idolpro | TEMPTATION OF ANGELS, which is named KHRYSAOR: A Heart Game (I)

"Harlowe and I went through the same thing."

The man—Harlowe, evidently—grunts an acknowledgment, and continues to fix you with his stony gaze.

"But yes, I suppose you could call it that. Maybe it's no wonder, either, why Kiri stayed... cracked like that—" The woman's expression goes a little distant. "—considering the shard Leli gave her."

She shakes her head a moment, as if forcing herself to focus on the here and now.

"I'm Adalet, by the way."

[ contemplative, for a moment— ]

Well, I'm glad of someone available to answer my questions. I'm Hope, which everyone seems to take issue with, but—

A shard of reality, as you said before? What was it?

For the first time, Adalet seems to struggle with her words. "....Scars. Afer Leli... Fell... she made Kiri into Scars."

Harlowe is silent beside her, staring past you, thin lines showing on his face where he clenches his jaw.

Hellfire—Kiri said she was "of Hell," but—

You mean to say, Leli is a fallen angel.

Both their faces go hard and distant.

"...Why are you here."

Oh, don't look at me like that, I have the same question.

Kiri seems to be in some sort of trouble. Having... a bit of a crisis, perhaps? And, well—

We...

[ her phrasing hovers on the tip of a word, and then— ]

...care for her a great deal.

"...A crisis." Adalet echoes the word, voice softer than before.

There aren't just aconite and lotus growing here, actually. Here and there, you can see little clumps of white flowers: snowdrops—the upturned, six-petaled variety that some call Star of Bethlehem. Nearby, a wild rose briar has begun to grow up around a fallen log. (Were those roses there the last time you looked?)

"Yes. Yes, that's a word for it."

It's lonely to feel like there is no place in the world where you fit, even if the place you've landed is a friendly one. It's part of the makings of greatness, I suppose, but all the same.

...does she like flowers?

"She likes killing." This unapologetic bluntness is apparently typical for Harlowe.

"But we all know some Botany. That's what you're seeing, with all this." He jerks his chin in the direction of a clump of aconite and star of bethlehem.

[ squints ]

Like the science?

Harlowe looks at you like you've said something blatantly stupid.

"No. Flower magic. Use the meanings, you channel the flower like it exists in Heaven."

Oh—

"As above, so below."

A nod.

"Like that. And here's the situation: you can only stick so much Destiny in one soul. Two flowers." He holds up two fingers, for emphasis. "Not four."

Harlowe pauses, then meets your eyes very deliberately. "But there is always a choice."

Aconite, lotus, wild rose, star of Bethlehem—

There's too much. So she has to decide which ones she ought to be?

"Yes."

Adalet again. There's something in her—a kind of tiredness—which is far more ancient than an apparently living woman should be.

"She's been shattered twice now. So."

In that case, if it's hurting her—

Well, we could simply uproot some of the flowers, but firstly—it seems there's a great many of them, and secondly, it seems if they want to grow back, they surely will.

So she needs help reaching a decision. Where is she?

"At least you pick things up fast enough.

"The flowers are here because of her, not the other way around. Put your effort, and your choice, where they count."

"We couldn't tell you where she is, though. It isn't what we are. Axes and Injustice are the hard edge of this Familia's enforcement, not its searching heart."

Adalet half-smiles, wry. "And Kiri doesn't understand enough about Sprouts for me to help her that way, either. I'd suggest you talk to Quentin, over there—"

She points, indicating a mousey-haired young man with an oversized knapsack, currently in some kind of argument with... a centaur?

"Or... Leli. She's at the central pond." And indeed, this whole wide clearing is dotted with ponds like the one you arrived in, most with strange crumbling stone bridges that half-cross them before falling to rubble.

I do pride myself on being a quick study. I'll go speak with them, then, though—

...what happened to all the bridges?

"...Nothing that didn't happen to Leli."

Adalet pauses for a long moment.

"Which is to say: they formed that way, when we made this chancel." A subtle extra emphasis on "this."

...I see. I begin to understand.

[ there's a lot to unpack in that phrasing. damn this is a lot of metaphor. ]

I appreciate the explanation, and your time—but in that case, I'll take my leave to speak to your companions.

[ gestures at the guy arguing with the... centaur? what? ]

Harlowe follows your gaze, then half-snorts.

"Good luck."

...Which is maybe a slightly weird attitude to take about one of your own Familia. (Unless they're something akin to siblings, in which case probably it makes perfect sense.)

Do you indeed go speak to Quentin?

Edited 2021-01-30 23:50 (UTC)

[ she indeed goes to speak to quentin.

things are about to get very silly, I am sure. ]

As you head towards the forested edge of the clearing, you can see that there's smoke rising in the distance—thick plumes of it, as though part of the forest is burning. No one here seems the least bit concerned by it, though...?

Quentin himself is particularly worn-looking in person, with the beginnings of stubble shadowing his chin. The centaur he's talking to is in... some kind of poncho, which he occasionally fidgets with and which is entirely out of place with his frankly medieval feathered cap.

The centaur keeps staring at you as you approach, but Quentin himself doesn't seem to notice until you're practically on top of him.

"Ah! You're... a visitor?" He sounds friendly enough, but also a bit... airy, almost; like his mind is still half elsewhere.

It seems so, anyway. A friend of Kiri Hellfire's.

I'm looking for her, in fact.

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