Scene Archives

has had his fun with the Messaging Device and, with the call for a break, has left the others to their own devices and wander a bit of a ways away from the main camp to pick some of those mentioned berries.

didn’t follow him, really, she just … foraged in the same direction. Intentionally. Light this is going to be awful. “Aurelius, may I … have a moment of your time.” Her mouth twists, and then she adds, “probably several moments.”

: “Sure, we got time.”

: “I would say I want to apologize first, but actually first I want to ask a favor of you–that you tell me the truth.”

: “Feels like normally you’d go the other direction, but fire away m’lady.”

: “No I meant–You’re insufferable, you do realize? I want to apologize, for what I did outside Kesset, and then what I did back at the Courtyard Inn, but I feel like if I apologize first without you agreeing to be honest you’ll just–say it’s fine, that you can handle it, that it’s not that big of a deal. And I would like you to not do that.”

: “Fair enough. Also I have no idea what the hell you’re apologizing for, for the record.” He sounds slightly amused?

: “The–” she wiggles her fingers expressively, but not particularly coherently, and then frowns and draws a wisp of flourishing gnosis from the air, and flicks it in to a ripple. “When I tried to understand and I saw, and then, you know, showing you hundreds of world-deaths?”

: “Oh, that, yeah, okay. Yeah I understand, but, honestly it really ISN’T a big deal. Well. Hundred unique death experienced in thirty seconds was MAYBE a bit much but eh.”

he shrugs.

: “And the other time?”

: “Like I told you before, it was surprising and caught me flat footed, but it wasn’t done with malice and you had no way to know how I’d react.”

: “So no biggie.”

: “Honestly I still feel like I should be apologizing to you for how the conversation after the shared vision happened, if anything.”

: “Why did it catch you flat footed? You said–you’re used to doing it, not having it done to you?”

: “Right. Usually the one initiating Spark to Spark contact is me, and there was a time when… During one of these events I learned that there are a comically large number of ways to have your existence threatened that most people are not aware of and nearly died. So. When it happened here, in a place where I didn’t think other people were also capable of doing it, it was… surprising.”

: “Surprising seems like an understatement.” There are two questions she wants to ask, but the one that she ends up asking immediately is not that’s probably more useful. “Who was it? Who tried to kill you in that way?”

thinks.

: “So… I have an answer to that, but, it’s skipping ahead a few chapters. I probably shouldn’t say it out loud, not the least of which is that they may have an actual name I don’t know of, but. You can think of them as being closely associated with dragons.”

: “If you need a name, I guess we can refer to them as Samantha for now.”

she’s getting better at accepting the things she doesn’t understand, she thinks. “Okay. Samantha, who’s closely associated with dragons. I’m sure that will make sense someday. Probably.” She plucks a very ripe-looking blueberry and pops it in her mouth. It’s a little tart, not quite ripe, but it’s better, that way. “I want to ask you what Spark to Spark contact is, but first I want to say that … I’m not the most skilled in the Rite, but I’d be happy to try to kill whoever tried to do that to you. If you’d ever want that.”

: “I appreciate the sentiment, for sure.”

: “Odd are low, but not zero it’ll be relevant so I’ll keep it in mind.”

laughs, and says, “of course. Please keep my offer of vengeance in mind.”

nods seriously while eating a few berries.

: “So Spark to Spark contact? Is that what … we are? The six of us?”

: “Hmm… how best to explain this…” Aurelius taps at the side of his head, deep in thought for a few.

: “Okay so…”

: “When someone talks about the mind of a person, you more or less know what they mean right?”

: “Yes. Their brain, in a physical sense, and their ability to think in an abstract sense.”

: “Right. And… If I were to talk about someone’s aura or their soul, would that make any sense to you?”

: “Yes.”

: “Alright so we can sort of think about the metaphysical make up of a person in layers, sort of. Your mind, your aura, your soul. Your Spark is what you inevitably arrive at when you peel back all the layers. It is your core essence, that which is you, on a conceptual level.”

thinks for a long moment, and then asks, “you as in … we have a core essence even without our lives and experience, or are those part of this ‘spark’?”

: “Yes.”

: “It’s not static, and can be molded given enough time.”

nods, slowly. “Okay. That makes … sense?” And it actually does. “And you regularly connect Spark-to-Spark?”

: “Uh… define regularly.” He scrunches up his face. “Probably… not regularly? But certainly more often than the average person, which is usually closer to Not Even Once.”

: “Okay. Well. More than Once, and usually, I presume, not to murder people?”

: “There’s never been a murder in the white space, so far as I know. A close shave or two.”

pauses, ‘hmms’ at himself.

