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Hvergelmir smiled at the feeling of a friendly aura -- another knight -- approaching. She'd been working on her thread spinning, as she usually did these days, and while it kept her hands busy, it didn't really leave her mind much to do.

Friendly conversation was the best balm for that: and while an Order aura didn't necessarily guarantee that the chat was going to be an agreeable one, it rarely ended in danger or harm for her. This was particularly true of other knights, who in her experience seemed to take to her oath a little more comfortably than some others. Perhaps the formal nature of it was just naturally more familiar to them than to senshi . . . or perhaps Hvergelmir had simply had a run of luck of familiar knights. Or, as a third possibility, perhaps their shared tragedy at Mistral had just drawn a group of them together.

Except Bifrost, she thought, pondering and worrying a little. Hvergelmir wondered to herself whether or not the woman would respond if a Cosmos knight she barely knew sent her a note. She'd have to give it a try, at least, sometime. The worst that could happen would be that she'd just get no response.

Today, though Hvergelmir was met with a friendly face -- a page of Mercury she was quite fond of. "Mimisbrunnr," she greeted the other woman affably. "What brings you out here?"

Ah. That was -- that was pretty understandable. Hvergelmir had first gone to her wonder when she'd still been innocent of how dangerous they could be. Her first trip to space had been Aquarius Outpost, which was damaged but perfectly calm and safe. Her own wonder had held no fear for her -- and had proven peaceful and harmless.

Mimisbrunnr's first experiences of space would've been things like Olympus and Mistral, though. One pulled you across the solar system without warning, and the other -- the other had been Mistral. They didn't inspire feelings of safety.

"That's okay -- we'll go together. You can take my hand, and then it's just, repeat after me: I pledge my life and loyalty to -- Mercury, I guess, and to Mimisbrunnr? I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine. Then just try and clear your mind and focus in on the energy of your wonder when you can feel it.

"How about it -- do you want to give it a try right now?" She held out her hand.

There was no time like the present, especially with things you were afraid of. Hvergelmir knew that much; she spent lots of her time putting off things she was afraid of.

Hvergelmir was staring wide-eyed at the space over Mimisbrunnr's shoulder. This was probably not even a little reassuring.

"I heard it," she said slowly, like a person in a horror movie.

She heard it -- but unfortunately could not see anything that would explain the origins of the voice. Memories of Mistral made her toes curl in fear and with the phantom sensation of blood squelching underfoot. She'd been looking around, eyes drinking in the beautiful, cool blue-and-white cavern of Mistral's wonder, when the voice had startled them both.

She squeezed Mimisbrunnr's hands, not willing yet to let go.

"There's nothing there," she said ominously, voice quaking.

The appearance of the ghost -- particularly since it had moved -- did not immediately make Hvergelmir feel any better. It took a while for her to convince herself to listen to what the apparition was saying.

She wanted to help them. She was a friendly ghost.

Okay. Yes. Okay. Babylon had had an ancestor! He had been a friendly ghost! She could totally go with this.

She took a few deep breaths, totally going with this.

(But still holding onto one of Mimisbrunnr's hands.)

"I'm the squire of Hvergelmir, and bear its name," she introduced herself, dipping into a curtsy (but, nevertheless, still holding Mimisbrunnr's hand). This seemed like basically a polite thing to do. "I have the honor of serving that great Wonder."

Babylon had had a ghost ancestor, Mimisbrunnr had a ghost ancestor, lots of people had ghost ancestors -- Hvergelmir would have given her left kidney for a ghost ancestor. It seemed like such an advantage . . . compared to the alternative, which was apparently to occasionally recall occasional two-second reels of oneself doing laundry in a past lifetime. Joy. Terribly helpful.

So, while Mimisbrunnr's ancestral ghost had, at first, seemed terrifically spooky, Hvergelmir was immediately now willing to view her as a helpful asset and react accordingly. She had no problem assisting the other knight with turning the power back on, if she could -- though something else Aishe had said had already thrown her off.

"Excuse me, but -- did you say this place is a library?"

Hvergelmir looked around again. She supposed space libraries could be made up of anything, but -- all the same, it was odd to be standing in a library with no actual books to be seen.

The Great Libary of Mimisbrunnr . . . Well, that didn't sound so bad.

Then again, Mistral was just a laboratory. And Hvergelmir's group had only been on the Archival floor.

She shuddered and looked around as she followed the pair of women -- wondering what kinds of dangerous texts might be here, or why a library had been built around a well.

"I can probably provide a spark," she said, which was certainly an understatement -- then followed it with, "But, uh.... is this place... safe? Is there a security system or anything?"

'I think.'

Hmm. Well, that was certainly more than a little intriguing.

"Excuse the question," Hvergelmir led off, "and I hope it doesn't sound impertinent, but -- how complete is your memory? Do you remember things like how you died? What happened to this place? What happened to Mercury, or to the galaxy at large? Right now it's... mostly dead, except for Earth. And we're struggling to understand how an entire thriving galaxy could suddenly die out, all its life, nearly all at once."

She hemmed and hawwed a little, self-conscious. "I mean, we'll definitely help, so point us in the right direction to get the power going again, just -- it's vitally important information. If there's any chance you can remember even a little...?"

Hvergelmir did not have a ghost ancestor. That didn't mean she was unwilling to milk other people's ghost ancestors for as much information as she could.