2018-01-09: The Arrow of Mercy

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  • Log: The Arrow of Mercy
  • Cast: Riesenlied, Elhaym van Houten
  • Where: Wayside
  • Date: 9th January 2018
  • Summary: Riesenlied practices her archery for the time when Siegfried comes. Elly visits her with lunch.


<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Wehaca and Port Solde had been a difficult series of battles for Riesenlied, and one that hangs deep in her heart too. One of her most precious skulls was taken in the battle, and by someone she's certain bears an overwhelming hatred for her. It is a reminder that... no matter how many good deeds one does, it only takes a slip to ruin everything.

Yet... she continues on, as she must. For the sake of her Tainted, for her children... for Noeline.

Riesenlied is in quiet training at a range nearby her Orphanage -- several dummies have been set up with a protective fence setting it aside. She has a bow fashioned in the manner of wings in her right hand, and nocks the string back...

...loosing an arrow -- 'arrow', for it's less a physical missile and more a line of light that strikes the dummy with a dull hiss. She looks a bit exhausted.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"Pardon me..."

Elly says this, but she is no sealion.

Elly has come up to Riesenlied from the little foot path towards this patch of rocky ground and she has brought several things with her. One of these things is a less fancy bow and a quiver of arrows; the other is a wicker basket with a cloth wrapped around... something.

"Would you like some lunch?" she asks Riesenlied. "I thought I would try shooting a few arrows, but I'm glad to see I won't be alone." Elly smiles, with a sort of wan air. "I ah... I don't know very much about archery."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied wipes at her forehead and blinks once, before smiling to turn towards Elhaym as she approaches. "Oh, Miss Elly. I was just thinking about lunch and what to make for the children, but I see you've beaten me to it..."

She bobs her head and says, "Yes, I would like some. Archery is not a very common skill nowadays, with the advent of ARMs..... but there are people such as I who cannot use them at all. That, and... this is the kind of training I had been accustomed to."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly laughs. "Well," she says, "I did want to chat with you a little in any case, so it's no problem. Um-m--"

Elly unburdens herself on a convenient rock. "Are you hungry now? Please, just have a seat. Let me be the waitress, alright?" she says, even as the bow and quiver get let down as well. "You certainly deserve a little fussing, with everything you do!"

"How did you learn the art in the first place?" Elly continues, even as she unpacks the actual lunch, which seems to be a flatbread wrapped tight around some filling. There's a knife, perhaps for this or to help slice up the small wedge of cheese or the apple that's come along with it. There's also a stoppered glass flask of something - probably a sweet drink - and a couple of wooden cups.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied-- cups her mouth with a chuckle, nodding as she sits down and relents to let Elly do just that. "You're too kind, Miss Elly. And thank you for being there, at that ball... I was just a nervous bundle of energy, I could tell."

She thinks for a moment and says, "This was centuries ago... when I first encountered the Fereshte tribe in Elru. They are hunters and foragers of the land, and it was there that I learnt how to use a bow and arrow, and how to humanely hunt animals so that they suffer the least amount of pain possible..."

A pause. "But, ah, recently, I'd manifested these powers, and it seems that I am able to channel it into my bow. It is... useful, given the degradation that has happened to my body."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"I wish I remembered it better... I didn't embarrass myself too much, I hope," Elly says with a laugh as Riesenlied sets down. Elly picks up the knife and

SLICES

into the wrap, which seems to have been bought in a store but is nonetheless rich looking on the inside. There's some cheese that was melted at some point... a rich curried meat of some kind, probably goat or mutton (no cucco!!!), pickled vegetable... "Do you want it all at once, or bit by bit?" Elly asks.

"The Fereshte... I'm not familiar with them. I'll be honest that I wanted to ask you some things, about all of... that, if you're comfortable with me asking such things," Elly continues, pouring a cup of the drink (which seems to be a lime-grape fizz) and offering it to Riesenlied.

