idolpro | Shrike's Heart (#4)

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!heart games

Shrike's Heart (#4)

The woman before you is beautiful—fair of features, with lovely golden skin and luxurious long black hair, petite. You have the immediate and distinct impression that she's just let go of your hand, and she steps back, and smiles.

It's not quite a happy smile.

"I'm sorry," she says. "There's just nothing I can do, as things are. But the way is there; it just needs to be lit."

You open your mouth—maybe to say something, or to express confusion—but you have to cough, and taste something metallic, spattering black blood onto the ground in front of you. Then you realize—blood seeps from opening wounds in your arms, your chest, your stomach, your face. It rims your eyes and trails from your nose and you feel like you're dissolving—

—and you fall through the ground like it's the surface of a lake, and go down, down, down.

> Wake Up

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[ Amaranth doesn't meet his eyes.
It's fine. ]

It mattered to her. We could not have found you otherwise.

[ She lets Shrike's mother sink into her arms—shifting to carrying her, if need be. ] ... Tell me where to bring you.

Does guilt... really matter? In the end, it's... your deeds.

[ she really clearly cannot stand anymore, as much as she's trying to hold herself up. ]

Take me... by the gate to the yard. In life... or in death... I will guard this place.

I... have never wanted... a comfortable end.

[Griffin may not like her, and he definitely doesn't empathize with her. But, he can't exactly turn away from someone's dying request.

Wordlessly, he comes over to help Amaranth hold her up - an arm slung across their shoulders.]

[ She could have carried her alone, if needed—but this is better: with a support at each shoulder, Shrike's mother can at least still stand on her own feet.
—Amaranth takes a moment, though, to bend down and retrieve the sword. ]

...No, guilt alone isn't enough. But I've told you that before. Haven't I.

What matters is that she fought.

[ it's slow going, but she can walk it, with their help, as chagrined as she looks to have to accept it.

the sky is growing darker—maybe from fog, or clouds? the flowers griffin watered early stand out uncannily bright. ]

I'm just... tired.

[Griffin's silent, but he tilts his head up to note the incoming weather. It's like the heart itself is preparing for a dramatic end.

At least... the flowers look like they're okay. He hopes they'll survive.]

[ The flowers catch Amaranth’s eye a moment too—that sudden spark of color—but they can’t really hold her attention compared to the dying warrior mother leaning against her shoulder. She feels more than sees the weather shift around them. ]

It’s alright to be tired. It isn’t weakness.
And... you don’t have to be tired alone.

[ As they reach the garden gate, Amaranth presses the sword back into Shrike’s mother’s hand. ]

[ her hand tightens around the sword more firmly and more readily than Shrike's ever has, but she doesn't quite raise it. or maybe she can't. it seems to bring her a little strength, though. ]

Don't I?

After all. You're not... here for me.

We're here for her, and you're part of her.

[But Griffin backs off to give her space, if her pride demanded that she stand alone.]

[ Amaranth holds her hand at the hilt of the sword just a little longer; lifts it to its proper readied place before stepping away. ]

And we are... too similar, aren’t we.

[ she steadies one hand against one of the gate posts, and half-smiles, before speaking—quietly. ]

Once, there was a maiden...
...who was the living embodiment of everything right in the world.
While she lived, no real harm could come to anyone. Oh, wounds, disease, even death, sure. But she stood between the world and anything worse.
"Except," she said, "I'm going to die." And no one listened.
"I'm going to die tomorrow," she said. And no one heard.
Into the silence, she said: "There's always an ending, after all."

[Griffin glances at Amaranth again. Should they go?

But honestly

He's a little confused what's supposed to be worse than wounds, disease and death.]

[ oh, you know, the world getting so weakened by mass war and disease that it experiences a critical existence failure and gets dissolved by primordial chaos or dragged into oblivion— ]

If there is always an ending...
I don't think I ever realized it before, with that sutra. But there have to be multiple endings, don't there.

That means— [ her voice catches; hi Griffin, somewhere along the way she started crying ] —there are multiple beginnings, too.

There was even more injustice in our time than we ever realized.
She can be one of those who begins something new.

Edited 2020-03-06 21:38 (UTC)

...go, then. Go.

This place... cannot be saved... as it stood. The failures of the past... cannot be changed.

So you'd better... be... right.

[It's true. The past was the past. Griffin gives a nod of solemn acknowledgement in the mom's direction, before muttering to Amaranth,]

...C'mon. We should go.

We gotta keep moving forward.

[ Her shoulders go stiff, and she stays facing away from him at first. ]

........Yes.

[ a long exhale, making herself relax her posture; then, she bends down to give Shrike's mother a kiss on the cheek. ]

Let's see this through.

[ Shrike's mother jerks upright for a moment, surprise apparent on her face, and for a moment it's like she forgets she's injured, dying, because HEY, WHAT WAS THAT??? ]

[ and then huffs, a fraction of a laugh. ]

Well... you're bold. I'll give you... that.

Hopefully... she continues to follow... your example.

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Shrike's Heart (#4)

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