Ethlyn finds herself thinking of her brother Sigurd. Forced to fight his best friend and bring about his death--a death that fell on his shoulders whether or not he wielded the blade--only for his own country to betray him and declare him a traitor, a party to regicide. And to lose his wife... there is a twist of guilt in Ethlyn's gut as she remembers her inability to save Deirdre from the robed mages. She remembered it so well, how he had thrown down his sword and demanded to know what he had even been fighting for all this time.
Ange is quieter, more restrained, but Ethlyn can feel the same sort of desperation and despair in her question.]
...It's a good question. [Ethlyn hadn't been able to answer Sigurd then, but he had fought on anyway--fought on to his death, as she now knows. She hopes such a grim fate doesn't await them all.
But she would like to have an answer for Ange, and for herself too.] I know we can't give up. Claude protected you over and over, and that meant you survived. I cured the infected man who killed him, so he survived too.
Day by day, if we are lucky, we survive. And we use what we learned by surviving to do better the next time, and the next. We keep helping each other even when it's hard.
no subject
What do we do.
Ethlyn finds herself thinking of her brother Sigurd. Forced to fight his best friend and bring about his death--a death that fell on his shoulders whether or not he wielded the blade--only for his own country to betray him and declare him a traitor, a party to regicide. And to lose his wife... there is a twist of guilt in Ethlyn's gut as she remembers her inability to save Deirdre from the robed mages. She remembered it so well, how he had thrown down his sword and demanded to know what he had even been fighting for all this time.
Ange is quieter, more restrained, but Ethlyn can feel the same sort of desperation and despair in her question.]
...It's a good question. [Ethlyn hadn't been able to answer Sigurd then, but he had fought on anyway--fought on to his death, as she now knows. She hopes such a grim fate doesn't await them all.
But she would like to have an answer for Ange, and for herself too.] I know we can't give up. Claude protected you over and over, and that meant you survived. I cured the infected man who killed him, so he survived too.
Day by day, if we are lucky, we survive. And we use what we learned by surviving to do better the next time, and the next. We keep helping each other even when it's hard.