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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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.

And then the rest, as they say, is history. She defeats the Lightwardens only to start breaking under the strain. He invites her to Amaurot and simultaneously invites his own doom. There his story ends. There his people's story finally ends.

Emet-Selch chops at wood silently for a while. The rhythmic thud of axe against timber helps settle his thoughts.

"Mayhap 'tis best I remain here," he says suddenly.

That's the gist of it. She knows he'd hoped that she'd proven better than she was, that she'd been able to contain the Light. But to what ends, she doesn't know. That's what she's most curious about, but it's what he says that has her deciding not to ask right now.

"Okay..." She finishes the tree she's been working on before turning to him. "I guess I'll go hunt, then."

"No! I mean here, in this world." That's the trouble with thinking too much. Your train of thought doesn't get heard by anyone else. "You have-- you have your adventures to return to. I have nothing. The star will endure with or without my interference, as you all keep trying to impress upon me. There is no value to me going back."

"Oh!"

Yes, Emet, sometimes it is good to put your thoughts into words, it helps in situations like these.

She's quiet for a moment. It would be better for him, but he's still needed back home, even after his death.

"I can't disagree with you there, but... you are still needed. Without you, I don't think I'd be able to deal with Meteion." And besides that, who would Hythlodaeus have to return to in the Lifestream?

"And what, exactly, am I able to do that you cannot?"

If there's one thing his time in that underground labyrinth has taught him, it's that he's apparently unable to conquer those birds himself.

"Creation magic." Simple as that. She only has the ability to summon allies to her side, Azem's old magic.

"With your help, we reminded Meteion of Hermes' promise to her when she returned from her journey." She frowns, looking a little sad as she finally turns to find another tree. "A field of Elpis flowers broke through to her and was enough for her sisters to finally show themselves."

"Elpis flowers..."

He doesn't remember. He can't remember. It feels like he should but his memory resists it. What is so important about them?

"You summon me purely to create a field of flowers for you?" he asks grumpily, pushing his next tree over to the pile with a foot.

"No. In the process of making my way to their nest, Meteion unmade everyone who had joined me. While I could summon them back they needed bodies." At least, that's how she understood it. Maybe she could have brought them back entirely with the magic she'd been given, but it had been nice to have the aid of two new old friends.

"Besides, who else was going to tell me about all of the places I should visit before going off to an eternal rest?"

Not just flowers then but her friends' physical forms as well? He frowns to himself. Grudgingly, he has to acknowledge that he would be the best and perhaps only candidate she knows who could do that reliably.

"...Will I truly, finally get to have my rest if I go back?"

It's hard to discern what he's feeling as he asks it, with him facing away from her deliberately.

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