< A Sharp Poke in the Eye | Sol Invictus Logs | The Third Tavern >
Erevel swirls and churns in the sky, as a face as large as the Sunlands stares, utterly fixated on Thirteen's hanging form. You remember our last meeting, do you not?
Thirteen .Where you made threats you could not hope to keep? I tend to recall such things, yes.
Erevel .And yet you have drawn me here. Our final fated meeting lies yet in your future, the great sky-dragon-voice thinks. But now you are engaged in another futile task altogether.
Thirteen .I have that tendency so common to Twilights, yes, of taking on impossible challenges and accomplishing them.
Erevel There is thunder and lightning. (...)
Erevel .Your kind have always been proud. And they have always been doomed.
Thirteen .Did such thoughts comfort you as you abandoned your kindred in the midst of battle to suffer our retribution?
Erevel .As you have abandoned your companions now as the teeth of Netheos rise up to consume them? The lightning grows dramatically more intense, and the wind kicks up until the leaves begin to blow off of the Wasirranu below. I ceased to care for the well-being of my kindred long ago, but you still cling to false hope for yours.
Thirteen .I have not abandoned them. I have come here to find a way to protect them.
Erevel .Yet you cannot even speak with them without nearly coming to blows.
Thirteen .That is what I wish to protect them from.
Erevel A bolt of lightning strikes very, very close to Thirteen, and a portion of the canopy below catches fire. Who are you to save them? One fool in a kingdom of fools.
Thirteen .I would say that your contempt would be your undoing, but it seems it already has been.
Thirteen .I am Thirteen Blooming Flowers, Twilight Ascendant, the finest tactician and general Creation has ever seen. I have saved Creation at least once, and do not intend to stop there. If there is a way to bring my people together, I will find it, as Wei Dan found it so long ago.
Erevel A cold rain begins, though it seems to do nothing to quench the rapidly spreading fire below. You are here to desperately beg for guidance, but you have not the slightest thought for how to proceed. You wish to save a flawed people crafted by a flawed liege in a world that itself is flawed.
Thirteen .If we were not flawed, what need would there be to save us?
Erevel .But you too are flawed. How will you save others? The fire and the rain both become stronger, and the acrid smoke smell grows stronger. Your planning helped you defeat a foe outside but it did not halt you from decisions that rove your Circle apart.
Thirteen grits his teeth. Yes.
Thirteen .Thus have I come here. To find another way.
Erevel .But are you truly ready to do what is needed to find that way? The lightning grows more frequent, breaking up the darkness with frequent flashes of brilliant light, while an immense blaze burns below Thirteens' head.
Thirteen .I have sworn my life, my spirit and my blood to my Circle, to the Deliberative and to my friends. I will do what must be done.
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