The Spire's cut-off cry echoed through the link, but Aethereal ignored it, her heart still racing. For someone who wanted company, the Spire had hardly been companionable. It had hurt her. It had hurt the lemur, too, and it had tried to make her destroy the little one altogether with her magic. She didn't owe it anything after that.

Anger still roaring in her ears, Aethereal reached blindly for her magic once again. But whether it was simply bad luck, or because she hadn't quite figured out if she wanted to shut off the link with Abra or to get something to throw at the Spire, nothing happened.

@Abracadabra

As much as Aethereal wanted to storm dramatically out of Polaris, or throw something at the Spire, or throw something at the Spire and then storm dramatically out of Polaris, she couldn't just leave this link with Abra in place. (Could she? Maybe it would go away on its own with distance, or maybe that was too much to hope for.) She tried once more to shut off the magic that connected them, but she could still feel the lemur's emotions on the other side. It isn't working, she thought frustratedly, then belatedly tried to keep the thought and emotions to herself.

Clearly, thinking violent thoughts at the Spire was not helping. Drawing in a deep, shaky breath and trying to clear that train of thought from her mind, Aethereal tried again.

There was nothing, and she worried that it had been a failure once again. But the same feeling continued, and Aethereal realized: there is nothing. Nothing was what she was supposed to feel. It had worked!

Although she was now technically free to storm out of Polaris, the delay to cancel her magical link had given Aethereal time to calm down, and the urge was nowhere near as strong as it had been. And she felt like... she owed this lemur an apology, for making the stupid decisions that had gotten them into this mess. "I'm sorry for dragging you into all of this," she whispered to the lemur, her voice carrying above the indistinct susurrus that surrounded her.

@Abracadabra

Abra probably could've felt the anger radiating off of Aethereal even without the link. She maintained a safe distance, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire, but she didn't want to abandon her. And she definitely didn't want the other to feel worse than she already did. Frustration roiled through the link, quickly getting cut off. She sent back a quiet It's okay! we can- that was muffled and then lost as the link finally broke.

Finally she felt as if she could breathe. It sounded like many voices actually, many different whispers congealing into a single sentence. It only made the strange creature even stranger, to be frank. "It's fine! I don't think either of us anticipated.. that happening."

Seeming to bounce right back after the strange situation, Abra straightened up, hands smoothing her previously ruffled fur. "Oh! I should probably introduce myself after all that! I'm Abracadra! Abra for short." A wide, somewhat awkward smile, seemingly an attempt to alleviate the awkwardness and tension, "I'm a Magician! I can do magic, but nothing like... that." She'd side-eye the spire, as if magic would come surging out of it the second she had her back turned.

@Aethereal

'It's fine,' the little one said, and continued in a bright voice as if Aethereal had not just caused her immense pain, and nearly destroyed her. It was astonishing how she forgave so easily. How she was unafraid of Aethereal, despite what had happened.

She should be afraid. The thought came unbidden into Aethereal's mind. It would be so easy to crush her beneath your feet. To break her with your magic…

The valkhound took a quick step back, her heart rate spiking. Had the link with the Spire not broken after all…? But the thought was gone as quickly as it had come. She could probably blame it, as she did lots of things, in the Creator's 'gift'. She didn't actually want to hurt Abra.

But could she trust herself? She'd come close to losing control before. Hallucinated aliens attacking her, and hurt the child Isolde far more than she should have. Protected an enemy in a bizarre turn of events because of the same hallucinations. How could she tell what was real? How could she be sure that she wouldn't hurt Abra, if the Chaos called and she lost herself in it?

… they were talking about something. What had it been?

"Ah… my name is Aethereal. What kind of magic?" Aethereal asked politely. After a moment, she sat down awkwardly, figuring that it was easier not to do anything sudden and socially unacceptable that way. Like run away. Or attack anyone.

@Abracadabra

To say Abra was afraid would be a lie, but to say Abra was afraid of Aethereal would also be a lie. She was afraid of the spire, which made it's proximity all the more unsettling. She was smart enough to see it was the true cause of this mess, the thing that had driven Aethereal to such rage and near violence. But she naive enough that the cloud of whispers surrounding Aethereal was written off as nothing but wind. She knew nothing of corruption, nor it's danger.

Aethereal's sudden, quick step back drew some concern "You okay? Did it uh- come back?" Abra didn't want a repeat of their little communion with the spire. She didn't know if either of them could even handle a repeat of that, to be frank. She'd calm down as Aethereal seemed to, looking eager to answer her question. Was it genuine interested in the topic at hand or need for a distraction? A mix both, really.

Abra would sit back on her haunches, ticking off her rather meager spell list on her fingers. "I can make pretty patterns appear on things... see into the past.. sometimes... And... Oh, one second!" After a couple moments, a wisp of purplish light would pop into existence a couple feet away. "Wait, can you see? I mean, you don't have a face, but you can still speak..." She'd frown slightly, mulling over this paradox before continuing, "I made a wisp! A little floating fire.. thing? It doesn't do much, but it's kinda pretty..." Almost absent-mindedly, she'd make the wisp float and bop in gentle circles, orbiting the small area around them.

@Aethereal

"It's not back," Aethereal assured Abra. It'd never be back, if she could help it. Using magic around the Spire would have to be a no-go from now on, especially mind magic. She could also keep visits to a minimum, though she wasn't sure if she should (or even could, considering the proclivity of chaos to kill things without stabilization) avoid the Black one as well.

She listened to Abra's spell list with interest, noting the vast differences between Abra's and hers. Harmless spells, all of them, serving to entertain and provide beauty, whereas her own magic was dangerous and destructive. Strength was what Vargas had called it: strength so that she could crush whoever stood in her way, and (hopefully) so that her enemies could not crush her. The unfortunate caveat was that sometimes she crushed herself, and the urges to destroy harmless people seemed so needlessly cruel.

"I can't see," she told Abra, "except sometimes through other people. But I'm not very good at the magic." Nor did she feel like trying it again anytime soon. She'd made it this far in life, after all. (Though admittedly, things hadn't gone the best for her either.)

"But I like hearing about your magic. And if it's pretty," Aethereal added softly, "I don't think it needs to do something more. That's pretty good magic on its own."

@Abracadabra