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White Lily looked around, instinctively gripping her staff to her chest. Where was she..?
Dark sunk in around her, but it was illuminated by stars. She stared up at them, realizing just how long it had been since she stargazed. Once upon a time, her teachers had taught her the constellations. Could she still name them? She'd known them by heart, all those years ago..
A heavy air appeared at her shoulder. Silent Salt! She looked up at him, smiling. "What are we doing out here?"
He didn't respond, looking out at the beautiful night sky. If Lily hadn't stargazed in forever, he hadn't stargazed in eternity, she guessed.
"Aren't they amazing?"
"As if we were surrounded by glittering salt crystals."
"Do they look the same way they did when your dough was soft?"
"The stars?"
She nodded.
"I.. believe not. One of my knights was better at it than I, but we used the stars to navigate the land. They seem to have shifted."
She held her pale dough up against the black sky, like tar under her fingers. Like the all-consuming dough she fell into at the Witches' Banquet. She shuddered.
"Something feels wrong," Salt commented.
"Yes," Lily agreed. "How did we get out here?"
"There you are."
Lily looked back. "Elder Faerie?"
"If I've not changed."
"You sacrificed yourself to save the Faerie Kingdom.."
"You sacrificed yourself, White Lily."
What?
Was she crumbled?
If she and Elder Faerie were both crumbled, and Silent Salt was also here-
"You destroyed your Soul Jam before Shadow Milk Cookie could absorb your remaining power," Elder Faerie explained to Silent Salt.
Lily felt a part of her shatter. If only she could have done more to protect him.. to protect both of them. Every Cookie who deserved freedom most.
"He deserves not a shred of it," Salt growled. "I only hope the spirits of the Kala Namak remain in my sword, to be set safely to rest by Salt Cellar Cookie.."
White Lily wiped the blurriness from her eyes, finding tears soaked into the icing that wrapped her hands. "What happens to us now? Will I ever know what my friends do with Freedom?"
Elder Faerie smiled. A rare sight. "As I've been able to watch you, hopefully you, too, will be able to watch them."
She threw herself at him, sinking into his robes. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, letting her cry.
"A death so young.." Salt murmured, awkwardly stroking her hair. She pretended not to notice the plates of armor on his gloves getting caught in it, or Elder Faerie chuckling as he helped remove it.
She was old. Very, very, old. Though only half of those years had been lived by her. And it was nothing to him or Elder Faerie, who agreed.
"With our eternal purpose, perhaps we all crumbled earlier than expected. Or right when it was fulfilled.. We may never know the way of the Witches."
Salt took in a labored breath. Lily looked up at him, wondering what he may have thought after all these years.
"No.. but it did not stop our fight for Cookiekind."
Elder Faerie looked at him, frowning. He grabbed Salt's pauldron, tugging him into their embrace. A warmth radiated from him this close, tucked under his cloak. Short as she was, especially next to them, Lily wondered if she was completely hidden to a bystander.
"Dawnbringer, Devil of Silence, you may finally rest. You've brought a light to Cookiekind like no other, and Earthbread requires no more atonement from you."