"There's so much I don't understand..."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"No, no... you looked like you had a lot of fun with Mister Fei," Riesenlied warmly smiles as she briefly imagines the way Elly helped herself to a lot of the food and the wine! She laces her fingers for a moment, perking towards the food as she says, "Oh, dear... I'll just have a bit for now. This looks a lot different than the kind of fare we usually cook..."

She blinks just a little bit. "Oh, of course. I'll tell you anything you'd like to know," she expresses gently, having no sense of guile that she may be being milked for information. Kahm already does it on a regular basis -anyway-.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

How can you milk a cucco...?

Elly slices the half in half and proffers it to Riesenlied, then. The flavoring is a little heavy on preserved flavors, with a fermented note, and it's cold - naturally enough; she probably brought it here from November - but it was meant to be tasty on the road. "I'm not entirely sure what it is, myself. The drink's my favorite from the fountain across from the Renais, though..."

She smiles again, hard enough to dimple her cheeks a little.

(Internally, she feels a squirt of guilt. But it's a small one. For now.)

"I'd been wondering about... 'Mother'. I understand that that may be a little sensitive - here," and the drink is passed, and no, there's no liquor in it whatsoever. Elly pours her own cup full. "But I hear people speak in such... enigmatic, complicated ways. Usually it's during terrifying events, too."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied blinks a few times, cupping her cheek for a moment, curious for a little bit what might have brought it up. She does sip and sigh a little bit, going, "Mmm, it's a really refreshing and different taste... hehe, I tend to be a little clueless when it comes to stores with nice products. We don't spend a lot of time in November."

She's kind of backwater, isn't she...?

"... Ah... Mother is..." Riesenlied pauses, furrowing her brow. "Would it be right to say you do not know much other than her name?"

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"I can tell that 'Mother' is very important to you and..."

Elly considers.

"... I'm sorry, and forgive me if I'm putting this poorly... Many other Hyadaens that I've heard speak? I can't even really say, 'spoken with'..."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

There's a delicate smile as Riesenlied speaks, "Some revere the Lord Granas. Others, the Guardians. And from Lunar, there is Althena."

She laces her hands together, nibbling her sandwich. "... for us, who come from a dying star far away, Mother was the one who rescued our species from utter annihilation in our world's dying breath. She took our ancestors and flew the sea of stars... and came to this planet, our promised land, Filgaia."

A long silence... and says, "Or so the tale went. ... but in reality, I do not know what truly happened a thousand years ago when our ancestors landed here, save that there was a cataclysmic war between them, the humans, and the Elw. The Metal Demon Wars."

There's a tender and timorous sigh as she continues, "Mother is... sealed, as you know. By the Guardians. The Guardians are fearful of her wrath; and I have heard her voice myself. She is wrothful, cursing their very breath. I..."

She wipes a little tear. "... I had all the faith that someone who rescued us from the tears must have been infinitely patient and kind. Modelled myself after that image, even... so to hear such harsh words is... ... it shook me."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly listens. She doesn't bite into her sandwich until Riesenlied reaches that sigh.

"... So she's spoken to you... and it wasn't friendly. Did she say why she was..." Elly begins, before trailing off, faltering, and finally just eating some of the wrap in order to give herself room to think.

This is huge, she thinks: huge beyond reckoning. Why am I the one who has to carry this? That war was before our nation was even founded? Surely the Emperor already knows... but, he might not have had full information, Elly thinks further. If the Holy Empire was made after the wreckage...

"I suppose I couldn't blame her," Elly says, looking to the ground, "if she'd been locked up like that. Though..."

"You were born after the war, then?" Elly asks.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"Mm. Do you... know of the time our historians call the Day of Collapse? I was born at a time not long after that, when the entire world was at its knees. That was where my kin, the Tainted, were born... due to huge deficits in quality materials that could create what you might consider a 'normal' Hyadean," Riesenlied expresses.

