>>5910834Izirina brightens at that, a dangerously-excited smile spreading across her face. This reminds you again of old times... And not necessarily in a GOOD way.
“The land reserve,” she says. “We’ve been attuning it, and the people we’ve been helping there... Building a sort of community, as I was saying. I’m getting close... With just a bit more work, we could make it self-sufficient, protected... Hidden. Whatever else happens, the people we pick—useful people, GOOD people, people who deserve it—they can be safe from...”
...From whatever terrible fate befalls everyone else. Suddenly, your romantic troubles seem rather secondary. And yet, while your mind races your heart is still standing still waiting.
“We’ll figure this out,” you promise them. “together. But... Well, speaking of that...”
“I won’t get in your way,” Costella is quick to say, though she is obviously pained to say so, “you two... You’re, like, star-crossed! Meant to be! I’m just...”
Izzy reaches out to her this time, as Costella has done for her, and seizes Costella’s hand in hers.
“I couldn’t have done all this without you, Costella,” she says. “You’re not ‘just’ anything.”
Costella’s eyes are wracked with something you can’t quite place. Guilt, but also... Uncertainty? And longing? You wonder if, like your friend Logan Pearce, she perhaps feels something more than merely platonic affection for her own sex. She kissed you, it’s true, but as you discovered among the hermaphroditic elves of Holy Luna, things are not always as simple as one or the other... And honestly, if your suspicions WERE accurate, it would rather simplify the whole affair in many ways.