Literature
Tessellation
She stays in the Gallery. She knows she could leave; he wouldn't stop her. She could return to the world above, heal, perhaps live for a time, and die there. She doesn't fear this inevitability, but she does recognize the uselessness of it. There is nothing for her in that world. There hasn't been for some time. Here, she has herself someone previously unknown whom she can nurture and discover in this in-between place. There is nothing to fear here; she's been shown that. This place will be whatever she makes of it.
And so she stays.
*
He wakes,