: Are you okay?

Cindy was, however, far too busy coughing and hastily breathing to offer any coherent answer. When she finally managed to collect herself, she found herself being wrapped by a verdant green light which came from the leaves and the diamonds of the dome covering the palace; the very dome she had utterly forgotten about in her rush to see the dawn. Sure enough, the heart from which she had emerged had become fully golden and the sun was at work in the eastern sky, sending the rays of majesty piercing the gaps between the leaves and twinkling through the little crystals above so that, even though the whole land was covered in that dome, everything of Stallion's Rest was clear as on a sweet summer day. Just as clear but far more beautiful.

The wind promptly descended to greet the young girl and actually helped along the waters of the upper pool as they retreated back into home just as their cousins from the waters below had done. Throughout all this, Chainbreaker had been awkwardly waiting for a response. Yet, the young girl remained silent even as her breath, and the rhythm of her core rising and falling, slowed. She was looking at the leafen divide. Her fists had become clenched and her eyes, narrower as disappointment fell upon her. Noticing a peculiarity, Chainbreaker followed after Cindy's gaze and looked up at the dome and then looked back at the girl, finally sure of the cause of her distress.

Young lady, be assured. We are far too close to the sun for its unhindered light to be anything but blinding.

At last, Cindy finally took notice of her rescuer- clad in her rose-red cloak. Pushing herself up at once, the girl mouthed (in vain) a "Thank you for your help" before stretching out her hand for a shake. And though the Overseer neither heard nor noticed the "thank you" she accepted the hand and the gratitude therein.

And here I thought I'd get to meet a Mermaid. Silly girl.

Then the censoring effect of a mind lost-in-thought began to fade and a noise began to ascend. Looking down, Cindy noticed unnumbered droplets scattered all round the ground about them both. And it was very hard not to notice them as the green rays of light came down upon them to produce a sort of glittering effect so that they looked like diamonds rolling back home. As the waters met, their murmurings became ever louder and harder to ignore and though she couldn't understand them, she felt as though they were very mean.

If it's not some great secret, may I ask what I might do to make peace with the waters?

But there was no reply since the question went unnoticed, jogging Cindy's memory of her predicament. Without her notepad, Cindy decided not to bother with repeating herself and, in fact, she felt quite silly about asking the question in the first place.

So even here...

In this holy place...

It is only him.

Putting the notion of conversation aside, Cindy began walking round to take in her new environment- with Chainbreaker as her escort. The roof she had finally managed to reach was, of course, far larger than only the heart. In fact, the heart was not even the centre of it but a little higher. It was, however, the marker for a sort of crossroads which formed the shape of a sword- with the heart marking the joining of the blade, handle and crossguard. The roof was, for the most part, rectangular and the path stretching from east to west (that was blade and handle) ran the length of the longer sides while the path stretching north to south (the crossguard) covered the distance of the width. The part of that path east of the heart (the handle of the imagined sword) was aimed towards the upper battlements, with the path itself coming to a stop between two sets of stairs which bridged the nest of the battlements with the roof proper.

The outline of the path was lit up by a series of lamp posts which were all around Chainbreaker's height and about ten paces away from each other. Each post also had a sort of climbing plant wrapping around its pole and capping off the tip of its lantern. And all of them seemed to have been put out very recently. All except one. Cindy noticed it first but kept perfectly quiet about it. It was only when they had walked a few paces towards it that Chainbreaker took notice of the mistake.

Hold on.

With a light run, the Overseer made it to the lamp and opened the little door of the lantern to see to the flame; which Cindy finally noticed was not an ordinary flame at all but a little sun like the ones she had seen before. With a little, flat spoon taken from the side of the pole, Chainbreaker scooped up the little sun, which was rising and falling ever so softly as though it were snoring. Slowly and steadily, Chainbreaker brought it out of its lamp before yelling "Boo!" with such force that the star flew off of the spoon and began hovering on its own. The Overseer then returned the spoon to its resting place, only to look back and witness something which gave her such a shock that she had trouble hiding it: She saw the little sun dance around Cindy and loop around her arms and cuddle under her neck before doing what it was meant to do and flying up into the sky to join its kind in the greater light hanging from the boundless sky. For her part, Chainbreaker could not hear the laughing but she could very well see it and it was obvious to her that the little ball of fire did little more than tickle the girl.

