2019-05-26: Layna Manydays, Second Seer of Water
- Log: 2019-05-26: Layna Manydays, Second Seer of Water
- Cast: Seraph Lanval, Layna Manydays
- Where: The Moonflow
- Date: May 26, 2019
- Summary: Another steadfast friend to Seraph Lanval catches him as he's on his own by the Moonflow. Recognizing Layna's ability to keep herself together and focused on what it is she seeks and desires, to say nothing of the virtuous things she accomplished in doing so, the Oracle of Schturdark finds himself another worthy Seer underneath the night sky.
===================================================<* The Moonflow *>=================================================== The Moonflow is a large river that bisects Spira's largest island into southern and northern halves. Strange flowers called Moonlilies grow on the Moonflow's banks, attracting pyreflies that gather on its surface at night, making the water sparkle. Although a beautiful area, the weather tends to be overcast more often than not, the souls of the dead providing the most reliable source of illumination. The primary method of crossing the Moonflow is aboard a shoopuf - an elephantine creature that can swim across the expansive river. The crossing service is funded by the Temple of Yevon and is free of charge. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wcVnJQ-FN4
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Steady work continues about this part of Spira. Where comes steady work, there comes steady leisure to keep to oneself, which is a kind way of saying that Lanval is slacking off. Again. His track record has improved a lot since first arriving on Spira out of necessity... but he is who he is. Water likes to be at rest, and that is just how it goes.
The Moonflow is visually stunning at evening hours. There's so many of them floating around, being colorful balls of light that leave wailing noises in their trail as they flit along to some unseen guiding phenomena (if any, they just might be overcrowding).
Pyreflies that could turn into fiends at any time. He's had a lot of good chats with friends and acquaintances here despite this concern, probably for the sheer novelty of the sight of it. It's lively, in a way he has trouble understanding.
"...Mmmmph." Lanval sits up, drinking gourd held at his lap, eyes open half-lidded as he thinks deep water thoughts like 'I want to lie down' or 'my everything itches because of this set of tiny pebbles,' or even more petty thoughts such as 'I hope in the expanse of time that passes between now and a return to Filgaia that it is still there.' The Gaia above, as they call it, looks blue. Blue like water, the water that gives life. He knows initimately that it feels as though it's about to be extinguished at any time, but...
...Talise did say the importance of being able to do what they can right now. A narrow perspective, but one that helps him cling to at least a faint hope of helping stop matters from worsening.
...
A faint one, sitting out there on his own as he sizes up the (un?)natural wonder playing out ahead of him.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna hadn't been to the Moonflow that often, except to pass through it on the way to somewhere else. It wasn't that she couldn't appreciate the sights, but pyreflies weren't something she dwelled on all too often.
Today, though, she finds herself heading there. Not for the sights and sounds of the river, but a certain someone who currently seems lost in them.
"Ahoy there, lad." Layna greets, approaching Lanval where he sits. "What's eatin' you?"
Her focus is on him, rather than the river itself.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
There comes Layna. The familiar voice gets a turn of his head, and that stupid smile of his that often undercuts whatever divine aura his very presence projects.
"Mmm... Layna... hiii~" He laughs a little, but he sort of always does. He exhales for a bit longer than a normal set of mortal lungs could ever hope to achieve, because he doesn't have mortal lungs. Or any lungs. He momentarily sizes up the way her eyes track him in specific, here in this land of so much spiritual noise of a tune and pitch he didn't know of prior.
"...Jusht worryin' 'bout home." What was once the swampy land he ruled over back in Meribus? He looks back up to the Gaia in the sky. "We've all got important thingsh ta do here, while we're here... yep... can't help but think 'bout it, all the shame." All the same. There's no shame in it!
He lifts his gourd up in both hands, smile softening some. "After all, it'sh a part of me now."
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
It wouldn't be Lanval without that smile. Layna probably wouldn't get along nearly as well with someone who was all divine aura, all the time - things would get way too stuffy.
"Min' if I sit down?" She asks and, shortly after, takes a seat. She doesn't think he'd say he minded. She listens, though, as he remarks that he's worried about home. She considers this for a moment, and as his eyes track up to Filgaia, so do her own.
"...Aye. I get how you feel. The Empress...the rest o' the crew...can't help but worry 'bout 'em, wherever they are." She replies. Some of them had been brought over with her, but not all of them.
"...Part o' you, huh?" She asks, looking back at him. Maybe he was talking about a different place than she was thinking. "...You talkin' 'bout that Guardian?"
She remembered their talk, as they were working to help Kilika.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval doesn't mind at all. No protest, no objection. He's always enjoyed their company. A relationship cultivated over him lying down about inconvenient places, being a pain as regards doing trivial chores that by his nature could be resolved within less than half a snap of a finger, and drinking an unreasonable portion of their alcohol stores.
