He stares ahead, letting it all sink in as the returning stone slowly activates. He's experienced the use of these devices before, he knows, and the sensation of its magic building brings him back to images of the shrines. He was fighting to save people from those children of darkness, he thinks. The same that he's rescued Ryunosuke from. He had dispensed of them like a blade in the Innocent's hands.

With Ryunosuke deferring conversation until they are safe, Estinien spends those five minutes in silence. He flinches as the stone finally activates, the whorl of light and colour making his stomach turn, too familiar to the luminous world he'd been trapped within only minutes ago. When he opens his eyes again, they are resting on shimmering sand, the sound of moving water echoing in the caverns nearby.

"I remember..." he murmurs to himself, gazing at the rippling water suspended above. He'd arrived here with a knife in his back, as help rushed to his side. He remembers the waves of her red hair, the familiar warmth of her healing touch... Himeka...

He remembers meeting Ryunosuke here, too, sitting at the edge of the water explaining what he could. He remembers approaching Hayame as she rested despondent in the corner of the cavern, and how startled she'd been at the sight of his wings. Is it possible that he was a fully formed person before this, with a history and memories?

Friends...?