The Magic Guild: A Familiar Pain

[gorgonfondness]

Mia didn't know. Not until she saw the sign.

She couldn't go to the wake, not when she just found out. She didn't know him as well as she could have, but he was a dear friend and a comrade in arms with Will and her. She's not sure how she was able to hold it together all the way back to her quarters in Vane.

Once she did, she collapsed on her bed (as much as she could considering her current shape) and just cried. Cried until she wore herself out, until she almost felt like she couldn't breathe.

It's amazing, the pain of losing a friend.

Comments

[gorgonfondness]

"I didn't know where else to go," she says before covering her nose and mouth while she continues to cry.

Before long, she's gasping for air again.

[iambetadraconis]

"Mia, breathe!"

Rabastan is at her bedside before he's aware he's even moved.

"You came here, though. Where you have friends and family ready to help you through this."

[gorgonfondness]

Mia's already leaning against him, now trying to make a conscious effort to get herself under control.

Though it's difficult, her sobs are starting to come a little slower and she isn't gasping from the effort of them quite so loudly or frequently.

"It just-" she tries. "Had no idea- what if- what if we- could've helped?"

[iambetadraconis]

This moment feels not unlike when the bar finally learned what really happened when Boo disappeared. Only, Rabastan wasn't thinking 'what if?' thoughts—he was thinking 'I'm gonna do this' thoughts.

"You could, but it depends more on how he died. Some ways of dying you can't do anything about but make it easier on the person about to die."

Because you can die from mundane things, even in Milliways. And Rabastan has no idea how Doc had perished.

[gorgonfondness]

Mia doesn't either, but that doesn't really help matters.

Except that she is quieting down a little more. Perhaps it's time for Rabastan's next move.

[iambetadraconis]

It doesn't, but initiative, and more of it, might. Mia's hair is given an assuring stroking. This might help his niece-by-marriage-to-a-man-he's-uncle-to-by-marriage calm her mind enough to clear away some of the emotional tumult and get some thinking in.

"When exactly did this happen? Him dying? Did they tell you when you found out about it?"

Announcement sign for wake? What announcement sign? He was here in Vane hiding from the full moon and missed it.

[gorgonfondness]

She shakes her head.

"There was a sign saying there was a wake. I hadn't known about it before that."

Which is another thing that doesn't quite help: exactly how long was Doc dead before that?

[iambetadraconis]

"Your friend died, they did not tell you; they merely left a sign up for anyone to see and read, assuming everyone already knew?"

Rabastan may be thinking that there are some parties involved who need a Talking To about making sure that those who are friends with the newly-deceased know about the dying of the person involved.

Anyways, he's not too chuffed about Mia being kept in the dark.

Mia, he reasons, is pregnant, not fragile. She can handle the telling.

[gorgonfondness]

Mia's not sure who was really supposed to tell her.

"I don't know. I don't know how I was supposed to find out. The last time I learned a friend died, he told me myself."

[iambetadraconis]

But someone should have. Rabastan is resolute on this matter.

"Well, it is Milliways, that can happen."

Still.

He thinks on this.

"Doc may yet be able to come back and tell you what you were not told: the details."

[gorgonfondness]

"I don't know if that would be better or worse..."

[iambetadraconis]

"Nobody ever knows, until it happens."

[gorgonfondness]

She sniffles a bit and wipes away some tears with the knuckles of her hand.

"All I can think of is why. There never seems to be an answer."