Alm and Bruno had already built a strong trust in Grassrunner, but unfortunately, in the current situation, they couldn't envision a real path to their own survival. Saving that woman was not in the plans.
As they faced Liumi's distant eyes, now teary, they noticed something in her gaze. It was an endless will flowing in them, and the light that once danced in her eyes was extinguished by a shadow; now, they were filled with anguish and suffering. A combination they knew... and had tasted for millennia... it was like walking on the edge of a precipice, wishing the wind would push them down...
It all lasted just a second, but certainty permeated both of them. With the death of the dark elf, a small crack in Liumi's control opened, granting her minimal autonomy.
She saw the whale in critical and desperate condition, and her soul trembled in lament to the point of wanting to shatter in pain. That human was one step away from death, and she was the sole culprit...
