Vell ran his hand through his hair.
He looked at the few stray strands between his fingers, then frowned slightly.
He thought that maybe he would have a head full of gray hair due to all the stress his body must have gone through, as well as his mind, but no.
It was a deep black.
"I don't think raven hair suits me very well."
He pulled a lock of hair forward to show Sonder and the Yellow Mage.
After the heavy conversation they had, he thought something lighter might be necessary.
"I think I liked the way it was better, and it's very long."
He examined it for another moment.
"It is," Sonder said.
"Should I cut it?"
He let the hair fall back over his shoulder.
"How long was I asleep for, for it to grow this much?"
Sonder looked at him, and it was clear that she was thinking, but she was blanking on the subject.
"…I do not know," she said.
Vell raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?"
She was hesitant to answer. "It was difficult to keep track of time."
"I don't think it could have been that long."
In Vell's mind, in his memories, he still imagined Sonder as a little girl, but now that she was really before him, she looked older.
A girl, yes, but so little as he had imagined? Not anymore.
It wasn't a very dramatic change, but enough for him to admit that she had grown.
His eyes dropped briefly toward the sword in her chest.
He remembered how large it had seemed before on her little body.
It still looked as it always had, but somehow it had become less; as if it had shrunk.
Or, as he had trouble admitting, Sonder had simply grown enough to make it seem smaller.
He expressed his thoughts simply.
"You've grown."
It wasn't very complex or meant to have a deeper meaning.
Sonder glanced down at herself. "Have I?"
The Yellow Mage, who had been quiet until then, said to them in very clear words, "It has been three years."
Vell looked at him.
The Yellow Mage's glow remained steady.
"Three?"
"Exactly three years."
"No fewer than three, or more than three?"
"No. This very day marks three years."
"Three years…"
He looked at Sonder again. He touched his dark strands again, and that was the end of their meal.
Vell had suggested a recess, and everyone was willing.
The Yellow Mage had resumed a few of his usual duties and work.
Even wounded and one-armed, he wouldn't stop doing what he had always done.
He had to get used to it eventually, and he thought, why shouldn't he begin now?
The first thing the Yellow Mage did was redress the bandages on his arm and put paste and ointment on it; he was too wounded to have enough energy to use magic on himself.
Vell's work wasn't bad, but between the two of them, he could do it better.
And if he couldn't access his immense raw power, then the traditional way was the only way.
The Yellow Mage lamented the fact that he did not have the necessary power himself to regenerate missing body parts.
Maybe over a few years he could regain something resembling an arm.
Other than that, if some of his bodily fluid seeped through his bandages and contaminated what he was working on, that was simply not acceptable.
If that were to happen, he would rather have it be his own mistake because his work was sloppy, not Vell's.
Sonder wanted to stay with Vell. She seemingly did not want to let him out of her eyesight.
But Vell had recommended that she rest, maybe sleep a while longer, and he wanted some time alone to think.