Will-o'-wisps. Crewmates of the sun who come to rest in our palace. At night, when the sun travels to a different Realm, the will-o'-wisps of those lands take their turn while the others have a rest. Now ours must do their part.

There were a great many things Cindy wanted to say in response- comments about how cute the wisps were or how exciting the bifrost had been. However, the mere thought of trying to explain all these through lip-reading was enough to exhaust her and so she simply tugged at her hostess' cloak to steal her focus before articulating, with as much clarity as she could muster...

What time does Guardian usually wake up?

Being an Overseer, Chainbreaker understood the message nearly word-for-word.

Little one, he is awake already. When he found you missing, he called for me. And when I finally found you, I told him nothing of what you were doing- only that you were safe and under my care. And I must say, I did not expect you to make it to the pool. I would have let you alone were you not in deathly danger. As for my son, he has been hard at work preparing a meal for you. I suppose he'd be done by now so I will send you to him.

What?

Sorry I can't join you but I have business to attend to. The business of being a good mother.

Then and there, the Chainbreaker stretched out her right arm, revealing her deep purple bracer from beneath her cloak. And on the bracer was a jewel and, then and there, the jewel began to glow and the pool began to rumble and the air became filled with the murmurings and complaints of the droplets. Then, Cindy saw it.

Arising from the pool, like a proper bubble out of a soapy bath, was one of the enchanted bubbles from the bifrost room; it was one of the rosey ones. When, at last, it was completely out of the water, it began gently hovering over the pool and towards the two Whos until it was low enough for Cindy to step inside, which was the idea. Chainbreaker promptly mentioned as much as she urged her guest on. And Cindy did, indeed, step inside, with one foot and one hand. It was a very funny feeling since she had no trouble putting her foot into the bubble and pulling it out of the bubble but when she let it simply rest on its surface- it somehow managed to not fall through.

When she had been playing at entering the bubble for a while, with her left foot already inside and maintaining a little balance, whatever part of Chainbreaker that was still childish took control of the whole and she pushed the young Cindy inside so that she fell over and rolled about the bottom of the rosey sphere. Then, with a little wave, the Overseer sent both her guest and the bubble away, back down the pool (during which Cindy finally got the scale of how deep it was and felt a little better about failing to swim up it). Down and down through the bifrost room she went, until she came upon one of the middle rings where the bubble looped around a little as if it were lost before coming upon a certain painting which was obviously far narrower than the bubble itself. For a moment, Cindy was afraid that the bubble would fail to fit through and that she would be made to endure continuous discomfort while it tried. When it slipped through the painting with ease, she felt very silly for doubting.

The room beyond the painting was very clearly a dining room with fine wooden chairs and a large round table. The walls were of a sandy colour with what seemed to be painted-on leaves and branches near the top and bottom, stretching out, but not quite reaching, the very middle. And, running along the lengths of the very top and the very bottom of the walls, were sections of wood which suggested trunks for the branches and leaves.

At last, the bubble popped and Cindy, who had been sitting down inside it, fell right down with her bum against the hard floors. And at the pop, unnumbered droplets off rosey water fell upon the ground and on her person before beginning to swim away and out of the room. Cindy got the sense that the droplets were bound for the bottom pool and destined to be made back into a bubble- however that worked. That was her suspicion but such thoughts soon fell away at the pull of the air. At the first, she found that she had become much rosier as if the droplets had been some manner of perfume for her. Then her sense reached beyond her own sweetness and found hints of a breakfast travelling alongside a company of crackles and clanks and sizzles as they journeyed out from an adjacent room- beyond a more ordinary kind of door.