2017-05-31: Kindred Spirits
- Log: Kindred Spirits
- Cast: Riesenlied, Lily Keil
- Where: New Little Adlehyde
- Date: 31st May 2017
- Summary: Riesenlied can't help but be concerned about the aftermath of the Adlehyde, which leaves her noticed by Lily...
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has had a very busy couple of days; she's essentially worked around the clock as post-action caretaker and manager for the Old Petra base, submitting After-Action Reports and her suggestions for the future; she's spent time speaking with her troops as a counselor and therapist for those who're suffering some ill effects from their first battle; and, of course, she's tying up further loose ends abroad.
She can't help herself.
Any other commander, any other demon would simply leave things be. There's naught there but broken bridges, burnt down and cast asunder in the wake of their glorious conquest. But Riese... Riese's heart hurts for the people of Adlehyde, no matter how much she could or could not do. She watches the encampments, from a distance, quietly wanting to ensure that they receive their due needs in her own way. She's already reached out to a couple people, like Jacqueline.
Atop a short hill, looking down at the various encampments, the winged woman stands beside a tree, draped in that Ellurian cloak of hers. Why does she still cling to such human effects, even after their deception is revealed?
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It's been somewhat different for Lily Keil. She made it to the Yggdrasil, and there she stayed for the first day, resting, recovering, and drinking. ...Rather a lot of drinking. She has her own rituals for the end of an operation, and in lieu of patients to treat or a command of her own, she was left to them. Others immediately started helping...
But she didn't. She had thoughts she wanted to dismiss, and a good mood despite it all that she'll keep as something of a secret. She's made a friend, somehow. And importantly, she had a chance to be away from the crowds that press in on her awareness and on her spirit. Now...
She's likewise away from them, but not because she's avoiding places where she can help; sh has something else to work out, out in the wilderness. She's dressed in black, long pants tucked into sturdy boots, and a buttoned blouse in the same color with long gloves. Her hair is braided, a long, thick braid down her back.
And she's ascending a hill right now, from around the back, to avoid being seen out of habit more than anything. And that's when she sees...
There's a heavy step and if Riesenlied hasn't seen her yet, she may at that point; the Kislevi sorceress is staring at the winged woman before her, hand immediately out at her side in a claw... In the way she does for casting.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied lowers her head, and then she whispers, "I knew you would find me... Miss Lily."
She lowers her head further. She doesn't move. The way she's slanted to one side, the way her arm wound up last battle -- the way her chest was pierced, and how she summoned that sword... she must not be in a position to fight, at all. She must be entirely foolish to come here. But maybe it's what makes her Riesenlied, as well.
"... I hope you are all right," she expresses. "I am concerned for you, all the same."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
A whisper.
The way Riesenlied doesn't move, Lily can immediately trace many of the wounds on the winged woman's body. Even without her training in medicine, she has training in memory; the flames, the way her spear pierced Riese's shoulder...
The way a sword forged of her own will pierced through her body, well before Riesenlied brought out a sword of her own.
Her golden-eyed stare is pierceing, too, before it's dull. Lily's shoulders sink, and she glances down. "...Why?" she asks.
It's a lot of questions in one.
"What concerns you for me? I tried to kill you. There's no reason for either of us to have concern for the other, anymore."
The image lingers behind her eyes, nonetheless. And she hasn't answered the question. She doesn't look particularly wounded, though it's hard to tell with the way she dresses. She considers for a moment before, "I'm walking up to you. It's ridiculous to make you speak loudly when you can barely stand." She starts to do just that.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
The Fallen Sword... a weapon of the heart, she said. A weapon that allows her to truly fight according to her convictions, without fear of killing people. But it is often said that you should not draw a weapon unless you are ready to kill. Is it just a meaningless naivete?
"... I trust you," Riesenlied is even more incredulous. Here, against the woman who tried to stab her, to kill her, she says that she is concerned, and that she trusts her. "It is because we are kindred spirits... are we not?"
