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It was safe to say that Astra was not acting her usual self, and chances were, she would never act like her usual self ever again. Well, at least thats what she thought. Considering she had missed out on the seeds secret mission, and yet she just couldn't bring herself to care.

But even so, she was a part of SEEDS, so she ought to give Lizzy some sort of apology for not turning up. Or maybe she just wanted some company? Telling herself it was just because she wanted to say sorry, she flew towards the demon dorms and towards Lizzy room.

"L-lizzy?" She said in a small voice as she knocked on the pink haired demon's door. "Are you in there?"

When the door opened, Astra looked up at the spider demon with wide eyes, for a few moments unable to say anything. She felt tongue tied, gazing at the cheery faced Lizzy. "Ah, ah..Hi Lizzy!" She stuttered out. "Y-yeah, it's been a long time...umm" focus, focus!. "Oh, I just came here to...to apologize.... Yes, I wanted to apoligise for not turning up to the mission..." Her gaze feel to the floor guilty. "I've..been out of sorts as of late." Which was a very nice way of saying she was still morning.

Astra looked at the Lizzy with a confused expression on her face when she talked about a"evening picnic". What did she mean?

...oh!

Her feelers drooped when she realized she had just spoken out loud about something that was super top secret, feeling guilty that she might have just exposed a super secret organization to the whole school. "Okay..." she said softly, walking inside and taking a brief interest in her surroundings.

"Um, tea please..." She said when prompted. "That would be lovely, thankyou..."

Was there something troubling her?

The smell of mint filled the room, and she did feel herself calm down, if only a little. But that question could be answered simply as yes. Something was troubling her. Something that made everything seem meaningless. She had lost her friend, her mentor...She had lost Riley. Everything she had learned up to now had conversed into one simple fact. She had done nothing to assist the mindflyer, and now she was just a stone object.

Astra didn't say this out loud, of course. Her frame shook as she tried to supress the tears that threatened to spill over at Lizzy's kindness. She didn't want to break down and cry here, because it wouldn't do a thing save make her look weak and useless (although, wasn't she that anyway?)

instead, she focused on drinking the tea, sitting down in the comfy seat. She still hadn't said anything, but then, what should she say?

"I...feel like I should have done more..."

Yeah, she'd go with that

Really, was it alright to cry? Astra knew what Lizzy was saying was wise and what she should probably do, but she didn't want to break down into tears. She always broke down into tears, and for what? Did her crying ever do anything?

But as lizzy spoke, much to Astra's chagrin, her eyes were welling up with water that slowly split over, and she hung her head. She just couldn't help herself.

"Lizzy.." she choked back a sob. "You're right...I should...m-move on...get a s-stronger resolve... B-but" a hand went to cover her face "I miss her! I miss her so much...I wish I had gone to visit her more, and helped her out more...And now she's gone..."

Once she had been pulled close, Astra continued to sob into the other ghouls dress, letting herself be comforted and allowing herself to release her pent up emotions. Her chest felt tight as she remembered all the times she had been with her friend, and all the things she had taught her .

However, even as she sobbed, she still heard Lizzy's words, and her mind thought about who was still here. Yuki, Xiu, Lizzy...and even Mal and Jericho. There were plenty of others as well, and if they needed her...

"A lantern"? She repeated, leaning backwards to look at Lizzy with tear-filled eyes. A form of saying goodbye? The idea of saying goodbye to Riley made her feel ever worse, and yet..

"Y-yes please.."

The fae watched Lizzy retrieve one of the paper lanterns she had mentioned, amazed by the beauty of something so simple. It was flower shaped, looking like a lotus if she remembered correctly. She also noted how small the candle was. It seemed a fitting tribute, considering she was pretty small herself (even if she was loathed to admit it)

"Yes, of course" She said, taking Lizzy's hand and letting her lead the way.

As she stood at the lake side, watching the still waters as the sun dissapeared over the horizon, Astra received the lantern in her hands, holding it reverently. She smiled a Lizzy in return, then looked out over the water once more, her face grim.

It sounded easy, to just say goodbye to someone and let the flower drift away, but how...how could she put into words what she felt in her heart? She couldn't, as she felt words alone could not express them.

So she didn't

placing the flower on the edge of the lake, she then searched through her clothing for something that she hadn't revealed to anyone. When she pulled her hands free of her clothes, she had in it a simple wooden flute. Before now she had seen no reason to play the flute, nor reveal the fact that she could. Was she very good at it? Not really; it was just something she did more often when she was at home, were the forest denizens would sometimes hold parties and play music at them.

Gently she bent down to push the flower deeper into the water, were it began to float away form the bank. As it did, she pressed the flute to her lips and blew softly. A soft note floated over the lake, followed by another long note before she began her song.

The song itself was nothing special, and in fact she stuffed up a few of the notes here and there. It was a sad one, the high pitched sounds coming from the flute sounding more sombre then what would be considered from such a instrument. In her mind, Astra was trying to convey her sadness, her longing to see her friend again but knowing that i was not possible, and wishing her friend a safe departure from this world and a blissful sleep, free of pain and torment.