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It wasn't the first time Maebe had entered the Moon Division's run, but it was the only time she'd ever come seeking more than just vague distraction. It had taken her this long to even care enough to do the runs, and only because fear had overridden her deep set need to give the minimum amount of effort. She climbed up to the middle of the island, and started collecting wood to make barricades with. She knew what the flash of pink out of the corner of her eye was, and largely ignored it for the time being. The last thing she cared about was the golem itself, or who it looked like. If she had cared, it wouldn't have come as such a painful surprise.

"You're doing it wrong." The golem's voice, as tired and annoyed as it sounded, managed to slice straight through her heart until all of the wood in her hands toppled to the floor. "You should have used bricks. Some savior you are."

He looked healthier than the real Taym did, when she turned to look at the man in the princess dress. Perhaps that was because this Taym did not have a cigarette wafting a constant stream of smoke, or perhaps it was because the vague, blank look on his face was the mark of a golem that could never have known a life like his. There was nothing in his eyes that told her he'd seen too much, and wished for so little. He was just a golem; programmed with an attitude to complain about everything she did, which was comforting - and yet hollow, all the same.

"That's cruel, you guys." Maebe called out into the air, hoping the Life Division heard her as she stomped away to the tower. Under her breath, she muffled again with a cracking voice. "Really ******** cruel."

"You're still using wood?"

Maebe stacked up another barrier, and continued prattling away at the golem, while simultaneously ignoring everything it said. "And then he was like, oh, I don't feel that way for you. Which, I mean, you know me. That just made me want it more. It's a sickness, really."

"Your barriers are crooked."

"And then Cami came back, and I've gone and broken her heart, because everything's different now. I look at her and it's - it's just not the same. I don't even know how to tell her that. More importantly, I don't know why I can't just get over it. She's the only person in the world who could ever love me for who I really am."

"That wood is moldy. It's not going to hold."

"So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I've really ******** up everything, and now there's this god damn clone thing going, and you're missing, and she's missing, and I'm starting to rethink all of my best laid strategies. I mean, me. Rethinking anything. It's utterly absurd."

"For <******** sake, Maebe. It's time for you to grow up."

She crashed all of the wood from her final barrier using a log, and whirled around as if she half expected him to be standing there, cigarette in hand, utterly ragged and unshaven and completely him. Instead, all she saw was a golem in a short dress, staring her down apathetically.

"You knocked over that barrier." It chimed in helpfully, in a voice that didn't sound like Taym at all. But she'd heard it, if only for a moment. She'd heard him..

She kept her eye on the golem as she fixed up the last barrier again, and slowly, fearfully, walked back up to the tower to watch him - not the shadowlings, him. If she was hearing voices again..

She had one more awful thing to worry about.

She was quieter, this time around. She knew if she spoke to it like it was Taym, her mind would convince herself that it was.

"I can't believe you're not going to use bricks this time."

But she couldn't help it, when his voice punctured the silence. She tried to remind herself, over and over, that she wasn't crazy - and that was a golem made of mud and cloth, and not her missing friend.

"Hah, friend."

Her nails dug into the wood, her eyes closed, and she pushed and pushed until she saw dots behind her eyelids. Not him. Not crazy. Not him. Not crazy.

"I've been thinking." She breathed out shakily. "About taking up smoking. Maybe it'll calm my nerves."

"Filthy habit." The golem snarked out, and for once she couldn't even tell if it was the golem, or her twisted mind that had made the words. She laughed, because it was a filthy habit, and she knew her teeth word turn yellow like his, and her lips would always taste like smoke. She would never look cool, or sophisticated, or sexy. She would never work smoking like it was an asset, only a crutch.

"And I thought about transferring, a dozen times. Death, Mist, Sun. Anything but Moon. I could be good somewhere else."

"You could be good anywhere, if you applied yourself. But you're not going to do that."

She gave up on trying to push the voice out of her mind, because it was too tempting. It was too familiar, and she was too desperate. As she stacked wood furiously, her words and her spirit spiraled out of control. "You don't know that. Maybe I've changed. Maybe I'm stronger than you remember. Maybe I don't even need you telling me what to do anymore. I could get things right, for once. You don't know. You don't know me anymore, Obadiah."

She waited, keeping her back to him, while her body shook with a mixture of triumph and terror, for his snarky response. All she got was a long and heavy silence, until-

"You're putting too many in one barrier, now you're just wasting wood."

The triumph bled away when the golem's normal voice made it to her ear, and she put the wood down on the final barrier, all but bolting away.

I have begun to worry, child. Thaw finally spoke up, as Maebe sat in the tower, barely paying any attention to the final wave. That perhaps you were right to question this phenomenon.

Maebe huffed out a humorless laugh. "No s**t. And here we thought I'd gotten over all of that hoodoo bullshit, huh? Too bad you can't fix broken brains, Thaw. I bet I've got a few screws you could tighten."

The last shadowling died against her sturdy walls, leaving the princess relatively unharmed. It turned it's head up to the tower, meeting her eyes.

"What am I going to do?" She asked that lifeless gaze, suddenly desperate for him to answer. "What the hell am I supposed to do? Why can't you just - just - tell me?"

The run was over, and the golem disappeared, but Maebe was left with a gnawing hunger to find some way to help, and the smell of smoke in her nostrils to remind her that she'd never bothered to try.

But you won't, will you.

"You don't know me." She muttered, turning away to leave. "Not anymore."