expiationlogs | closed log

closed log

Who: Emet-Selch, Hythlodaeus, and Yuja (plus self-invited guests)
Where: The woods/cave etc
What: They're going on a quest to build a house
Warnings: None besides spoilers for canon

Emet-Selch doesn't expect it to be so easy to request a new dwelling, but simple enquiries reveal that the workers are more than happy to get it done should he provide the raw materials. Now, he knows building a house is not a simple task, so there is the niggling suspicion that some kind of magic will be involved. However, it's none of his business so long as it's done and done right. He leaves his request to the builders - a home with three bedrooms, as many bathrooms, and the usual amenities - then departs with a list in hand of what they need for it.

Hythlodaeus, he informs of their new quest in person since they live together. The Warrior of Light, he leaves a message using his charm:

I have a quest for you. Meet me at the edge of the forest. Dress comfortably.

Emet-Selch will be waiting.

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She raises a brow at him, "You are willing to hunt with me?" What she really means by that is to spend more time with her. Strangely, he seems willing to spend more time with her than is necessary ever since the maze.

"Is there something wrong with that?" he asks defensively.

As if he would ever admit to having a reason to want to spend time with her.

"No, I guess not." She can't help but smile a little as she goes to work on another tree. "I'm just surprised you want to spend any more time with me than necessary."

Is she pushing his buttons just a tiny bit with that? Maybe.

He scowls and takes his axe to the tree a little more vigorously than necessary.

"If you don't want my company then say so. I'm sure Hythlodaeus will have thoroughly gone off course within the hour. I can supervise him instead."

The tree topples with a loud crack and rush of foliage.

"I never said that." She says with a huff, hitting the tree a bit harder than intended. Why is he like this?

"But if you'd rather go look after Hythlodaeus, I won't stop you." Sorry, Emet, she doesn't get the whole tsundere thing. She's more inclined to just take what he says at face value and let him do as he wishes.

"I left Hythlodaeus to his own devices so I could spend time with you!" he snaps back. "Despite how he is absolutely terrible at assuming any sort of responsibility for a length of time, despite being quite sure that he's building sandcastles on the beach right now instead of doing what I asked!"

Arguing with Azem had never been like this, he thinks resentfully.

Yuja is taken aback by the outburst. She pauses what she's doing and stares at him in silence as if he's grown a second head.

It takes her a moment before she speaks.

"You... You actually want to spend time with me?" A pause before she continues, "After everything?" She's finding it difficult to believe.

"I had planned to anyway when I saw your little group running off to Il Mheg."

He only knows the overarching events so he has no idea if he does end up spending some time with her or if they rebuff him coldly. Judging by her reaction, he supposes that he kept something of a distance from her in the end. Not surprising.

"It seems I'm going to die regardless of what I do, so I shall spend my remaining time as it pleases me."

"Oh." She almost looks disappointed, almost, as she goes back to cutting down the tree.

Wait, he'd been there? No, that makes sense. She shouldn't be surprised that he was following them from that early on.

"You showed yourself at the Crystarium after we returned from Il Mheg." She wonders where he was during that time.

And now she's upset again. This is infuriating. What did he say this time??

He crouches and hacks away at branches sticking out of the trunk, almost sulkily. "Only a fool would dare meddle with the pixies. I did not want to be turned into a hedge for my trouble."

She's not upset! Only a little disappointed that he just seems to keeping to his plan from back then.

"True, that would be a terrible way to end things." She could see the pixies going after him if only because of the way he acts. "I think my deal with Feo Ul is the only reason we weren't kept there longer."

Dryly: "How very tragic."

He glances at her, watching her swing at the next tree for a few seconds. Perhaps he shouldn't have sent Hythlodaeus off after all.

"So I introduced myself after your return. I presume you rebuffed whatever I offered and sent me off."

"Mnn, complete with Urianger throwing a card at your illusion." Which had been a surprise to them all.

