The Yellow Mage looked at Vell and then, in the same dry voice he used for almost everything, he asked, "What do you have in mind?"
Vell looked back at him and shrugged.
"I don't know."
The Yellow Mage's glow remained steady.
"You have just explained that Endrith may have access to infinite power, and that he may be more dangerous than he has ever been. I assume you would not simply tell us this and then go to bed."
"Of course I wouldn't. Actually, I've been thinking about it since I woke up."
He looked around.
"Not that I only thought about that. I thought about you guys, and everyone else I missed. I've thought about how strange it is to be back. But you know how the mind is occupied by problems you think you don't have any solutions for."
He rubbed his thumb against the edge of the now-empty soup bowl.
"I don't know if it's pressing. That's the problem. I don't know what Endrith is doing now. I don't know if he's still in that place. I don't know if he managed to leave it, if he's roaming free right now. I don't even know if he took anything from me."
"Suppose he's free. What then? If he doesn't make himself obvious, is there even a way to find out?"
"I don't know."
"That is becoming a recurring answer."
"Maybe I could find him. I'm a good sleuth when it comes to it, and I've never known Endrith to be a subtle fellow. If he's out and about, then we'll soon know. He'll want to conquer something and reestablish himself. You know, this is a good time to ask: anything noteworthy happen since I was asleep? What's Irath like without Endrith?"
There was a moment of silence as neither Sonder nor the Yellow Mage knew exactly how to answer this.
"Dread Mage," the Yellow Mage said, "there is no Irath anymore. I, myself, don't know how to explain it to you. It isn't just that there is no Irath, or that it has been destroyed, though it was destroyed in the march on Irath and the battle between you and Endrith. It seems that there never has been one in the first place. I feel a strange phenomenon affecting me, where I seem to be losing my memories and knowledge of the country, its history, and especially Endrith. I don't know if your daughter feels the same way, but I think that in a matter of months, I will forget completely."
"That's rather concerning. What about you, Sonder? Do you feel like you're forgetting?"
"Maybe…" she answered unsteadily at first.
She didn't think she would, or could, ever forget, but there seemed to be just a slight sense that things were blurred.
Waves of forgetfulness blurred her memories just slightly, but with the shards and her goal to help Vell, she was reminded of Endrith and Irath and what they had done to her, and her family, and everyone else who suffered under them.
"No," she said with certainty. "I did not forget. I cannot."
"Now, that's good to hear," Vell said, then he thought about who was saying it and how she said it.
Perhaps it wasn't such a good thing that Sonder couldn't forget.