Ulric and Anna

[Yes. Broken thirsts!]

"We just have to go back. Send us back," Ulric said in a rush.

[Go back. Close mind.]

Anna embraced Ulric, face to face. They both felt themselves disconnecting, stumbling back towards reality.

[Goodbye Old Friends. Will return for New Friend.]

"New friend?" Ulric called back as he fell to the ground – quiet painlessly – beneath Anna.

[New Friend will be Different.]

"What ... what?"

But the moment was gone.

Hard rock was underneath his body, along with no small number of bruises. His erection was already twitching, impatiently releasing his fluid into the warm belly of the woman whose breasts were currently under his crushing grip.

Around them, wind swirled and thunder cracked once more.

"Water," Anna declared, carelessly dislodging him from her insides. "We need to find some water."

Ulric nodded as he watched her refasten the single undamaged toggle on her dress. It made her presentable, if a bit scandalous. He ruthlessly laced his pants back up.

"Where?"

Their eyes scanned the grounds around them. No small number of philosophers were standing at them, ghostly white faces topping bodies that appeared stunned into utter limpness.

"A trough!" Anna shouted over the wind, pointing towards a horse corral.

They set off together.

"What's with them?" Ulric wondered of the philosophers.

Shielding her face against the wind that tried to pull them back to the Obelisk, Anna spoke as she trudged.

"When we're talking to the Obelisk," she explained. "We're surrounded by this ... this sphere of lightning. No telling what those idiots thought of it."

"So we might be hailed as godsends?"

"Or tortured for demons."

One side of Ulric's mouth twitched.

They reached the trough and found a bucket suitable for the purpose.

"Think that's enough?" she asked him.

"Hope so."

Running with the wind at their backs they arrived quickly at the centre of the storm. Ulric lifted the cone so that the flat side of it was level with the ground.

"Save some of the water," he warned.

Anna nodded and emptied half of the bucket over the surface. Together they slid the cone underneath the Obelisk and fitted it into place. Not only did it give a satisfying click, but it began hissing and didn't fall back down when they let go of it.

"Here," Ulric pointed, noticing a seam between the broken piece and the main body.

Anna splashed some water on the crack and watched as, with a hiss and a flash of blue light, the crack sealed. She went around the perimeter of the cone, splashing water wherever she saw a gap.

"That's it!" she declared. "Let's get out of here."

The two of them took off at a run, waving at the spellbound philosophers to clear off. Dumbfounded, they obeyed. At about sixty paces, they collapsed to their knees, utterly exhausted.

Heaving in a way that threatened the single toggle that held her dress together across her cleavage, Anna remarked, "If this isn't far enough, nothing is."

Ulric put his arms around her.

"It will have to do," he agreed.

They turned back towards the Obelisk as the winds began to calm. The effect was anything but reassuring. The lightning rope still flickered, but emitted not a single crack of thunder. The fire laden clouds in the sky still burned, but without the snapping of a proper fire.

There was a moment of complete silence in which the Librarian and his lover tore their eyes away from the Obelisk to share a quick glance.

When they looked back, the black rock had risen infinitesimally off the ground. It bobbed there for a moment and then, with a crack, shot off into the sky like the homesick piece of of the heavens that it was.

The fires in the sky began to smooth out, losing their lustre. The black clouds began to dissipate. Maybe it would rain soot for a few days. Who could say?

"We did it, then?" Anna wondered.

"I think so."

"What do you think it meant?" Anna asked, looking down at that last, heroic toggle between her breasts.

"It was thirsty."

"No," she clarified without looking up. "I mean the bit about returning for its new friend."

"Didn't it mean you?"

"No. It called me an old friend, like you."

Ulric thought a moment.

"I don't know."

Anna gulped.

"I think I do."

It was then that Ulric realized that Anna hadn't been looking at her breasts, but her belly.

Timing. It was all about timing.

The new friend would be different.