"Well, there's no need for that-" Lemm begins, already thinking yes there is, you know there is

and - the sudden cry of shock is silent, because it happens at the same time as a Void explosion that knocks things off shelves and Lemm off his seat and makes his hearing ring very strange. It is like the world ended very briefly and came back.

Lemm dimly registers their last note when it flutters down and lands on his face.

He is thinking about everything they've told him all at once.

"C-cruel," he mutters, and shakily tries to pull himself up by the edge of his desk. A final journal rolls off the edge of a shelf and thuds noisily against his horn on the way down. "Ouch! Cruel, that's what you are. You knew everything and you still couldn't... couldn't help yourself."

A beat. He's upright, more or less. Unsteady is fine. Some papers float to the floor.

If he doesn't go now he's deathly afraid he never will, so Lemm staggers to the door and looks for dark.