[ he sees the gesture, and alfyn thinks of the lack of ice for cooling fevers and numbing wounds. he thinks of the spark of fire and electricity that he couldn't pull from what magic lessons cyrus gave him, or the dance of wind from folk magic at the merchant's back, or the light and dark that are just a coinflip for primrose and ophilia alike but are weak in his own hands.

rondo's missing something at his fingertips, too. but maybe in his heart just as much. ]

And yours, too. We gotta hold onto hope for them, all of them, right? [ smashcut to the time discrepancy. ] But - yeah! Yeah, onwards. Let's see what we can figure out about this whole mess.