( In that, they're in agreement: a place they know as home, gone and out of reach. It means more than Jill can say that it resonates with someone else -- that what she remembers of a land she cannot return to isn't forgotten but will live on in the memories of others. It makes it a little less lonely, a little more bearable. )

Magic. Sapping the life out of the world, inch by inch. All that is left is lifeless blackness and beasts gone wild out of starvation. And after those perish, an empty silence. ( She can only hope that with Clive's success in defeating Ultima, with whatever sacrifice he will doubtless make, they can begin to heal the land. It will take longer than Jill's life, and... she does not plan to be on Storm to watch it. ) You are welcome to visit whenever you'd like, then -- I would never turn away company.

( It makes it feel more alive. )

I was, yes. The Archduke who raised me insisted that I be treated as part of his family, and his sons were always kind beyond words. ( Jill does not mention the Duchess. Empress Anabella is best left where Jill last saw her: dead by Anabella's own hand in a crumbling palace, knowing that all her scheming was for naught. ) One of them is here in Abraxas -- Clive Rosfield, if the name is familiar.