Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- sessions:worldbuilding:2023-09-02 [2023/11/26 21:55] – shyriath
+++ sessions:worldbuilding:2023-09-02 [2024/01/06 14:51] (current) – shyriath
@@ Line 108: / Line 108: @@
 The three matriarchs turned back to them. The other middle-aged one, the one Unitti had identified at Tlett, took the stick from a clearly disgruntled-looking Ok'ah' and said, "<We do not feel confident in releasing the book from our custody, nor in allowing the giants to come forth from it. But we... //some// of us,>" she amended, glancing at Ok'ah', "<acknowledge that your feelings on this matter should not be entirely disregarded. If you wish to remain associated with the one giant, we will permit you to //enter// the book to do so. We shall defer the decision whether or not to destroy it for some small time.>"}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|A kernel of anger in An-uxhwi nearly made him address the misguided matriach to detail precisely what the mines had done to him and the other xtauh caught in it, and that she could shove her special pleading up her ass, but fortunately, there were saner individuals at hand, and more pressing matters rapidly needed his attention. The process of considering the offer sapped at the angry flame until it was only a mild simmer. Still, with a calm rather greater than he felt, he said to Unitti: "Perhaps you might want to tell Ok'ah' that her crude dismissal of the suffering of the slaves does not flatter her case." Then he turned his attention to Tlett, nodding his muzzle respectfully, took a deep breath, and said: "Thank you, I appreciate the consideration. It is not ideal for many reasons, but if it is the only thing you offer me, then I would indeed like to join Evrith."}}
+{{wst>shyriath|Unitti translated An-uxhwi's words, though he felt it impolitic to include his message to Ok'ah'; the situation was quite volatile enough. As it was, An-uxhwi's apparent preference for Evrith's company caused a look of utter disgust to cross Ok'ah's face, though she remained silent.
+The eldest matriarch, Hna'i, brought out a sack and withdrew the book from it, passing it into Tlett's hands; Ok'ah' looked like she wanted to snatch it away and throw it in the fire, but made a snarling sort of snort and called out Hyd'natt's name in a peremptory way. Tlett carefully, and somewhat hesitantly, opened the front cover of the book, staring at the endlessly swirling lines on the front page, and then, taking care to keep a firm hold on it, turned the book around to face An-uxhwi.}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|"Thank you," he said, again. "To reiterate, if you do allow us to take our leave, I intend to do my best to return to you what my poor health has taken from you. I appreciate the hospitality. I hope we will meet again and I can repay you." Said, he touched a hand to the swirling patterns.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|Once more, the world spiralled away, to be replaced by another.
+He had not spent long here before, but clearly things had changed a little, most obviously in that now it was daytime. The sun was high, slightly larger than the Burning Eye he knew, and its light very slightly different in color - even if he had been in a mood to pay attention, he would have found it hard to say exactly how it was different.
+Shyriath had obviously been at work here, because where there had once been merely an uncovered shelf of rock projecting out, someone with the power to shape stone had fashioned a kind of crude pavilion to keep the weather off. Beneath it were piled their supplies, as well as a pair of takmar, lying on whatever vaguely soft things it had been possible to scrounge together. The green one lifted its head.
+"Thank the gods," Shyriath muttered weakly. The bruises covering his face and sides suggested that he'd been beaten, with considerable enthusiasm; and he looked like he hadn't slept in some time. "They didn't hurt you at all, did they?"
+Evrith, for her part, didn't rise. She appeared to be asleep, or at least unconscious, and shuddered and twitched as she lay. There were a number of claw-inflicted scratches and cuts crisscrossing her scales, and one of her arms in particular had had to be thoroughly stitched up by Shyriath.}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|"No. I seem to be of the privileged peoples in these parts," An-uxhwi said with a deep sadness. "I see that the irony of mistreating people who are different to them was lost to them. I am sorry I wasn't there to prevent it." His attention lingered only briefly on Shyriath, although he made an effort to make it count, to understand the damage, before shifting his attention to Evrith.
+He sighed deeply. The questions that came to his mind all answered themselves. Was she recovering? She was. Would she be all right? Yes, at some point. It might take several vigils before she could do anything as useful as fly of her own accord. Not usually the dreamer, he nonetheless briefly indulged in a fantasy of flying for her - but he currently only barely had the strength to carry himself, let alone the weight of a takma in addition, regardless how small by the measures of her people.
+"They're discussing burning the book," he said, matter-of-factly. "I tried to sway them, but they can't even grasp that Evrith rescued me. I did not try to test how well they might understand a threat to the world as a whole and Evrith's ability to avert it; I believe that would have diminished my chances, one of the matriarchs already considers me insane. To be fair, the feeling is mutual."
+Then, after a flick of his muzzle: "That failure aside, what can I do to help either of you, here, right now?" He was still deeply exhausted, but that was really his only problem, which made him better off than either takmar.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|"Honestly? Just being here is probably the best I could have hoped for, at least for now," Shyriath replied gloomily. "I haven't had much of a chance to sleep. Evrith, I should tell you, was in deep distress when she was brought in, and it only got worse.
+"She was not coherent enough for me understand all she said, but what I //gathered//," he continued uncertainly, "was that she could not see what was happening to you while she was here, and also that she could see futures in which you never arrived here at all. I also had to remind her that attempting to go back might put not only herself but you in danger. And then she... well," he concluded uncomfortably, "I felt that it was best to put her to sleep and keep her that way for a while. I expect that she might claw my face off for it afterwards, but she was in danger of affecting her own health."
