde’s playing changed a bit—it became something closer to the tune she usually used for things involving Rene.
“You’re not usually the one to give off anxiety so noticeably,” Adelinde said, looking at her. “Although it’s…not as apparent as your usual emotions”
“I’ve been trying not to distract the kids” Rene admitted.
“That would explain it,” Adelinde mused. The song she played shifted again, to show the worry Rene had expected from the situation. “Is traveling back to Eyset bothering you?”
“I don’t think that’s exactly it.” Rene stood up from where she was sitting, wandering a bit closer to the piano. “I haven’t been back in Eyset in years—it’s hard to justify needing to switch trains once or twice just for a short trip—but I know it’s better than when I was living there. They’ve done a lot to improve things, so I’m not really concerned that we could run into trouble.”
She reached the piano, taking a seat next to the bench and sighing.
“I guess the whole situation is just…something.” She paused for a second, frowning. “I told Tara this wouldn’t happen, but…here we are.”
“It was what she needed to hear at the time,” Adelinde reasoned, glancing down at her. “That, at least, isn’t anything you could prevent. I won’t deny that this is troubling, but…”
She hesitated a second, briefly stopping her playing before continuing with more music related to her thoughts. She likely considered playing something cheerful, but it reassured Rene that she decided against it. Although the song seemed ominous, there were portions of lighter music that Adelinde seemed to prefer playing but nonetheless couldn’t constantly bring herself to.
“We just have to hope that everything will work out, or accept that whatever we can do is enough. I don’t believe the highest gods will let Dakari fall so needlessly, but I can’t say for sure if they listen to the prayers and requests given to them. We can fully debate whether or not we will die here only when it seems inevitable—otherwise the days leading up to it will be worrying enough.”
Rene murmured some agreement, slowly getting up again.
“You would know better than some, I imagine.” Once she stood, she managed a little smile and gave Adelinde a light kiss. “I’ll try to follow your advice. Eventually, it’ll be out of our hands anyway.”