: “You have to know I’m going to ask you about the white space next.”

: “It’s… an empty place, that exists between Sparks, if you can empty your mind enough to envision yourself as a Spark. It’s a place with no physical distance, that can allow your Spark to connect with another, no matter where the two of your are, so long as you have a strong grasp on what the other’s Spark is.”

: “When I did that with you and Sininen … it wasn’t empty, though. It was. Very full. Do you usually use flourishing gnosis for the connection?” she looks at him extremely dubiously. “I can’t imagine that.”

: “No, it is typically a mana free process, I think you’re using flourish gnosis to skip several steps.”

: “And probably not penetrating quite as deep.”

: “Is this something you’d be willing to show me?”

: “I can certainly try, if you want.”

plops down onto the ground and takes a seat upon it cross legged, before resting his hands in his lap and closing his eyes. He takes a deep breath, holds it a few seconds, exhales. Repeats. Empties his mind. The sound of waves. The sound of shifting sands. The sound of wind. Then nothing. Nothing. Nothing. And eventually… perhaps… static?

lays her cloak down on the ground and sits across from him. Watching. Waiting.

occupies the space and it is not static it is loud and big and infinitessimally small and too quiet to hear and it is everywhere in every direction it is up and down and left and right and forwards and backwards and ana and kata and static and spinning and inside and outside and it is a hurricane and a sandstorm and you are you are you are without rite or grace or gnosis and it does not harm you it simply exists but it cannot be overcome it is utterly opaque to your Spark and

blinks once, twice, thice. Blinks again. “What in the fresh baked crispy hell was THAT?”

laughs. “Oh, good. I thought I had done something wrong.”

: “Uh. Huh. Well, okay, I guess I know why you used Flourishing Gnosis now at least. Cool. Cool cool cool.”

: “Why did I use Flourishing Gnosis? Because otherwise that happens?”

: “Because the world is THICK with it. Far more than I had ever, could have ever imagined.”

: “Maybe Archie’s right and the mana is different…” Scratches at the side of his face.

: “…Well of course it’s different, it’s split in five but eh…” He shakes his head, then shrugs. “But yeah I guess doing it the ‘right’ way is a no go while that… presence lingers. Ah, well.”

: “Have you ever encountered it … not split into five?”

: “It was whole in the void… I’d say ‘as you may recall’ but I imagine you probably wouldn’t have been thinking about it even remotely at the time, huh?”

snorts, “I was kind of busy trying to compose a story to a place I barely remembered being.”

: “Right, exactly.”

straights. “Though, I wanted to show you that too.” She reaches into one of her purses (she has a couple) and pulls out a slim green feather. She holds it like a throwing knife, hefting its weight, before flicking her wrist and sending it into the air, where it unfolds into a bright green bird with long, trailing tailfeathers. “Meet Heli. Not quite a Parrot, but. Your instructions worked.”

blinks. “…How many handfuls of glass did you use?”

grins at him. “Oh, I bought an entire very large, very expensive mirror.”

: “Oh. Yeah. Yeah you… usually only use a single shard roughly palm sized.” He laughs.

: “Well I have a lot I need to record.” She runs a finger along the top of Heli’s head. She has … maybe not quite grasped the idea that “utility fiend” and “pet” are distinct categories.

: “Fair enough.”

kisses Heli on top of the head, before folding them back into their feather. This has been–both not and exactly what she wanted from him, but she’s less sure about this next one. “I would like to know, I think. About that truth of yours.”

: “The Truth That Burns?”

: “Yes. Though I’m open to hearing other truths if their on offer.”

: “Mm. Well. I said all you need do is ask, and you have… so I will tell you. Because I need you to believe that at the end of the day I am a man of my word. The others… I think, can wait a little bit longer.”

takes a deep breath, then leans forward, putting his head against Salme’s. The then pulls her hood up, and whispers an Impossible Truth into her ear than no one else can here.

listens, hears, thinks

he’s close enough that she can reach out and run her fingers through his hair, and down the back of his neck, and she rests her hand there, and whispers something back.

: “Fuck, you’re right this is just giving you a cop out. Well, whatever, I feel like you can imagine why I was not thrilled with the idea of giving you this information until you’d entirely burnt through all your emotional reserves, despite you more or less living your life that anyway though, yeah?”

: “Also, welcome to the [incomprehensible] zone.”

: “…Spaces within the flaws of the Crystal…? Yeah, lets go with that.”

Her hand tightens on the back of his neck. “Aurelius. Did you actually hear what I said?”

: “Yes.”

: “I’m engaging in excessive flippancy to show how unimportant it is.”

