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[ruinsprofessor]

--"Raine Sage. I can't reach the console right now. If it's an emergency, don't wait to get a hold of me, keep moving. I'm sure I'll hear about it soon. If not, leave a message and I'll contact you when I can."

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[peacefullywreathed]

I can't ... I can't.

[It's mumbled, slurred, barely awake enough for Raine's plea to register. He would, if he could. He can still 'see' his soul sluicing away, faster now as though it only needed enough speed to get past the half-effective ward. Not enough time. He still has something to say.]

Raine--

[Solomon manages to grip her tighter still, his forehead resting against the top of hers. His hand rises, trembling with the effort, his thumb grazing the line of her chin and cheek, his fingers brushing her ear all the way to its pointed tip.]

I love you.

[It's whispered, almost breathed, like a final sigh he still can't quite believe.]

[ruinsprofessor]

[This of all things nearly breaks her: the final giving-up of his formal pet-name for her, so rarely conceded. Raine's eyes sting, and her hold on him tightens in return, almost to the point of pain, an unspoken plea in the trembling of her hands.]

[Don't go.]

I know. I know.

[She almost hates the sound of it, small and desperate as she turns her face toward his hand.]

[She's known longer than he has, only waiting for him to find the words himself. Now any joy at it is overshadowed, made bittersweet.]

Solomon. I'll remember you.

[It's all she can do.]

[peacefullywreathed]

[Solomon doesn't feel the pain; he's too far gone in the fog of Dreaming. He hears Raine's words from some distance, too far to react--but he hears them, and his body relaxes fully into unintended sleep. Then between one breath and another he's gone, the radio gripped in his hand falling to the floor with a clatter.

[And yet it's only the radio that falls.]

[ruinsprofessor]

[With Solomon gone Raine overbalances, falls to her knees. Now, only now, does she allow herself to weep, quietly, shoulders shuddering with how desperately she's trying not to.]

[They'd been wed less than a month. She'd always assumed it would be her that lost him -- even had they a lifetime, she would likely outlive him. That should make the loss easier to bear, having been prepared for it in some little way, but it doesn't. Nor does it make her want that lifetime any less.]

[Raine can't say quite how long she stays there, hands pressed to her mouth, fingers interlaced so tightly that her wedding ring bites into her skin. Eventually she has to get up. Keeliai keeps moving, and injuries won't wait for one woman's grief, and it isn't as though staying in his laboratory will let her pretend Solomon's still there. He's gone, though not by his choice, and Raine will carry on.]

[When it occurs for her to look for it, she can't find his ring, the sage-leaves engraved with a fine line of Gaeilge around the inside vanished as thoroughly as he is.]

[It's better that way, she thinks. It lets her hope.]