In the dusk, the ghost of Suyan with her foot raised looked as solid and present as anything.

< There's still a chance that I'll just wake up, > she said, her voice giving her away. < and all of this really was just a bad dream. >

Without waiting for Hawk to reply, she put her hoof into his palm, and it was just as he'd said: they touched, and she went. The form that had seemed solid a moment ago shone and bled into light that beaded up and evaporated, like bright bubbles that were carried up through the alley and above the rooftops and away.

The gathered people watched this silently, some of them waving after the disintegrating light. Hawk stayed crouched for the moment, a residual few specks of light still scattering out of his shaking palm, which had gone dark and clawed.