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--- sessions:worldbuilding:2024-12-14 [2024/12/21 17:50] – shyriath
+++ sessions:worldbuilding:2024-12-14 [2025/02/15 20:18] (current) – Formatting fix pinkgothic
@@ Line 76: / Line 76: @@
 {{wst>pinkgothic|An-uxhwi felt the shores of the calm river at his core fold in like an avalanche: Frustration, affection, concern, all meshing together in a hot mess. Why won't you answer the question? Why can you see so much, but not your own nobility? Why must you be this way, broken pieces of a demigod flinging themselves at trouble to appease imaginary forces? Why must you? Why? And he leant over and licked the tears from her muzzle cautiously, driven by some faint equivalent of parental distress - the tears should not be there, they were a sign something was wrong, and they had to go. It wasn't a conscious choice, just a deep urge manifesting itself.}}
+{{wst>shyriath|Evrith closed her eyes, but made no move to stop him, simply sitting still with her breath ragged. At last, she said, slowly and thickly, "Everyone I have ever cared for is gone. In one case chased away; in nearly all the others, dead. I fear the same will happen to you. Ynudh has already tried to take you from me."
+She shuddered violently, then opened her eyes, fixing him with a gaze full of horror. "Do you understand? He almost //took// you from me! In a thousand futures, he //did// take you from me! All the while I was trying to get you out of there - there was such a narrow path in a maze of futures made of your death, and to make it through I had to keep watching it happen!" Her shivering became more violent; she curled in on herself and rocked back and forth. "Your throat was cut, you were run through with a spear; and more than anything you were just... //dissolved// away into black mist - I watched it over and over again..."}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|Gently and affectionately, he was pawing at her neck, nuzzling away more of the tears. "But we did make it through. I'm sorry you had to see all that; I'm deeply sorry I didn't handle it better than I did. But the Siathar did not prevent you from navigating that gauntlet. From what you say, it would have been easy for them to let me end - you say there were many more worlds where I could be gone. But I'm still here. We're both still here."}}
+{{wst>shyriath|"For now... but the sight lives in my nightmares. And it could still come true, we are still being chased. And Ynudh may not be the only one. How many servants does Dark-Eyes have to set on my trail?"
+She slowly leaned forward and buried her head into An-uxhwi's neck. "I thought of sending you away - driving you away, to keep you from what was coming. I could see that nothing less would convince you to go. But I couldn't make myself. I didn't really want you to go. And it would have hurt both of us."
+Evrith's words were drifting further away from the topic of the religious justification for her self-flagellating, though if anything this seemed to be calming her down - and least to a degree. But it was hard to escape the conclusion that, at least so far, she hadn't really been persuaded away from it.
+Over by the rest of their party, Shyriath, turning away from the nascent and involuted architectual discussion that had sprung up between the three xtauh - one of whom had never seen a permanent dwelling in her life and all of whom were speaking in a language he couldn't understand - looked over at An-uxhwi and Evrith. Though he could not hear what they were saying from this distance, he began watching them closely.}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|"Remember," An-uxhwi said, gently. "That if it weren't for you, I would have perished in those mines. You have already gifted me so much life. If I am to die, I want you to know that I do it without regret. Do you understand? I don't seek it out and I will fight to live, certainly, but do not think you do me any injustice by taking me into danger. I want to be with you - and I want to help you succeed."}}
+{{wst>shyriath|Without lifting her head from his neck Evrith enfolded An-uxhwi in a tentative embrace which, given their relative sizes, was a somewhat //engulfing// feeling for An-uxhwi. There was a brief silence, and then she asked, "And should we succeed... what then? There are very few places we would be welcome. The takmar would not take us because I'm a witch. The Citadel would not take us, because you aren't. And most xtauh would not, especially if we came as a... a pair."
+There was another pause, and she added, in a slightly grating tone, "Even some members of our current group might have concerns about certain kinds of relationships between different kinds." She lifted her gaze slightly to glare at Shyriath over An-uxhwi's shoulder. Shyriath hurriedly looked away.}}
+{{wst>pinkgothic|At this, An-uxhwi glanced over to Shyriath and the others - the ragtag, oddly loyal band of misfits that they'd collected so far, their personal community - then smiled back at Evrith. "Let them have concerns, as long as they don't interfere. Though I must admit, in any case, I'm not worried about that now. Let us revisit the question when we have achieved your goal. I know it is your nature to worry about the future, but I think you're right to focus on the biggest obstacle." A pause. "I'll be there with you, wherever this journey takes you. You don't need to take it alone."}}
+{{wst>shyriath|She thought about bringing up how her journey was overwhelmingly likely to end. Aside from irregular bouts of illness and exhaustion and the results when she tried to teleport things, her condition was not intruding itself heavily yet, but it was only a matter of time. The fate appointed to her was still there. Their journey together, no matter how successful it was, was likely to be short.
+But not now. Just for a moment, they could take comfort in now.}}