Rachel felt terrible. She had teleported a short distance to the south after leaving her daughter just west of what the minotaurs had called the Ice Cathedral. She had taken the luxury of walking since then. She didn't trust herself teleporting accurately in her current state of mind, even if she could recall the technique to do so. The sun had set several hours ago so she walked with moist eyes, staring up at a thousand stars in the sky. It reminded of the Heart in a way. The thought didn't bring her any comfort at all.
Lisa was going to Sky Lord Island. Nobody had been able to dissuade from her path. Rachel would have insisted on going with her had it been a land-born journey, but the island was far beyond the ocean. The only way to reach it there was to fly. Once again the abilities of her daughter surpassed her, leaving her feeling inadequate by comparison. Still she would have liked to accompany her daughter to the coast, just to spend a little more time with her, but Lisa wasn't interested in that either. She wanted to travel alone. Her mother's presence wasn't required. How badly had her father's death affected her? Would she ever forgive Rachel for her part in his ultimate demise?
Things had not gone at all as she had hoped. She had only spent a small amount of time with her daughter, their brief discussions barely scraping the surface of the vast void that had opened up between them. There had been no time to put things right.
Her companions had made it abundantly clear that Rachel was the only one capable of making it back to the Orange Zone to warn the others. Central Command needed to be warned about the approaching cleric army - Rachel felt that as strongly as anyone else - but this was one task she would have gladly delegated to someone else, had she been given the choice. She had put so much time and effort into finding her daughter. Now that she had finally found her she had been sent away again. Life felt so unfair at times.
Ranno could have returned to Cinnamon City, she was sure of it. With his talents he could probably even enter the Dome Shield without teleporting. He had always underplayed his abilities. There was still more that he wasn't telling her. What exactly was a nanomachine capable of? She had no idea.
With a final shake of her head, she left all thoughts of her daughter behind. She would come back and find her again as soon as her task was done. This wasn't the last time she would see her daughter. She wouldn't let it be. Still she felt tears welling in her eyes.