That would make her just short of 500 years old...

"... I-- ah, I'm sorry. My age is not something I bring up frequently, so I am sorry if it alarms you..." Riesenlied scratches at the scales that are growing over her cheek. Wears her down so much.

"... I do not know. She curses the Guardians for sealing her. But the truth of the war -- the truth of what happened is beyond me. And for the longest time, I'd believed in our leader, Lord Siegfried. ... for too long..."

She falters a little.

"... many were harmed because of my inaction, in Adlehyde, in Arctica. But... in my heart, I... cannot agree with his desire for vengeance, and the rekindling of a thousand-year old wound..."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

So old, Elly thinks. She's seen so much... but she doesn't seem so much different from I, or Fei, or anyone.

"... Who gave you that name? I don't - I don't understand," Elly says, faltering. "I suppose that you mean that you were all manufactured, in a way, like Gears are?" Elly finishes off the cup of drink she has, refilling it as she digests what Riesenlied is saying.

"Do you want more?" she asks while she's still holding the bottle. "The cheese is good, too, if you'd like a nibble."

"So you've left that active mission... Do you know what he's going to try to do? Or is it all a matter of these statues, and the Guardians, and everything?" Elly asks. She then opens her mouth as if to say more--

-- and actually does.

"I'd felt awful for the Guardians when we met them. They seemed so weak and desperate. I know a lot of people felt let down by them, and I suppose I can't blame them for that... I barely understand them, myself. But all of this just seems like it must have been some ancient misunderstanding..." Elly gestures around herself with her cup.

"You made this place... even if there's... ...things, below it, you've still made /this place/. So few people seem to manage that much nowadays..."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"Oh, thank you, let me try a little..." Riesenlied takes a cracker to spread the cheese after using the knife. "You mean, 'Riesenlied'? I..."

You don't deserve a name.

"... um--" Riesenlied frowns as she thinks for a moment, visibly disturbed for a moment. "I believe it was my mother -- Cetiri, who was the scientist who... created me. I'd heard her say it means 'giant's song'... as in, to evoke the feeling of someone who could soothe a giant beast through something gentle, like music..."

She looks just a little bashful. "... last I know he would chase after the Statues, to resurrect Mother. He believes in nothing short of global domination, so that he can reshape Filgaia in their image..."

She lowers her head... and admits, "I did sense the wounds in the Guardians when I spoke to one-- was exposed to one. They, like Lord Siegfried, still bear the wounds from a thousand years ago, unable to let go. It's... I feel it's extremely tragic... and it's why I want to break the flow of hate that's poisoned our culture, poisoned our youth."

She looks up and around, rising to the end of the foothill as Elly speaks of Wayside. She looks out at the fields, where some of the Hyadeans are farming at present -- the guy's having a good time, because his arm is literally a plough.

"I want to be able to create a platform that can let my brethren grow... in a way they so choose. Music, discourse, art, poetry... farming, exploration... I do not wish to see them be reduced to marauders and soldiers for a cause they weren't even born for...!"

A pause, and Riesenlied bashfully says, "I'm-- I'm sorry, I got a bit passionate..."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

Elly hadn't meant that but it's a better story that way. She listens, and smiles just a bit. "Then even if you had a different way of coming into the world, you still had a 'mother'..."

It felt important to her somehow. There's a subtle chord of warmth. Elly can't identify it.

Elly turns her head to gaze upon the forming, where a man's arm is turned to work as a plowshare. "Oh - you don't have to apologize. I appreciate that you're telling me all of this. It's just so confusing to me, hearing all of it bouncing around... I sometimes feel like I've come in partway through a novel someone else has written. But that's life, isn't it, I suppose?"

Now who's old, ELLY.

"Then... is all of this a conflict over reshaping Filgaia...?"

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied has a faint smile as she says, "Yes, I know what you mean. To only hear it from Lord Siegfried's point of view... as much as I had admired him, and still am grateful for everything he'd taught me..."