She places a hand to her chest. "... there is so little I can do, for those who are displaced. I could only stop so much..."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily felt that sword's power. She doesn't think she would like to again. It was a strange feeling, and difficult, for a woman whose life has been dominated by war and its spectre.
But is is naivete? Who knows?
Lily looks flatly, reprovingly, when Riesenlied says that she /trusts/ her, of all this, given what was just brought up. There's strange and then there's concerning. But that answer...
Lily glances to one of the trees near them, hesitant, as Riese says they're kindred spirits. Her words. The conflict in her expression is clear, even as limited as her expressions often are. "Mm..."
"...You really do care, don't you? For these people who are your enemies, on the side of those who rejected you. ...I can put together some of those pieces now. Even so... You know what the others of your kind have done. You not only couldn't stop it; you're a part of it. Or was that Golem extracted for non-military reasons?"
Lily pauses, and sighs. "...But yes. We are kindred spirits. That's probably why I still care that you made it out alive. I won't hold back fighting you, but that doesn't mean that I enjoy it."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"I do care," Riesenlied speaks. "Adlehyde was a home for me, in the last few months, and it has changed how I viewed people, the way they brought about their smiles in each passing day... ...yet for all of that, I could not stem the tide of hatred. A hatred that has existed beyond you and I, a thousand years in its making..."
There's a despondent sigh. "I chose to be a part of it, because I felt it necessary to provide context. There are so few of my brethren who feel it necessary to do so. I mean it when I say that I will abide by the Treaty of Iscariot to stop the misuse of weapons of mass destruction, and to stop our ancestors from being desecrated for the purposes of opening new wounds."
She looks towards Lily, over her shoulder, gently. "... I do not expect you to hold back either. ... I am glad you didn't. The intensity and emotion that you all showed me on that day... it heartened me. Convinced me that there is a way. And ... when that sword of yours pierced me..."
A pause.
"I had an epiphany, a revelation, in a way," she admits.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It was a home for Lily too, for a time. A home when hers had rejected her. Lily keeps listening, her hand long since relaxed rather than prepared to strike out immediately. It might not matter, if she learns of this hatred, of the feelings of the Metal Demons, but it might.
She doesn't really think about whether to pay attention, though; she just does.
"Context," she repeats. "...You're right about your brethren there from what I've seen. That treaty..." She shakes her head. "Your ancestors are one thing."
"...A way? An.. epiphany? Because I ran you through with a sword born of my will to destruction?" The whole thing is strange. But the sorceress does look expectantly at Riese, as if to hear what that revelation might have been. "...So long as you don't start expecting it."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"When you pierced me, I thought, just for a split second, that I would die.
That... that would be it."
She taps at her chin softly and says, "But I heard the words of those that have looked after me... and what I could possibly achieve, if I looked hard inwardsly. And that was how..." she ruefully chuckles. "That was how I died a death, and reconstructed myself, to be unscientific about it."
"But if I can feel others on that same small scale as when I was mere particles of light.... could I possibly understand the difference between humans and us? The difference between myself and a Guardian? Could we better understand elements that plague us, like Malevolence? ... it is roundabout, but it perhaps inspired me to think that on some level imperceptible to me now, there is a bridge where we can walk together."
A pause. "... those are only naive and strange thoughts, though. I am sorry."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Nodding, Lily watches Riese's face again at what she thought, mostly /because/ it's difficult. She waits, expression softening in thought and in something different. How she...
"A bridge," Lily repeats, and quiets, looking up through the trees towards the sky. "Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. I don't know. I don't know very much about you, in the end." A quiet sigh. "I don't know that I believe there's any such bridge between me and others in general. I don't think I would welcome such a thing."
"But I thought it was over for you, too. And that peace you shared was... unsettling, to me. But I seem only to be comfortable in war. I'm sure you had many voices there. I'm sure it's more accurate that you were in a situation that would lead to death shortly, and this phenomena healed your wounds in time."
