Elsie buried her face into Tyb's shoulder, the sobs quiet and exhausted; she just didn't have the energy for anything more. Her fingers curled into his robes, holding on, the only thing keeping her grounded. It was hard to feel anything but safe with Tyb's arms around her, but even his soothing voice did little to dispel the horrors she'd seen.

"It was awful," she managed. "So many injuries and fatalities, such carnage, in the library. I can't make heads or tails of it." Els whispered, her thoughts coming out somewhat incoherently. People with severe, life-threatening injuries in the lobby of the library; patients lined up in the stacks; discarded supplies tossed haphazardly all over the place. Would she ever be able to unsee all of that? "I should have come home sooner, but the barrier, and I wasn't sure I could. I felt so guilty leaving when help was needed." Nobody knew the library like she did. Elsie had never been very good in a crisis, but she just hadn't been able to tear herself away. She'd grown up with brothers, had given birth twice, she was not shy around blood, but this was, had been, far too much.

"Awful, just awful," she repeated, breathless, curling into herself against him. Families torn apart, lives forever ruined and changed, injuries that would never go away. Els had to count her blessings that as far as she knew, this was the worst of it for her.