: “Your sense of genre leaves something to be desired, Aavikkokettu, but it is not a cop-out. A story is just a story but it is also the realist thing there is. Trust me. Believe me.” ⁂

and then she loosens her grip on his neck, sliding her hand down to his shoulder, and she says, “believe in me. Please.”

🙧

nudges the side of his head against her. “Sorry, I can see how that didn’t convey what I meant it to. I, obviously, joke and deflect too much. You saw how Awa reacted, that’s… easier, in many ways. To not care, rather than to care more.”

: “Yes. It’s easier. It’s easier to be the selfless Sword-Saint instead of Salme, who hates and feels and wants. It’s not … necessarily better, though. You’re actually the one who convinced me of that.”

: “Heh. It was a little hard to tell.”

: “You’re bad at listening.”

: “You’re right, I should have assumed the cold shoulder meant I won.” A pause. “…Sorry.”

laughs then, a little breathlessly. “Forgiven. And I was … worried, all day today. When you were not yourself. Or were … more yourself? I was worried. I was so angry, and then–well. You’re full up of surprises.”

: “I was trying to act more like The Hunter, but, well… Your friend found my weakness.” He shrugs, helplessly.

: “What is the distance between The Hunter that you’re trying to be and yourself?”

rocks his head back and forth slowly, gently. “I don’t know, the distance from one side of the world to the other…? Ha.”

: “Here that’s only several month’s travel. I’ve walked it,” she says, and then, “when I reached out at Kesset I saw many things in you but what stayed with me was this sense of–water, flowing downhill, like the river carves the past of least resistance. Resignation, though the gentle kind. And before that I saw someone careful and clever with their hands, making a kind of–magic I’ve never seen before. And before that I heard a laugh as bright as the sun, and–I wanted to know. I always want to know; that’s part of how I ended up the Sword-Saint. But–” and here she catches her lip between her teeth. She doesn’t really have the words, or isn’t used to saying them. “I wanted to know you, every side of you. So fuck The Hunter, whoever he’s supposed to be. Tell me about Aurelius, or Annarr, or whatever other name you decide for yourself. It’s his story I care about.”

raises an eyebrow, curious what exactly she got, because it’s not quite what he was thinking she saw. “It’s… a long story. It’s several stories. I don’t think we have the time. … This sounds like more deflections, and on some level it might be, but that’s not really the crux. Once we’re done here, I think, there’ll be a better time to lay it all out there.”

: “Oh. No.” She gives him a quick kiss on the cheek, and then pulls away to gesture expansively. There’s maybe an element of the Awoken’s theatrics echoed in the movements. “I meant tell me as we travel together who Aurelius is, not literally sit down and tell me right now. But I appreciate the sentiment and I believe you.” She gives him a thin smile, a little crooked, a little self-mocking. “Besides, I do enjoy a challenge and while I appreciate your honesty here there’s no fun if you just come out and say everything.”

: “Though. If you did want to … see precisely what I saw at Kesset, I could try to show you?”

: “…Oh, oh I see. Right. Hmm.”

: “Sure what the hell.”

takes his hand, laces his fingers in hers. She remembers what she saw, what she felt, the roots of it reaching into her, through her, and this is his secret and his right to know. She imagines collapsing boundaries, mana that is just mana and not one thing only, the role of the Hunter and the role of the Sword-Saint and where they both are more than that. She imagines inviting him in–a house with an open door and then a house without walls, just whatever she is and whatever he is and Light it is his secret, not hers.

: “Ah…”

exhales and then says, a bit wryly, “that wasn’t … quite it but.”

: “…That works a lot easier in reverse, huh.”

: “What do you mean?”

smiles, slightly. “The flavor of your aura.”

: “Going from gnosis to… the elements of creation is a lot easier.”

: “Is that what that was? The elements of creation?”

: “That’s how it felt like you understood them, at least…? And I guess it fits.”

: “Oh. Well I’d believe you.” She would.

: “I think that’s all I had for you. This time.” That same self-mocking smile. She’s still holding his hand. She should probably let go.

: “I’m glad you seem more at ease for it.”

She meets his eyes. She’d been kind of avoiding them, before. “I am. Thank you.” And then she reaches up and very carefully runs her free hand along the luxurious russet fur of one of his fox-like ears. “I too will listen better in the future.”

It twitches a bit at the touch, flicking back and forth a few times reflexively. “Great. We probably should spare Wolf the headache in the future.”

has to pull her hand away to cover the bright, delighted smile that comes unbidden to her face, but her eyes are positively glowing. “Yes,” she says, managing–just barely–to school her face into a serious expression. “For Wolf.”