I'll Never See You Again if I Can't Help It

She wished she had something more intelligent to say, but she didn't. The fact of the matter was: something was very wrong but very different from the last time something was very wrong. How did you begin to explain that in a sensible manner? Fable's life was mostly ruled by things like recipes and cooking timers. Those things had a linear trajectory. You added the right amount of butter and cooked at a specific temperature for a specific amount of time... and there. It was over.

These sorts of things, when they happened, weren't quite so simple.

Fable turned to Noor and tried to figure out how to impart how dire the situation was without sounding completely insane. "When I was young..." she began, her words stilted and halting, "the land also had something... strange happen to it. But it wasn't like this. Well, I mean, it was also dark, but it was different..." She was rambling now, and she knew it. Fable took a deep breath to try and collect her thoughts. This crimson light was almost more foreboding than the simple, unnaturally Long Night she had experienced before.

"It was dark. For a long time. And terrible things happened to many... I got out okay. I was robbed of my sense of taste for some time, and I swear - this sounds insane - but I lost some of my memory, too. Others had far worse," she murmured, staring out at the hellish red landscape before them. "We'll be safer together," she finally said definitively, before turning to inspect Noor for injuries. Fae tried to keep it all business, but she couldn't help the real concern in her voice when she asked, "Are you hurt? Did any rocks hit you while we fled the cave?"

"Speech"