Not for the first time, Mara finds Crow sitting in the rafters of her court, watching the clockwork creatures through high windows.

"You wish to speak with me." She does not wait for him to come down, but joins him in the aerie.

"How can you bear to see them cursed… knowing there is nothing you can do?"

Mara considers this. "The impossibility of any situation is flexible, if you know where to look." Her brother's defeated sigh mirrors her own frustrations. "You're not wrong. It's heartbreaking to see those in your charge suffer."

Up close, Mara can see how Light and time have reshaped him. Crow fidgets with a strand of his new cloak. "Eido is no closer to a cure. Though she would never admit it. We have nothing but dead ends and ticking clocks."

"Do you suspect she will do something reckless?" she asks.

"I've seen love drive people to extremes, break any law, fight any battle, just for a glimpse of hope."

"Sometimes, hope is enough." Mara watches the battle play out below them, as it has countless times before. "Sometimes hope is all a leader can offer. Actions may build a bridge, but it is hope that drives us to cross to the other side."

The cycle continues around them, a still point in the center of a whirling, recurring dream.

For a moment, their duties wait.