"Savathûn presumed that my throne would hold me. That I would either willingly relinquish myself to its safety or become trapped within it."

Ikora shook her head, smiling. Eris shared in her smile.

"She did not anticipate the Guardian's resourcefulness. And she misjudged me."

"As did those of us who assumed your death was final." In the admission, Ikora's smile faded.

"As I, too, assumed." Eris tilted her head, studying Ikora intently. "Do you presume that you should have come looking for me? No. You did the right thing, Ikora. That I survived, that I am triumphant, could not have been reasonably predicted."

They stood together in Eris's throne, in the world that was made of all of her, yet still Eris did not understand all that was contained within.

"You're comforting me," Ikora said, her voice a tense whisper. "You shouldn't. Eris, you're the one who died."

"Yes. But you're the one who grieved."

Ikora turned away, and Eris let her. To accept comfort was no small task, as she well knew. In silence, they studied the spines of books ancient and new, the runes writ along them in delicate gleaming soulfire.

"I missed you," Ikora said finally. "I… felt that somehow, I had let you down: that I should have kept you safe. Even knowing you would have hated it."

"That is your curse," Eris returned solemnly. "Responsibility."

For that, Ikora laughed, startled into it. "You and Ophiuchus see it very differently."

"Ghosts are bound to worry."

Ikora's half-smile faded into soberness again. She drew stillness about herself as a cloak. "Was I right to let you go?"

"It was all I would let you do," Eris told her. She gestured up and around, to the infinite helix-library that cradled her innermost self. "This sort of library suits me as one in the Tower never could. You did what you could, Ikora."

Absolution offered, held in the quiet space between them. Ikora was the one to break it, closing the gap to sweep Eris up into a tight embrace. They held each other for a long moment.

"Don't do that again," Ikora whispered.

"I won't," Eris replied.