Trying not to, Cheri couldn’t help but let the smallest flicker of a grin break her composure as Obscene threw his support into the cause. “It only took one minor apocalyptic catastrophe, an accursed relative, the twisting turns of a power struggle, and a trip through alternate time in order for us to put our heads together.”
Progress, she thought.
The trio left presently, since there was no sense lingering among the surface ruins while the ones they were interested in lay beneath a literal ocean of water. Aela seemed to take the natural lead as guide, walking and talking as they left the green-covered stones behind. Cheri studied the quiet effigies, sometimes passing underneath their shadow or nearly tripping over them in the grass-carpeted soil. It was quiet here. Aela's voice seemed too loud, though she was speaking at a normal tone.
“The Calamity…” Cheri whispered, keeping pace with the group and Aela’s story.
It sounded wholly appropriate. The loss of her homeland, her Kingdom - a place rich in history as much as heritage. That certainly felt like an unmitigated disaster. The entire southern region…
Gone in an instant.
She’d had days to process the shock. Months to deny what she felt all along. Time had only served to remind her that breathing was guilty. Being alive was guilty. Every. Single. Step. Every one taken was a step that the fallen would never take again. It made her heart shrivel.
She left a trail of dead and dying earth in her wake, little semi-crescent shapes of black soil that melted anything trying desperately to live aboveground. Eventually, like everything else, nature would govern itself and grow back - essentially erasing the damage. For now, the tracks stretched behind them long after the group of horses moved into another terrain.
“Baltians, wreckage, and catastrophe involving the Mountain.” Cheri muttered plainly, “We’re definitely in the right place.”
Obscene and Aela could interpret that as they liked. The where clicked into place for her, unlooping a bit of the timeline in the mage’s scruffy, dark head. She’d been reviving for months post-Calamity, and before that: something. Something involving the mountain had obviously occurred. Amarine had been gone for so, so long during the rejuvenation of the sun… which could only mean one thing.
Years.
She and Obscene had missed years.
Progress, she thought.
The trio left presently, since there was no sense lingering among the surface ruins while the ones they were interested in lay beneath a literal ocean of water. Aela seemed to take the natural lead as guide, walking and talking as they left the green-covered stones behind. Cheri studied the quiet effigies, sometimes passing underneath their shadow or nearly tripping over them in the grass-carpeted soil. It was quiet here. Aela's voice seemed too loud, though she was speaking at a normal tone.
“The Calamity…” Cheri whispered, keeping pace with the group and Aela’s story.
It sounded wholly appropriate. The loss of her homeland, her Kingdom - a place rich in history as much as heritage. That certainly felt like an unmitigated disaster. The entire southern region…
Gone in an instant.
She’d had days to process the shock. Months to deny what she felt all along. Time had only served to remind her that breathing was guilty. Being alive was guilty. Every. Single. Step. Every one taken was a step that the fallen would never take again. It made her heart shrivel.
She left a trail of dead and dying earth in her wake, little semi-crescent shapes of black soil that melted anything trying desperately to live aboveground. Eventually, like everything else, nature would govern itself and grow back - essentially erasing the damage. For now, the tracks stretched behind them long after the group of horses moved into another terrain.
“Baltians, wreckage, and catastrophe involving the Mountain.” Cheri muttered plainly, “We’re definitely in the right place.”
Obscene and Aela could interpret that as they liked. The where clicked into place for her, unlooping a bit of the timeline in the mage’s scruffy, dark head. She’d been reviving for months post-Calamity, and before that: something. Something involving the mountain had obviously occurred. Amarine had been gone for so, so long during the rejuvenation of the sun… which could only mean one thing.
Years.
She and Obscene had missed years.
@Obscene