The room was grand, elegant, and comfortable. Aethril had missed it in some twisted way; she'd never really left it, after all, but she missed sitting in chairs or sprawling out on a bed so far the muscles in her limbs untwisted and the bones popped.

Hibernation had been rough. She had no idea how long it'd been since she fell into it, and she had no idea if anyone were still alive. Every inch of her ached, her head was pounding through her skull, and she could have drunk a gallon of water right then and there.

She had woken up an hour or so ago. In that time, she had spent it just... living. She washed up, she got dressed. She pulled the curtains back and opened the windows to stare out at the gardens for a little while. She lounged from here to there, rearranged the plush cushions and pillows in her bed, and pulled an armchair to the window to go back to staring out across Cepheus, drinking in the cool air.

There was no rush-- not until Aethril realised how quiet it was. Not until the silence was ringing in her very ears and drowning out the distant sound of Lessers carolling away somewhere far off. Not until something was gnawing at the very back of her skull; questions she couldn't think of the answer to.

When Aethril got up and went for the door it wasn't necessarily because she wanted to demand answers out of the first form of sentient life she could find. There was an absent form of loneliness that plumed and blossomed in the very bottom of her stomach, a feeling that led her to quietly listen in on the other doors down the hallway, trying to gauge some kind of sign of life without invading anyone's privacy.

Right up to the barrier, she'd heard nothing.

A breath steadied the Valkhand just before she stepped through it, only just grimacing as the layer of magic passed along her face and yanking the end of her skirt and cloak out of it.

"Hello?" She called. She stuck near the barrier, her fingers tight around the loose cloth. She bent one way, looking down a hallway, and then looked down the other. "Is anyone--" still alive? "--there?"

Wack!

"Eggbert!" Aethril cried, relief lurching throughout her body. She reached out to pet him while he sniffed and chattered away,--careful of his little hat, of course --half-choking on sobs that were just barely restrained. "I missed you, too."

The anxiety of whether or not everyone had died while Aethril slept was quickly washed away. She crouched down, on the floor, no less, to offer the writhing Eggbert a hug.

"I'm fine," she reassured, face split with a delighted grin. "I'm very happy to see you're still around-- and Isra, too! How have things been for you two?"

And how long had it been? What had she missed? What does she do now? As much as the mere sight of Eggbert but her at ease she was still bustling with questions; things that she didn't want to plague poor Eggbert with.

As much as she would have loved to sit on the floor and spend time with him, Aethril was soon pushing up. "We should go and see Isra," she said, rustling out her skirt. "Can you take me to her?"

Boring. Aethril sighed with some gentle relief at that; but she felt the muscles in her shoulders knotting together at the mention of visitors. Her eyes darted upwards and looked down the hall, and then focused back on Eggbert.

"Are they nice visitors?" She asked very conversationally as she started trailing after him, folding her arms behind her. This was the only thing she'd ask of him while they walked, however-- and only if to make sure they were being nice to Eggbert.

She dipped down to try and help Eggbert up the stairs before following him down the hallway and parting the curtains with both hands. She paused, grinned, and pushed them aside. "You're looking good, Isra," Aethril said as she stepped out onto the balcony, stepping around the splooter.

There was a pause. 'Regret to inform' wasn't something Aethril ever wanted to hear, but--

Her gaze flicked up to Isra and she offered a little huff of amusement. "I assume complimentary lunch hours are on the horizon?" She joked, taking a seat next to Isra. "Thank you."

A small piece of diced mango was taken from the plate as Aethril adjusted, getting comfortable on the chair. She took a long breath and slumped back a little, glancing down towards the gardens before she was addressing Isra again. "How have you been?"

Aethril's smile quietly lingered for a moment. "It's good to see that you're both still around," she added, delivering niceties until she got to what she was aching to ask-- "how long has it been?"

Aethril offered a more fleeting smile as she began to eat the dice of mango, listening quietly. It was approximately twelve seconds before she promptly forgot how to chew and swallow as the fruit lodged in her throat.

"Five-- thousand?" She choked, a fist covering her mouth as she hacked up the mango cube and re-swallowed. She'd expected a century-- maybe two, maybe at most a thousand-- she was only three of those.

Well. She wasn't anymore.

Her brow knitted into a knot as she leaned back in her chair, hands falling over onto her lap and fingers interlocking. As Isra kept talking, she took a long, deep breath and tried to listen, tried to move on, tried not to linger.

It was a little easier with the amount of information Isra had. There was a lot to comb over-- a lot Aethril could barely remember the meaning of. "--dreadful, how?" She asked first.

A hand slowly lifted to massage her fingertips into her temple. Spires and Hives and Masters and whatnot were starting to fill her head as she picked through her own mind to apply meaning to what Isra was telling her. The headache was back; eating away at the base of her skull.

Fingers trawled across her face, resting on her jaw, as she followed Isra's glance to Eggbert and back again, and only then did she perk up a little. "Thank you," she said with quite genuine gratitude-- she liked Isra and Eggbert. She was glad for them and glad for their care.

She was perking up further as Isra continued. "A deer?" She asked with clear bemusement, a smile twitching at the corners of her mouth. She tried to imagine it-- Astraea, a deer, prancing through various ferns and things with silly little legs and a sillier little tail. "I hope he's enjoying himself."

As for Vargas, she knew a little of the name-- mostly, his work hunting down rebels. "Does he mind visitors?" She asked. "I'd like to see what he's doing in Draco."

And finally, a little hum left her throat at the mention of Lord Dhracia, whose face she could barely visualize. "I'd like to keep my room here, if that's alright with you," she offered Isra a little smile. "I could catch her sometime when we're both here."

Aethril tilted her head back for a moment, before rolling her neck around to look down the balcony at the gardens again in the brief silence. There was a sense of peace rolling over her again, calming, relaxing--

"Ahh, a little sore," she huffed bemusedly. "Quite tired, funnily enough."

Her head turned back towards Isra. "You've done well here, Isra-- really. Thank you-- and thank you, too, Eggbert," she added, so that he didn't feel left out.

Aethril was humming. She couldn't imagine Vargas being much for conversation, but she didn't know him very well. "I do like your ramblings, Isra," she sighed. There was a calmness to it, after all-- a sense of normalcy she didn't quite realise she was missing.

Sitting around. Chatting. Resting. Just living. She'd missed it sorely.

"Another time, I think. I don't need you knocking me out for another few thousand years," she joked, though her mind was lingering on Vargas and Draco, quietly mapping out the way from Cepheus to Draco. She wanted to see his work; see what she was missing out on. A part of her wanted to get back to work.

Another thought of the rebellion, and familiar anxiety sank like a pit in her chest. Isra said it was over, and Aethril very much trusted Isra with her life; but that paranoia snagged her like thorns. Maybe, just maybe, Vargas had something to help with that.

Her head rolled and she smiled at Isra until her eyes were narrow, cat-like slits. "Thank you, Isra. Let me know if there's anything I can do to make your life easier."

Back again, the very back of her skull rolling against the back of the chair, Aethril sighed a little. "I think I'll take a walk," she said. "And then rest." Because she hadn't done enough of that over the last era.