"...I'm not sure about the answers to all of those questions. Be inspired all you like... But what concerns me is whether your people keep up what they're doing. Whether your search for it is just going to enable more ruin."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied sighs faintly, nodding. "I know. ... but if I am to do something in all of this, in a tide whose flow I cannot stop under my own auspices, I will at least alleviate suffering where I can, and educate my people of what they do."
She looks at Lily again, turning more fully at this point. "You say ... 'only comfortable in war'. Many of my brethren are the same way. They are born, and trained to fight. Their life is battle. They are promised war, conquest and glory. They have not seen the world for what it is, for what it offers, and the harshness reality stings..."
"Before Adlehyde, very few listened to me," Riesenlied admits. "Only the Tainted -- those on the dragons you saw on that day -- share my philosophies, my thoughts. But even after this one battle... many of them are starting to experience what war and conflict is truly like. They are starting to ask me questions."
She is silent afterwards. "I can't promise you instant results, of course... but that is the best place that I can think of being. To guide them in the right path."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily looks to Riesenlied long enough to judge her expressions, another little piece in the information she's been given about the light-wielding woman before her.
She thus sees the shift in her stance. She pauses as if caught in something when Riese mentions many of her brethren are similar, sighing softly with a glance away. The explanation seems to sink into her anyway; she looks back when Riesenlied mentions' the harshness of reality.
'Tainted' Riesenlied says, and Lily looks to her eyes as she memorizes that term. She lifts her eyebrows next.
"...They really have barely had contact other than with themselves, haven't they? So some of them share your ideals... Which still include intervening in human affairs by force." She can't leave that out. "...But at least includes less slaughter."
"...As for what you say about what their lives are for, maybe I understand some of your people after all. I've planned to fight since I was a young girl. It was what my whole life built towards. My mother was a soldier, my father is a soldier, and I'm a soldier. ...Or I was."
"...If you can do something, good. I'm not well-disposed towards most of your people... But neither am I making the decisions. I hope that what you're trying to do bears fruit. So long as you're trying to minimize the impact of this war..." She stops, and actually laughs faintly, a very unusual sound for the reserved woman.
"I'm already wanted for treason. Even talking with you like this is treason, too. So I can avoid trying again to run you through for now. So long as that's true, and we don't meet on the battlefield."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There's-- a faint chuckle from Riesenlied at that, as she nods, on the topic of intervening by force. "... I know. If I truly had my way, I would not use force at all. You saw the shape of the weapon that I desired within my heart. If your sword is willed to existence by destruction... then mine is willed to existence by empathy."
She looks up to wards the skies. "Thank you. I may very well become wanted for treason one day..." A pause. "I would like to speak with you and Mister Leon further. ... I promised him that I would look to the matter of Gryndille, and this has not changed it one bit. ... and on the subject of the Golem, Diablo... I believe it was he who shot the flares to disrupt the airspace so that his companion, on that black Gear, could secure it."
She frowns quietly. "I can only scarce guess at your own organisational structure at present, but if you are in possession of the Golem... I must consider your group a target for our intervention." She sighs. "... but if you would all be amenable to discussion, I can make myself available. Please... pass the message along, if you think it would be fruitful."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It's not the sort of situation where there should be any humor, of course, but Lily doesn't find it out of place. She waits for the answer and sort of considers it, thinking of that very sword as Riesenlied mentions it.
"...Ah." Empathy. "You really do have a kind heart." Lily glancs to the side.
And upward too, and then back to her speaking partner. She doesn't interrupt. The talk of Leon gets a raised eyebrow, and then... Ah. "...For tactical reasons I can't answer whether that was Leon," Lily answers.
"However... I'll keep that in mind, what you have to say and want to say. Our organizational structure, put frankly, is not entirely my concern at the moment. I'm just glad that no one's looking to me for that kind of leadership." A pause, "...It puts me in a difficult position, mentioning I've been speaking to you. But I'll pass it along."