Watching over Sonder and the Yellow Mage gave Vell a great deal of satisfaction.
It wasn't just that he felt he needed to do it. He could.
He could do things. He could go, and act, and, even more simply, see and feel.
He could truly think and remember.
And he could be grateful.
He brought the Yellow Mage, and the bed he had been lying in, over to where Sonder was resting, as it was the more spacious room. Then he sat in a chair, watching over both of them.
Moving the bed was more strenuous than he had expected.
It seemed that it wasn't just magic that was limited for him at the moment. Simple physical strength was limited, too.
If he had been asleep for a while, then it would make sense. He wasn't immune to muscle atrophy. Perhaps it was something else.
It didn't matter right now.
He watched over Sonder and the Yellow Mage and wondered when they would wake up.
He hoped it would be soon.
There was something strange about being awake while everyone else was asleep. He had spent so long in the opposite state that he almost felt as though he were intruding upon a world that had continued without him.
He looked at his hands again. They were his hands. They looked the same as he remembered them.
He turned them over, examining the palms, the fingers, the small lines in the skin.
He closed one hand into a fist, then opened it.
It was such a simple thing.
He had never thought he would be so glad to do something so simple.
He leaned back in the chair.
It was very quiet.
Sonder was breathing, though her breaths were usually very shallow and spaced out.
She was still undead.
The Yellow Mage had always breathed silently. His injuries hadn't changed that.
Vell did not know how long he sat there.
Time still felt strange.
It might only have been a moment, but he wasn't sure.
He didn't think he had fallen asleep.
But the room had changed. To him, it was noticeable in a very particular way.
There was something moving.
At first, one might have thought it was just dust.
A small puff of it, no larger than his fist, drifted just above the floor beside Sonder's bed.
It moved slowly, turning in the air as though caught in a breeze that Vell could not feel.
He watched it for a while.
There was no breeze. The windows were shut, and the dust was moving with purpose.
Vell stood and followed it with his eyes as the little thing drifted a short distance away from Sonder's bed.
It stopped.
Then it turned toward him.
Vell stopped too.
He crouched down.
The little creature drifted closer.
He held out a hand, and it came toward him.
He felt a faint tickling sensation against his fingers.
The creature circled his hand once.
Then again.
"Well, hello," he said.
It hovered in front of him.
He knew, in some way, that it could understand him.
He moved his hand to one side, and the creature followed it.
"Oh, I see."
He held his hand still.
The creature stopped.
He moved it suddenly upward.
It didn't follow.
He had expected that. It wasn't here to play.
And with the way it was hovering over Sonder, he thought that perhaps it was a pet she had acquired during her journey while he was gone.
"Well," he said softly, "I suppose you are not going anywhere."
The creature went back and settled by Sonder's side.
Vell watched it.
Sometimes it moved, but after a while it always returned to Sonder.
He let it.
He was curious.
He wanted to know what it was.
But he did not feel the need to find out immediately.
There were so many things he did not know anymore.
One more would not hurt.