Charonquest

[wooliefrand]

WHO: Lily
WHERE: Lily Barn
WHEN: Early Day 36, post ritual!

[alright nerds lets go get your emotional support shepherd]

Comments

Re: final

[endsjustified]

[when you place your flower and touch the final lock...well.

it's not really a riddle or a puzzle, just a quiet question. Charon's voice. not fearful, but concerned and weary beyond measure.

Aides? Are you all right?]

Re: final

[hardpity]

I'm fine. We rescued you. You missed babies.

Re: final

[endsjustified]

...why were there babies...

Re: final

[hardpity]

It was a babysitting ritual. We won because Lethe is a big softy. He kept pictures I think.

Re: final

[endsjustified]

I look forward to seeing them.

[a small sigh]

Thank you for coming for me, Aides.

The door is open.

Re: final

[hardpity]

Any time. Also you're grounded. I expect some serious spa time for you after this.

Re: final

[endsjustified]

I consider myself thoroughly chastised and consigned to the spa.

Let me see you.

Re: final

[hardpity]

Oh, right.

[ OPENS

THE DOOR ]

Re: final

[endsjustified]

[there's a rush of feeling over him, when he turns the knob. care and concern, a kind of comfort taken in the relative normalcy of Aides's reactions to things. gratitude in their consistency. an aching gnawing worry as he considers Aides's memories and a need to fix them; an awareness of his situation, a desire to help. a sense of reliance, at the same time, on Aides's stability and skill and cleverness and competence. a desire to treat him with relative gentleness -- yes, he considers him fully able to stand on his own, but he doesn't like subjecting someone not used to facing horrors like the pasture's to them on the regular. stress and guilt that he can't prevent Aides from getting hurt, from sometimes dying, whether it's in a permanent way or not.

the door opens.

he gets an impression of blinding silver spilling out from within, over him, through the halls, through the doors, through everything, clean and cold and implacable. and this is the additional truth he receives, in this moment, of what hid here to preserve itself:

if need be, it will kill for you, and if need be, it will die for you. someday, somewhere. but that's the least important part of it. because before then, it will know you and perceive you. it will never turn aside from you. it will plot for you. it will move what must be moved for you, whether what must be moved is molehill or mountain. it will bind you as long as that's what serves. it will let you go, when it's time to let go.

it is not omniscient, superhuman, or infallible. it has very little room for mercy, for pity, for softness; it was partially born that way, and partially shaped. but it is on your side, and it intimately understands duty and care, and for all of you, it is trying to widen its horizons.

the rush of it carries him out of the dark maze, on a sea of shining light.

...]