She lowers her head. "I'd long wished to hear the Guardians' side of the story. And now that I have... and I am out here... I suppose I truly am living the life I wished all this time."

There's a gentle nod. "We Hyadeans are incompatible with the planet. Our people slowly languish here. These... scales, this misshapen arm and leg of mine..." where the growths have become misshapen and significant, on her left arm and leg, and spreading up like scales to her neck and cheek...

"It only happened after exposure to the Guardian at the Guardian Temple, back when we all visited them. ... so I do believe there is something fundamentally contradictory about our existence to the Guardians'..."

A soft pause.

"But even so... I don't believe it's impossible for us to bridge that gap, somehow, someday. That is what the new world I seek is all about."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"..."

Elly tilts her head downwards. "Does that affect... all of you? I'm sorry, that... I, I mean..."

Elly trails off, because she doesn't even know what she's apologizing for. Planetary energetic incompatibility?

Her eyes feel like they want to tear over. "But before then, before you met them... I mean... You could find one of the areas that's been..." Elly trails off, perhaps thinking of Elru but not daring to bring it up. And is it even hers, to give away?

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied lowers her head. "... some more than others. My brethren are all much stronger than I am, so the degradation is nowhere near as visible... but perhaps, it is the very fact that it is noticeable that I am here."

She smiles ever so faintly, herself just a little tearful. "Ah? One of the areas...?" She furrows her brow, tilting her head, not quite understanding what Elly's getting at.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"I don't know anything at all," Elly says, with a faint choking, "about where the Guardians... are, or reside, or act, but... Filgaia's full of all these vast and empty spaces. Even if some of them have some king or chief in the best spot, nobody could gainsay you if you wanted to go there. I... I don't know, I'm sorry. I doubt you'd want to cause the trouble."

Elly takes in a deep breath.

"Why are you saying they're stronger? You seem incredibly strong to me. I won't - I won't say that the others aren't also, um, terrifyingly powerful."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied is ever patient and not judgemental as she tilts her head, shaking her head to dissaude Elly from having to apologise. "Oh, I understand. Yes, in truth, I'd considered long where I may need to take my brethren. This village is not going to be permanent, especially now that Lady Harken knows of where we are. But even under the threat of destruction... I know that we are all happy of what we've achieved here. What we can still achieve. Even if one village goes... it will take more than that to extinguish our hope."

She takes a moment to calm herself.

"Ah... stronger in a-- a physical sense, I suppose... I will not denigrate myself and say I have no skills of my own, but..."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"Moving everyone... it seems like you'd have a rough time," Elly murmurs. "I know it's never easy for refugees even at the best of times."

She thinks uneasily of Lahan.

MEANWHILE, PROBABLY: Everyone from Lahan who didn't hang back drinks smoothies and floats in Aphel Aura.

"... I don't know why that bothers me so much. I'm sorry. I just, the way that they were referred to... You were saying you were 'the Tainted'. That's just... That's just such a cruel thing to say, about your own people..."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"... it is," Riesenlied doesn't argue. She lowers her head further, and... says, "Did you know that my kin -- bleed white? It is because of the quicksilver in our blood, I hear. Yet... my own blood runs red. Because of the impurities within me. 'Redblood', they say... 'human sympathiser'."

She shakes her head and says, "But we've clung to that name -- turned it back against them. And now, out here... if you would call us Metal Demon... then I would reject that as a pejorative, and call ourselves Hyadean. After the star where we once were from."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"... If it's what you want to use as your own term," Elly says, with a dip of her head, "then I won't... complain about it. I suppose I don't have any right."

Quicksilver, she thinks. Is it actual quicksilver - liquid mercury? And Riesenlied doesn't have it...

