2018-05-03: The Power to Bless

• Log: The Power to Bless
• Cast: Riesenlied, Cecilia Adlehyde
• Where: Vane
• Date: 3rd May 2018
• Summary: Riesenlied and Cecilia meet to discuss Mediums and their power to purify Malevolence.

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<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Vane!

The city's coming along pleasantly as it has ever been; the influx of new Drifters from the Blue Star (because everyone's terrible at keeping a secret) has seen a new breath of life into it. Even if it's not about to lift up into the skies once more, the disadvantaged amongst those dwelling in Vane has seen slightly more insulated homes, a bit more food, and a little more in the way of quality of life...

... and Riesenlied is in the midst of this, as she often is. She's found comfort and a home here in Vane as she attends to several of the sick, that familiar flow of photons emanating out of her as she soothes their ailments and helps grant them comfort so they can rest. "You'll be all right. Be sure to drink up a lot, and don't make your mother worry, okay...?"

The child she's nursing nods as she expresses, much more calm now, "Thank you, miss Riese!" and her mom bows her head as she scoops her up. "Thank you..."

She waves at them, letting out a little sigh of relief -- and pain, since using her powers isn't exactly free for her... but she couldn't let them know that.

<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.

Someone who didn't entirely understand Cecilia Adlehyde might have expected her to be in near-permanent residence; tending to the ill, providing her princessly guidance to the people displaced upon this far-off star.

Such a person would have to fundamentally misunderstand the reason she ran away from every royal responsibility like it were a separate python. Cecilia does, however, return semi-regularly to Vane, if only because it's where all the people she actually knows are. Such a day has occurred today!

Which you can tell, because two walking boots edge up beside Riese, their blonde owner tucking a length of hair behind her ear as she considers the withering dragonoid...demonoid...human. Oid. "You look like you could use a rest, yourself," Cecilia notes, with the familiarity of a person who no longer particularly feels like she needs to act like a saint.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied blinks softly as she smiles, brushing a bit of her pale blonde locks back herself. "Oh, Miss Cecilia..." she expresses, bowing her head. "It's been a while. I hope you've been well, and Lunar has been treating you such as well?" She can't really speak about herself, given the Althenan Guard is still out for her head, apparently... but she's found a thing or two here, and even discovered a bit more about herself.

Which is something she really wanted to talk about with the Princess of Adlehyde.

"I can scarce imagine it a month ago, but... to be separated by a sea of stars... it warms me to know there are those like Miss Miria who try their best to give for those who've been disadvantaged and cast aside."

She lowers her head.

"Unfortunately, I've made no headway to understanding any clues about how we may return... our own battle grows more desperate."

<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.

Cecilia chuckles, a little joyless. "I can't say I feel my best, to be honest," she says, but it's not particularly dour, either. "My goals are all..." She motions, waving off toward the looming silhouette of Filgaia.

A low huff escapes her lips, hands falling away. "It is good to see people aren't suffering in homelessness. But I do find myself wishing we did not need to establish homes here. The state we left Filgaia in, the enemies of the world marching in power..." She scowls skyward. "I worry what has become of our world even now."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

"Neither am I," Riesenlied expresses in honesty, given Cecilia did too. She looks up towards the Blue Star for a moment, and... lowers her head. "Lord Siegfried did not come with us, as I understand it. When he has recuperated, he will no doubt continue to march onward with his plans... my heart aches for those that would be harmed."

A deeper frown. "... I-- wanted to ask you something." She sounds a bit anxious, and a little like she feels she doesn't have the right to ask it.

"I'd heard... that you deciphered a means to use a Medium to purify Malevolence, Miss Cecilia. To a limited degree, but... that it was possible."

She bites her lip, as if pushing down anxiety... then asks: "If I... knew where to find a Medium -- one I can use -- do you think I could... learn that arte as well?"

<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.

"Suppose he'll have had his fun ruining my home, at least," Cecilia mutters, because she's the sort of person who has to make it about her sometimes.

She shakes the sour thought away, because Riese has a question and Cecilia like shelping people (sort of). "Deciphered..." she murmurs. "In a manner of speaking, I guess. It doesn't really use a medium, I think."

Which may be a strike to the heart as it is. Her eyes cut to the side, unwilling to look Riesenlied in the eye. "I can teach you. But it doesn't come through the Medium itself. The stone mediums aren't that strong. They don't do much on their own. With just that much connection to the Guardians, I don't think what I can do would work for you." She purses her lips, but finally forces herself to look Riesenlied dead on. "I'm sorry."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied does look rather downcast -- as her horns wilt (because Riese doesn't actually understand how horns work nobody tell her!!) and she dwells upon that information. "I see..." she closes her eyes for a moment, but by the time Cecilia forces herself to look at the Hyadean, she's looking back at her.

