I'm surprised I missed this. I like it, it has a completely different tone than other short fics, and nice inclusion of Dallas. The characters are true to their originals while still being different from everyone else's versions of them, which is hard to do.

Hey, I'm always glad to see a new fic for this fandom, especially a well-written one. A lot of the little things made me smile. I thought the fact that she named the doll Silmeria was touching. I'd always thought of little-Alicia naming her imaginary friend that, or something. Lezard's theories surrounding Alicia's admirer were humorous.
The ending is sad on many levels, both between Alicia and Rufus and with Lezard. Lezard is portrayed as neutral, which is better than evil, but a far cry from good. With Rufus, I think that it is more in his character to stay away from Alicia, doing things from afar to make her happy. But, because Alicia also feels this aching loss more and more throughout the story, it seems as if he is being counterproductive in this effort. At the same time, the very fact that she can feel grief for him on some level sort of shines a little but of hope on things. Or maybe that's just me.
Anyway, thanks for a great fic. I'd like to see more Valkyrie Profile fics from you if you wanted to write more.