"You didn't take that as an answer and turned up again shortly after. We begrudgingly allowed you to come along to the Rak'tika. Only to have you leave us again." It may have been because she had to be a little bit of a smart-ass, but still.

"I take it you must have bored me then. Or been accosted by the locals."

He thinks it's only practical to send a phantom in place of himself for a first-time meeting with an enemy. What idiot would go in-person to confront a godslayer?

The tree falls as she lets out a soft laugh. "Both."

She then goes about cleaning up this newly fallen tree. "We joined us again later after some of the Vie-- Viis caught you while you were napping. You pulled Y'shtola from the Lifestream shortly after that and everyone seemed to warm up to you, just a tiny bit."

She can't say they trusted him after that, but he'd proven he could be helpful.

Having yet to meet the entire group of Scions, Emet-Selch finds himself frowning as he tosses away loose branches.

"Who is this Y'shtola and what in Zodiark's name did she do to require me to pull her out of the Lifestream? I don't generally interfere with the cycle of rebirth."

Mental note: do not let his guard down around the Viis of the First.

"Flow." Surely he knows the spells. "It's not the first time she's used such a spell."

She remembers the first time, they'd all been running for their lives after she'd been accused of regicide. She frowns and hacks away a little harder at the branches, remembering that night still made her feel angry. She'd thought she'd lost everyone.

"She didn't seem to learn her lesson the first time she used it." However, there didn't seem to be any ill-effects the second time. After all, she'd already lost her sight.

Oh. That little spell. He sighs and stands up straight, rolling the log over with his foot to where Yuja has left her first tree.

"'Tis a foolish mage who uses the same spell improperly twice."

(He says, conveniently ignoring all the incidents in his distant youth where he had done the same.)

"Throwing oneself into the Lifestream without any thought or care to one's soul... Bah!" He shakes his head but it his tone sounds more like a grumble than critical. "Even I was never so reckless."

"As I understand it, it's a forbidden spell for a reason."

She's never been a good study when it comes to magic. She can pick up a spell by seeing it cast, better so when it's cast on her, but she much prefers to use a blade to solve problems.

"Oh?" She asks with a little grin. "Not even as a youth?"

"Never. And do not listen to Hythlodaeus should he tell you otherwise."

He is a highly respectable and responsible public service figure now!! ...Or rather, he was.

"Mayhap given another Rejoining or two your souls would have been adamant enough to endure the journey."

"I see, I see." She nods slowly, still grinning a little. She'll have to ask Hythlodaeus for some embarrassing stories later.

Her grin fades with the rest of what he has to say. She sighs and shoves her log off to join the others before going to find another tree.

"That we'll never know." Venat had seen to that. She'd seen to that. Any Ascians left were just as broken as the rest of the people scattered across the broken star.

"...Indeed."

They'll never know now. And there's no point in telling the Warrior how her mage friend might attempt it without the need for someone to pull her out on the other side.

He moves on to the next tree. "So, I do a good deed and you all remain suspicious of my motives. Then what?"

"We took out the Lightwarden in the area and came across a cave with paintings on the walls. You told us about Final Days and that Hydaelyn and Zodiark were truly primals, not gods." It'd been knowledge that was both difficult to digest and made all the sense in the world.

"We returned to the Crystarium to plan for the next Lightwarden before traveling to Ahm Araeng. You didn't come with us, no surprise given all the sunlight and sand."

"...So there still exist records of that time," he mutters to himself. He's somewhat surprised, to be honest. But then again, if they were to exist anywhere then they would exist on the shards, untouched by calamity as they are.

"'Tis not the sun that I cannot bear. 'Tis the Light. It pricks uncomfortably at me because I'm a servant of Zodiark."

And being Zodiark's servant his aether is of course biased towards Darkness at the moment.

"Light... that's what I meant." She says as she whacks at the tree. Though she suspects the sand alone would be enough to deter him. She's not particularly fond of it herself, especially when the wind kicks it up and sends it into one's face.

If she was honest, even with all that happened on the First, there were times she forgot the Light wasn't the sun.

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