Scene Archives

Once she’s calmed down a bit, Qarina goes to find Dyu. It’s been the two craziest days of her life, and nobody listens like your best friend does.

he’s seated in a corner of an open room of the sietch, working on a new needlepoint project, when Qarina finds him.

: “Oh man. I’m so glad you’re here. Whatcha working on?”

: “Just finding a bit of respite where I can after the last few days.” he says with a chuckle. “Starting a new project, since I finished my previous one. Just in time, that one.”

: “Then…oh. I’m so sorry Dyu.” Qarina sits next to him and puts an arm around his shoulder. “You okay?”

leans in and gently bonks her with his forehead, and nods. “Aye, I’m doing better now. I’m just glad I was able to give him a final gift, and guide him to his rest. I was…very Not Okay afterwards, but Teacher…helped me through it. He comforted me, which, in the moment, I needed.” he pauses. “Of course, thinking back on it, that was…rather unlike him.”

he chuckles and smiles. “I suspect we have the influence of Yazh…I mean, Yeresh Wolf to thank for that.”

: “Sounds like he had some extra comfort himself. Maybe that means he had extra to spare.” She grins. “Is Yeresh like his word for Yazhn, then?”

: “Aye, that’s what I’m given to understand. Wolf and Teacher are so alike to me that I keep getting the two mixed up!”

snorts and laughs at the same time. “I’m glad you’re getting on well. To me…I don’t think I could ever confuse them. I think Wolf means well, I just…don’t like or need his kind of help. You should have seen him over here. He solved more disagreements in a day than some Yazhn get to in a week. He’s definitely a good guy. And he definitely makes Teacher loosen up. You should have seen the look on Teacher’s face the morning we left to come out here.”

: “Well, I spend more time in the Temple than you do, so his type of help is more what I’m used to. And I’m also not surprised at that, to be honest. He’s not from here, and has ways of doing things that are different than we do, and don’t…have the same boundaries? For lack of a better word. I rather like the effect he has on Teacher.” he laughs and gives a sly grin. “Based on some of the looks I’ve seen on Teacher’s face when Wolf is involved, I can only imagine.”

: “Yeah, that’s fair. He is different for sure. They’re all so different. It’s…I don’t even know the word for what it is. But yeah. Even if I’m not as keen on him…the way he’s changed Teacher? Wouldn’t trade it for anything. I didn’t realize we’d never really seen him happy before. And he should get to be happy too!”

: “Hopefully Wolf can figure out a way to make all the crazy stuff we’re gonna have to tell him not as terrible. I’m…gonna need a hand figuring out how to talk to him about the last two days. Things got weird out here before you showed up. Then they decided to get weirder.”

: “Exactly! I’ve enjoyed getting to know all of them better. I agree, Teacher deserves to be happy, and seeing him -actually happy- is magnificent!”

raises an eyebrow, or at least, where an eyebrow would be on a dragon, “Weirder, you say?? Okay, please, you -must- tell me what was going on before I arrived!”

: “I…don’t really know how to explain it and not make it be terrible.” She doesn’t really move, but you can feel her pulling herself away. Inside her head. Inside her heart. “You’re my best friend and I’m almost as scared to talk about this with you.” This time she does move. She takes her arm back and hugs around her knees, making herself as small as she can against the stone wall of the sietch. “I can hear Elementals. Usually they just scream and my Brother and I tune them out. But this time it was different. They still yelled. But. They talked like how The God talked. And I don’t know how I knew it was how The God talked. But Elementals sound like God. And they yelled and yelled and yelled about how The God was a lie. And I yelled back until I couldn’t hear them anymore. And I smashed them into the smallest bits of nothingness I’ve ever broken something into. I had to kill them. It wasn’t just The Work anymore.” She lets out a shaky breath. “And I don’t really know how to figure anything out about that. Like, according to Teacher, they’re obviously made of lies. But these travelers talk about the God-Voice, and the way they talk about it seems like they believe things in the God Voice? Like they have a special Rite thing that they can do and it makes some God-voice show up and tell you things about someone. Salme found out my Brother has a name using it. ⁂”

: “And I know it technically doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. I gotta keep fighting. I gotta protect everyone in The City and everyone out here from the Elementals. That’s my Work. And it’s my Work with the God and it’s my work without the God. But…I don’t want everyone to have to deal with that. And I have NO IDEA how to tell Teacher any of this.”

he moves to kneel in front of Qarina, and places his hands onto her arms. “With the God and without the God, our part in the Work continues, as it has, and will be. It is true that the Elementals do not speaks truths as we would. And, from what Yeresh Wolf has taught me, the God-Voice is a specific “tone“. He actually spoke to me using it, and I would assume he has spoken to others in it as well. That said, the special rite of theirs sounds -fascinating-.” he gives her arm a gentle squeeze. “As I am to you, you are to me, and I am here for you, in any way I can. I think you could even tell Teacher, just as you’ve told me. I am certain he would understand.”

: “Yeah. The big metal one spoke like that when they were fighting Elementals. And like, that was cool, and the tone was there, but it was still the big metal guy. There’s no base-tone with Elementals. It’s just straight God-voice. Also did you know he’s not wearing armor? He’s JUST METAL. Sorry. That’s just still weird. You think Teacher would be okay with this? He’s already got the whole City to worry about. Last thing I want to do is come home and be like “Oh hey Teacher, the Elementals say God’s not real!“ because that just doesn’t really seem helpful.”

: “When Wolf spoke to me in the tome, Alethic, I believe it was called, I could still tell is was him.”, he pauses, “Wait…that’s NOT just armor!?” a mind-boggled expression crosses his face, before he shakes it off. “But, yes, Teacher would be okay with it, especially coming from you. You are a part of the City he worries about, just as much as I am. If anyone would know what to say to that, it would be him.”

: “Thanks Dyu. I needed to hear that. No one else really would have been able to tell me that and have me believe it. Ugh. Dyu why is there a giant crystal heart under the caves?” She tries to flop backwards, but there’s still a wall there, and she just bonks her head slightly harder than anyone ever expects to.

grimaces, hearing the -thunk- her head made against the wall, then scoots over to sit beside her. “Always happy to help, love. And…yeeeeah, a giant crystal heart was…Not Something I Expected.”

: “Okay, so that’s not something they teach you in Yazhn school then. Thank The God.”

: “Though I guess, maybe I wish they did teach you about it?”

: “Not even the tiniest bit. I’ve never seen anything like it before, let alone heard of anything like it.”

sighs. “So…I guess the only thing to do is go back?”

puts his arm around her shoulders and nods. “I think it’s the only way we’re going to learn anything more about it, aye.”

: “Yeah. But also, I’m gonna be real surprised if there are any books in the Fathom about this thing.”

: “Yeeeah, I don’t think ‘Giant Crystalline Heart’ is gonna be a subject easily found among the tomes. That said, it’s about the only lead we’d have, otherwise.”