"I don't want to call you anything cruel, that's all," Elly says, with another smile. It seems sad, somehow, but in a natural way. "Do they still have many memories, of what... ... Hyade, was like?" Elly's tentativity there is rooted, perhaps, in not knowing exactly whence comes that derivation.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"... then, Hyadean will do," Riesenlied warmly smiles. "You are right in that we should not stick to it any longer. But... no, we do not have any memories of Hyades. I myself was not born there... and in the great crash, we do not have any persisting memories, artifacts or records of the place..."

Maybe it's pronounced 'Hades'. 90s JRPGs are weird and edgy.

"The only ones to still have memory of the place are our elders, like Lord Siegfried... and even then, they were young then."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"Do you think that's what motivates them? I don't..."

Elly shakes her head once. "I suppose I don't understand it. What /is/ Siegfried's goal? Even after..."

"After that time he hurt Fei..."

Elly trails off, her bangs veiling her eyes. She toys with the knife in her hand, before she picks up the apple instead, slicing it into sixths.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"... to resurrect Mother. To that end, he wishes to destroy the Guardian Statues... he..." Riesenlied picks up a piece of the apple to nibble at it. "... he is enamored with her, and deeply blames himself for the loss of a thousand years ago. So much that it has warped his view of the world..."

She sighs.

"He was my mentor, once. And I have no doubt he will come personally. And I will have to face him myself, on that day..."

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"Enamored...?"

Elly settles back, even as she hands over a slice of apple and munches one herself. It's sweet if a little grainy - it's not the season for apples after all. These were stored.

"What will you do, then?"

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"... well..."

Riesenlied draws that bow up again, and concentrates. There's an emanation in the air, as she creates what seems nothing more than a point of light in the air at her fingertip. Then, she draws a line of it as she brings taut the bowstring.

She releases, and the arrow of light curves and strikes the further dummy.

"I doubt he would listen to me. But I will appeal to him best I can... for the sake of all my brethren. I wish to see this divide between us ended, one day."

One way or another, it would seem. She wishes for the peaceful kind. He would not have it so.

<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.

"Ah!" Elly says, at that drawn line and that bent bow and that firm satisfying THUNK! of light into that far off dummy. "Oh... goodness. How...?"

"Should I have not brought arrows?" Elly then asks - a joke??

But the joke is small and brief, and the truth weighs heavily and huge in the sky, like a moon slowly falling to the surface of the world.

"... Riesenlied," Elly says, more formally, her head tilting downwards. "I suppose it's no secret... but, I have powerful abilities."

She is silent for a second. "I don't want to boast," she says. "I wish I didn't have them. People have even told me that I'm a 'Destroyer', and I don't have any way to argue with them."

"But..."

"You're a kind person. You care for others. People love you... I can see it in their eyes, in how they speak to you. From what you're saying... I suppose you expect Siegfried won't listen to you. And when he does, I suppose that you expect he'll attack. And he won't have mercy."

Elly takes a deep breath and lets it out.

why am I doing this
why do i care so much
why do i feel like crying
why...

"If you want," Elly says, "I'll be there with you. If I can. When the time comes. Maybe it would even persuade him - persuade him to listen to reason..."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"I do not know... it is not sorcery, or any kind of magic -- though it does seem similar at times, does it not?"

But Elly speaks about her powers. Riesenlied had seen, at the battle underneath Wayside, just how powerful Elly's Ether abilities were. Though the concept of 'Ether' and Ether sorcery was a little foreign to her -- Lily being her other exposure to it, she had oft reckoned with the enormity of its power, certainly.

"... I..." Riesenlied looks just a bit surprised, as she-- places a hand on Elly's, if she'll let her. "... I would-- that would... but I don't want to draw you into unnecessary danger and trouble..."

She hesitates. "But at the same time, that would be comforting. To have that kind of protection..." She doesn't say 'power'. "I do not intend to shy away -- I will tell him, all that I feel, about our people..."

She nods. "If you are sure, Miss Elly. It would be a relief."