While the krynn’s footsteps passed, the shaman set the cloth aside, folded it with quiet precision along its damp creases, and placed it on the rim of a bowl between the two flasks. She wiped her fingers on another cloth that lay beside it. Then she rested her hands in her lap.
And then they were alone.
The orange orblight enveloped her in both majestic elegance and cold reverence. It glid across the manyfold scales of her body, warm where it touched gold, wan where it fell over the blackened patches on her arms and upper body. On her mask, the light vanished whole. The mask remained immaculate, an unbroken, depthless white. The White faced Yu with serene patience.
“It is good to see you back on your feet, Yu.” The words held softly measured gentleness.
Yu wanted to throw himself at her feet.
“Yes,” he said. His pulse was in his ears.
Where was she? The voice of the 
? Why could he not hear her? If only he could hear her once, just one word, one syllable, one single breath.
The mask tilted. “Do you feel better?”
He wanted to feel her. He was hollowed, broken into layers, fragments scraping against one another, terror and longing in a torn body. He wanted her to touch him. Her touch would make it all better.
“Yes,” he said.
“You seem shaken. Have you already eaten?” asked the shaman.
“Yes.” Yu said.
He was so hungry.
“Be so kind and serve the krynn, then,” she said. “He must be starving.”
“Yes,” Yu said.
He was. He was starving.
“We will speak again, after the witching hour,” she said.
“Yes,” Yu said.
The shaman did not say more.
Yu needed to hear more. “I … I have done it. Already. I mean, serve the krynn. He has a bowl already.”
She did not reply.
“In the common room. It is there. For him. Already.”
The mask was silent.
“I just came to get him.” Yu swallowed, but he could not stop the trembling in his voice. “After I was done. Serving.”
The mask was silent.
“I mean, I am done. I have served dinner for everyone.”
The mask was silent.
“Like you asked.”
The body turned towards him.
“So … I … I don’t have to … Because he has his bowl already. I don’t have to go back.”
The body smiled. “After the witching hour, Yu.”
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