+Shyriath did not feel able to convey that he'd been afraid that she might 'affect her health' by bashing her own head open on the rock.
+"Hopefully," he added wearily, "being able to see you alive and present will ease her mind. In all other respects, nothing much needs to be done for the moment, though we may need to help each other changing wound dressings and other delightful things. And, eventually, hunting and obtaining water, if we end up trapped here until our supplies run out - or later."}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|"I can scout around for sources of clear water and possible prey," An-uxhwi offered. In truth, what he should be doing is rest, but the idea of simply letting himself lie down when their future was still less than certain and Evrith was in such a poor state left him with a sense like insects crawling under his skin.
+There was a brief thought that it was better to stay for Evrith's sake, but presumably now that he was in the same world as she was, she would see him regardless where he wandered, and Shyriath could truthfully say that he was here now. Staying would technically not be necessary to soothe her mind once she woke.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|"Oh, sit //down//," Shyriath said, maybe a bit more sharply than he'd intended. "We might //look// worse, but my understanding is that you lost much more actual blood than either of us did. Just take it easy. We won't run out of supplies immediately, and at least in the case of water there's a whole river full of it off in the distance if there's nothing closer-"
+He was interrupted with a sudden cry from Evrith, who came awake with a violent start. She looked wildly around her, fixed her gaze on An-uxhwi, and expelled a shuddering breath before trying without much success to clamber up onto all fours. She seemed to be having similar trouble assembling sentences. "Anuwi, are - alive - shouldn't've let-"}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|An-uxhwi was about to protest Shyriath's insistance, even though the wire of nausea in his gut vehemently agreed that sitting down was the best idea, when Evrith stirred and slurred fragments of sentences. Both heartened and alarmed at the same time, he stepped toward her, then sank to sit beside her - technically doing as Shyriath asked, as a part of him noticed grudgingly. What he wanted to say was //'you should have let them kill me and escaped'//, but it didn't seem right to chide her in her current state. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to stop them from hurting you," he said, instead, parroting what he had told Shyriath already.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|Evrith put a hand on An-uxhwi's shoulder, and for a moment it looked as if she might try to do the same with the injured one, but it just twitched gently. She shook her head desperately, and tried to align her brain with her tongue. "//You're// sorry-" Her voice cut off, and she tried again, miserably, "don't be absurd. I didn't stop them from hurting me either."}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|"Will you recover?" he asked. It felt like an obsolete question - they were no longer in any immediate peril, she had just woken from slumber and proven she could transition from unconsciousness to consciousness, and she could see into the future and had only just effectively admitted that she'd let the xtauh manhandle her, presumably in the knowledge that she would survive. But he had to know.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|"//Yes//," she snarled with such venom that, off to the side, Shyriath winced. "For all the good it'll do." She removed her hand from An-uxhwi's shoulder and slumped back into lying down. After a moment, pushing aside her evident disgust at knowing she would live, she managed to add, "I'm glad you made it back. I was afraid-"
+She stopped, unable to finish the sentence.}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|He misread the moment, feeling chastened, drooping visibly. Should he have risked more back at the village, fought, in his present state, for control of the book, and escaped with it to secure their return? If she could see that they would be trapped here indefinitely, then it would indeed not help her cause if she were to survive; they would have lost their chance to make a difference. Was that his fault?
+He would have been willing to accept it, if he saw a means he could have acted differently and not made things immediately worse. Tiredness blossomed through his skull. "I apologise for not securing the book, but I think I could only have made things worse. Have I stranded us here?" he asked.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|Evrith was astonished. Was //that// what he thought she was upset about?
+"The- I don't care about the //book//, I damn well almost got you killed!" she exclaimed, in a voice that would have been a shout if she'd been able to put together the energy. "After everything you've tried to do to help me! What are you doing apologizing to //me//?"}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|An-uxhwi shook his head slowly. "You didn't almost get me killed, you gave me a life I couldn't otherwise have had," he reminded her, gently. "Everything else is borrowed time. I don't intend to squander the gift unduly, but it's very important to me that I help you. Please don't blame yourself for my //peril//. I chose that life. And I am, evidently, doing a bad job at my stated goal. That is why I'm apologising to you. I promised you help, but I've barely given any. I seem to just be getting you into trouble." It was all said quite observationally. Maybe if he were less tired, himself, there would be more emotion to it, but he was currently mustering less of it than Evrith was.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|How... how could just sit there and talk like that? Like his life had no other meaning or purpose? It was enough to make Evrith angry. She grabbed his shoulder again and shook him with what little force she could muster.
+"You are one of the best of men, you understand?" she demanded. "One of the best! And if you do nothing else, you can help me by //not dying// on me!" She stopped, struggling with other words, words that tried to pile on top of each other and stuck in her throat, and then awkwardly squashed him against her shoulder in a one-armed embrace.}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|He folded his arms around her, in turn, quietly curving his neck and resting his head against her shoulder. "I will try," he promised softly.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|Shyriath watched them with a mixture of relief and uneasiness. The self-destructive impulses that he'd seen in Evrith's mind were ebbing, but he wasn't sure he approved of the other feelings he saw there.
+As he began to open his mouth, Evrith slowly craned her head to look straight at him. He licked his lips awkwardly, then closed his mouth again.}}