They came up out of the dark with the Wisps drifting close, a small cluster of them, a dozen or so soft round lights bobbing along behind the eleven like a handful of lanterns set loose.
The grey-gold light of the Sanctuary met them at the dungeon's mouth, steady and endless, and after the deep black, it felt like stepping into a clean morning.
The Wisps poured out into the open air and clamored upward all at once, delighted, their thin glowing threads streaming behind them as they rose toward the open sky for the first time in who knew how long.
"Oh no you do not," Nira laughed, already reaching. "We did not carry you up forty floors so you could float off and get lost again."
The group caught them quickly, gently, hands and pockets and the soft gold of Aria's banner-light gathering the little lights back down before they could scatter across the plain.
