#cr2 spoilers
Vilya steps into the dome that the wizard has made and looks up at the images - a collage of lives and moments that lead these people to find her on Rumblecusp, so many years after she vanished from the world.
Things are coming back in dribs and drabs and a part of her wants to find a way to force them all out, right now - but what she has remembered is almost too much.
Korrin. Keyleth. They surely thought she was dead. Lost to the Kraken in the Water Elemental Plane. She can’t stop herself from imagining the sorrow on their faces and in their hearts when they got the news. She has to swallow back tears, but she doesn’t think any of the others noticed. They’re too caught up in their own pasts.
Once upon a time, Vilya had thought that the worst outcome of her Aramenté would be that she would fail and return home in disgrace, having to endure the disappointment of the Air Ashari for the rest of her life. Feeling like she would have let Korrin and Keyleth down.
But this is worse. She left behind a little girl. If Keyleth is still alive - no, she has to be, she HAS to be - she’s an adult now. Vilya looks at the images again and starts imagining Keyleth there, exploring, fighting monsters. She wants to believe that her little girl found her own group of friends and set out on her own Aramenté.
Vilya closes her eyes, swallowing hard, this time failing to hold back the tears. She pictures her dear ones as she’d last seen them, when she scried on them before going into the Elemental Plane of Water. Korrin, his long hair gone mostly silver. Keyleth, spindly and awkward, much like Vilya had been at that age. They had been standing on one of Zephrah’s many wind-swept cliffs, Korrin looking off in the distance as he explained something to their daughter.
Be strong. For her. Vilya opens her eyes again, and sees that Caleb has added an image of her to those of himself and his companions. “There is a strong feeling of companionship here,” she says, amazed that she can make her voice so calm. “Can you do me a favor, add a man walking next to her with light hair, half elf, and a young girl about fourteen with red hair?”