She nods gently, as she expresses, "... I'd repressed a memory about my past for-- a very long time. Something that hurt so much I..." A pause. "But I saw it. A Medium like the one Miss Avril carries... something she calls an 'Original'. One belonging to... Odoryuk, back in the village of Fereshte, in Elru."

She has a weak and tired smile. It's clear that recalling it is wounding, driving a scarce-bubbling layer of anxiety as she says, "I would love to learn. Even if it does not work, I want to do everything I can to help those who are suffering from it... and-- given what has happened in that Tower, it would be wrong of me to not try to reach out to Odoryuk once more, in whatever capacity I can."

<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.

That's /entirely/ not how horns work and Cecilia finds herself briefly distracted by it. But she supposes total defiance of the natural order is par for the course these days. Riesenlied admits to suppressing memories and half-spoken tragedies. Cecilia...should probalby pursue it. She doesn't. It isn't her pain to bear. "I'm not familiar," she says, quietly. "I've heard of something like that, out east. Mediums built more from technology than magic. But I've never seen them to know. Perhaps such a thing could do as you say, but..." She's doubtful. The Mediums do form ties to the Guardians, but it is more than that that makes the purification possible. She knows it, even if she couldn't easily explain it.

The Tower. Cecilia finds her hand rising up to her chest, as always remembering where the Teardrop should be. This time, it also reminds her of where Berserk punched her so hard most of her skeleton broke. Like a cracker shattering to fragments in your hands. "It was a momentous day," she murmurs. "In several ways. I'm glad that hateful thing is gone, at least." Hard to say if she means Berserk, the corrupted Sealing Rod, or both.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Some part of Riesenlied is really scared right now, and she knows it.

Some part of her that wonders if the same reason Filgaia finds her kind 'anathema' is what would prevent her from having that connection to the Guardians, no matter how much she yearns for it...

It's always been the part of her that gets in her way too.

"I know... I don't really understand it fully, myself. But I know Noeline bears one such Medium, and she... has been able to manifest power from it," Riesenlied speaks as if she's uncertain. Even Avril doesn't sound like she remembers every single facet about these strange technological Mediums, after all.

"... yes," Riesenlied can agree with that much. "In so many ways I felt connected, even as Odoryuk's flames raced through my body and burned it. But I can't soon forget what he said to me..."

She scratches her cheek very gently, and expresses, "The Fereshte tribe is now largely lost to the winds, consumed so long ago when the Veruni first touched down upon this world. I was... unable to prevent it from happening. ... but I want to keep their memory alive."

She tilts her head and expresses, "And to that end... I want to bear that burden. No matter what pain races through me, I want to learn to use the Medium, and bear witness to the Guardian of Life's voice. ... as a priestess."

<Pose Tracker> Cecilia Adlehyde has posed.

Cecilia listens. Her hands rest in front of her. Part of her wishes she had her staff in hand, as tension gathers in her shoulders.

Part of her still resents this woman; this presumptuous creature who told her people they suffered for having the temerity to desire safety. She still remembers those fires. She has come far in forgetting the screams. Maybe the most credit Riesenlied has ever earned from Cecilia came from acknowledging that she deserves this spite.

Her hands gather together, and she breathes, quietly. "The Guardians call me Innocent One. Shaman. They are preparing me for something, I think," she says, a seeming nonsequitur at first. "But I do not have the power to bless you in this path. I can't wave my staff and call you Priestess." She's not sure she would if she could. Her stomach turns and she can't stop herself from chewing her lip for a moment. Finally, she says again: "But if you seek this road, I suspect that you will find it. The Guardians are no longer in a position to turn aside sincerity."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

Riesenlied's lips thin for a moment, as she closes her eyes and knows in some part she'll never feel forgiven. It hasn't, in the grand scheme of things, been all that long since Adlehyde. And while others are quicker to forgive...

Well, Riesenlied is perhaps not so quick to forgive herself either.

But she knows. And the point of penance is not absolution, but the path in doing so. "I know," Riesenlied speaks gently. "I can scarce understand what designs they have... but I will help you however I can. With the little slice of history I have with them, moving forward together..."

She rises quietly as she lets out a breath.

"Thank you. It means a lot... to hear that from you, Miss Cecilia." It isn't exactly a tacit approval, but to at least hear that there is a possibility...

It reminds her of Odoryuk's words -- that such boundaries can eventually be overcome.

Eventually.

"We can offer you a meal at the Wolfsbane Tavern, if you'd like? Janey is happy to espouse the roasts they do..."

And with food suddenly mentioned, perhaps the topic can go lighter from there.