[He tips his chin up - makes his way over, dripping wet, to wedge himself between the two of them, the body language equivalent of don't-fucking-ignore-me]
"Domain is part of it, yes." The woman—Adalet, apparently—has an alto voice, with a tone seemingly set to no-nonsense by default, though compared to Harlowe it's practically gentle.
"But it goes both ways. Our Estates are part of us. We protect these shards of reality. Because someone must, if we want the world to exist at all."
"Not without me. But... without Leli. Our Estates are duties she has... passed on to us, you could say."
A pause, and she adds, "Injustice creates change, you know. I don't pretend to like it, but I know why it's here. And since it is mine, I can destroy it where I find it, too."
"Lesser Destruction of Injustice. It comes with the territory. And I am a Lady of this earth." Lady has the sound of a noble title, the way she says it.
"...So if you're wondering why I do it? That's why." A pause, and she shrugs a shoulder, then adds, "But it's better off that you didn't start out trusting me. What are you here for? We didn't make this Chancel easy to find."
It's subtle, but there's an extra emphasis on "this," like there's more than one.
"We can tell you're one of Kiri's, yeah. First time we've seen her having some kind of personality crisis, but what do you know."
Harlowe shrugs. "Kid's been through a lot." Hellfire is, at least according to her profile, definitely at least several centuries old, but he said what he said, alright.
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?)
"Not just Wild Rose. Star of Bethlehem doesn't belong either." A pause. "Or didn't used to, anyway."
Harlowe meets your eyes. "But natural or not, you can only stick so much Destiny in one soul. Two flowers." He holds up two fingers, for emphasis. "Not four."
He folds his arms across his chest—the first even halfway relaxed body language you've seen from him. Maybe he likes you.
"Couldn't tell you why it's happening, though. You'd be the one to guess, since you're her new Familia and all."
"Wild Rose doesn't really work that way." Adalet offers you a sad smile, though it's fleeting. Then her expression is back to that aloof neutrality.
"You don't see Wild Rose associated with Nobles who couldn't care less whether they connected with others. One Imperator ennobled a swarm of locusts, once, but I don't think Caelifera has Wild Rose as one of theirs. They're not trying to connect with humanity to begin with."
"Find her, first off. But I'll give you some advice: You've got choices in this. You always do. And maybe that sword learned something after all this, since those choices are here in the first place.
"And the most important choice you can make is to destroy yourself."
"Harlowe's a Magister of the Dark in another version of the world. You do not have to listen to him. Since isn't that why we fight the Valde Bellum—" Judging by her pointed tone, this seems addressed more to Harlowe than you. "—To ensure that humanity will live on."
A short sigh, and she moves on.
"We couldn't tell you where Kiri is, though. It isn't what we are. Axes and Injustice are the hard edge of this Familia's enforcement, not its searching heart. 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.
And there, sitting on an overturned stone from the bridge that half-crosses the pond before crumbling to rubble, is a woman.
Her skin is moon-pale—almost unhealthily so, though no less beautiful for it—and her hair is dark as night. You realize two things about her: that she is Wounded, and that, even if you were in a dark and empty time, a hurting time, a ruined and compromised time in your life; even if you understood one day that you had failed, that you had wasted yourself and your opportunities—even then, she would always be with you.
The grass around her is blanketed with the white of snowdrops.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: CHANCEL LELI
I said, who are you?
Re: CHANCEL LELI
"Harlowe. Axes. She's Adalet. Injustice." A beat. "And Sprouts."
Re: CHANCEL LELI
Re: CHANCEL LELI
Re: CHANCEL LELI
Re: CHANCEL LELI
"But it goes both ways. Our Estates are part of us. We protect these shards of reality. Because someone must, if we want the world to exist at all."
Re: CHANCEL LELI
...or sprouts.
Re: CHANCEL LELI
A pause, and she adds, "Injustice creates change, you know. I don't pretend to like it, but I know why it's here. And since it is mine, I can destroy it where I find it, too."
Re: CHANCEL LELI
Re: CHANCEL LELI
"...So if you're wondering why I do it? That's why." A pause, and she shrugs a shoulder, then adds, "But it's better off that you didn't start out trusting me. What are you here for? We didn't make this Chancel easy to find."
It's subtle, but there's an extra emphasis on "this," like there's more than one.
Re: CHANCEL LELI
[A beat]
She's a sword sometimes.
Re: CHANCEL LELI
Harlowe shrugs. "Kid's been through a lot." Hellfire is, at least according to her profile, definitely at least several centuries old, but he said what he said, alright.
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?)
Re: CHANCEL LELI
Re: CHANCEL LELI
Harlowe meets your eyes. "But natural or not, you can only stick so much Destiny in one soul. Two flowers." He holds up two fingers, for emphasis. "Not four."
He folds his arms across his chest—the first even halfway relaxed body language you've seen from him. Maybe he likes you.
"Couldn't tell you why it's happening, though. You'd be the one to guess, since you're her new Familia and all."
Re: CHANCEL LELI
Like she wanted to be a part of something.
[A beat or two - a little tch noise]
She should know by now she already is.
Re: CHANCEL LELI
"You don't see Wild Rose associated with Nobles who couldn't care less whether they connected with others. One Imperator ennobled a swarm of locusts, once, but I don't think Caelifera has Wild Rose as one of theirs. They're not trying to connect with humanity to begin with."
Re: CHANCEL LELI
How do we get rid of it?
1/2
"And the most important choice you can make is to destroy yourself."
Re: CHANCEL LELI
"Harlowe's a Magister of the Dark in another version of the world. You do not have to listen to him. Since isn't that why we fight the Valde Bellum—" Judging by her pointed tone, this seems addressed more to Harlowe than you. "—To ensure that humanity will live on."
A short sigh, and she moves on.
"We couldn't tell you where Kiri is, though. It isn't what we are. Axes and Injustice are the hard edge of this Familia's enforcement, not its searching heart. 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.
Re: CHANCEL LELI
...thanks. I'll see if they can point me in the right direction.
Re: CHANCEL LELI
Re: CHANCEL LELI
Re: CHANCEL LELI
And there, sitting on an overturned stone from the bridge that half-crosses the pond before crumbling to rubble, is a woman.
Her skin is moon-pale—almost unhealthily so, though no less beautiful for it—and her hair is dark as night. You realize two things about her: that she is Wounded, and that, even if
you were in a dark and empty time, a hurting time, a ruined and compromised time in your life; even if you understood one day that you had failed, that you had wasted yourself and your opportunities—even then, she would always be with you.
The grass around her is blanketed with the white of snowdrops.
Re: CHANCEL LELI
Re: CHANCEL LELI
".......Hello, Lumen."