Among other things like being a stalwart ally against the forces that mean ill to the two worlds and a steadfast traveling companion all the same who does put his unique talents and knowledges forth to their benefit, but, that's splitting hairs.
"....Mmmhmm." He says with half a nod. "Yep... Schturdark, Guardian of Water." Usually this is punctuated with a laugh, or at least a giggle, but he holds a more respectful tone of conversation voice even though he continues to sound blasted all to hell. Like he might've gotten into an unopened bottle of the Quartermaster's Stash. (Again.)
"...We talked 'bout a whole lot between ush in that time... between Love's Cradle and showin' up on Spira. Ever shince... shilence." Lanval confides as much. "There'sh a whole lot goin' on back there, too... mmm."
His posture straightens a little, lowering the gourd to his lap again. He's seated on a decline. Most of the time, he could be counted on to just let himself go down a decline to wherever water rests. He has resisted this.
He parts one hand from it to stroke away at his chin. The beard hairs flow much more fluidly than they have prior. To put a hand there is like putting a hand underneath a gentle waterfall.
"...'m guesshin' ya got a lot on yer mind over that too, huh... shince yer with me, takin' a resht, 'n not coaxin' me ta get back up 'n go back ta what we were doin', huh?" He smiles softly (and still stupidly).
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna listens as Lanval speaks of the Guardian of Water, with a respect that rarely entered into his voice. It spoke to the Guardian's importance, that he would speak of them with such a tone.
"Guess even a Guardian's gonna have trouble communicatin' from way up there. ...Down there? Whichever." She considers, then shrugs.
She takes note of the way he straightens up, rather than allowing himself to rest as he usually would. She chuckles wryly then, as he speaks.
"...That obvious, huh?" She comments, shaking her head. "I was just thinkin'...the Guardians sure have a way o' ropin' people into their business."
She pauses for a moment, rummaging through her things before drawing out a tablet, bearing the symbol of Lucadia, the Guardian of the Sea.
"We spoke to 'em before - it was a while back, before we met you. ...Well, I say 'spoke', but...it was a pretty one-sided conversation." She comments with another one of those wry chuckles. She doesn't bring up what they did to the Metal Demon - well, Hyadean, she corrects herself - members of their party.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval quietly mouths the name of the Guardian in question as Layna talks about the idea of being roped into 'their business.' Come to think of it, he's seen several with those stone tablets - and a small handful with ones made of silver - but he hadn't stopped to ask about when or where that he can remember.
He quietly regards her words and that wry chuckle as she describes the experience. He's not a mortal, so he can't quite grasp what that feeling might have been to be addressed directly by very concepts given a metaphysical form.
"A Guardian... they're all of the thing they represhent. Let'sh take... Lucadia, there." Lanval gestures with a hand towards the Stone Medium. "Guardian of the Sea. Ya might shee 'em ash a... big, shcaly sherpent. Like their very schalesh are the color of the shea. Like a... mmm. A... pershon-ta-pershon thing. Eashy ta shee 'em ash an individual, only sheein' to their eyesh, hearin' by their earsh..."
It reminds him of how he and Schturdark communicated, while he rested within his vessel. He thinks of how to communicate this, stroking at his chin again as he closes his eyes.
"Mmm... the thing ish... Lucadia is the whole of their domain. The embodiment of everything that livesh within, by, 'n atop the ocean. They're kinda every grain of shalt, fish that shwimsh... kinda every boat that goesh atop it... all at once. Ya can't measure that by... shight, shound, tashte..."
That might be about the closest he can put it by mortal terms. "The Guardians are real concerned 'bout jusht keepin' Filgaia goin'. It'sh... not been eashy. I mean, we did hafta jusht deal with the World Eater, Mother... 'n then the Adversary of Man right after that... they're shtrong, shure. They're the power that shupportsh the world, but..."
Needy, distant, discriminatory. All viable descriptors.
"They can't do it on their own. Thingsh have been pretty dire... 'n I can shee where thoshe who live in their landsh might've forgotten... or turned their backsh." He remembers the feeling of Vinsfeld's speech just piercing into his everything, to hear those passionate, driven words. "It'sh hard fer 'em ta ashk fer help, too... they gotta think 'n exhist in shuch... big, broad schope... it'sh tough ta talk with jusht a mortal, ash a shingle pershon... but."
Lanval turns his head a bit, opening one eye half-lidded as he looks to the Stone Medium again.
"If they lent their power... shoundsh ta me, at leasht, Lucadia grashped enough 'bout ya ta know she could entrusht ya with that! 'n hey... if ya ashk me..."
He raises the gourd in both hands up a bit higher, and has himself a brief sip of the contained essence of Filgaia's water. (Some would consider this a downgrade from the previous contents. This may not be entirely wrong, objectively speaking.)"...I think yer more than worthy ta be trushted with that shorta thing. Not outta obligation, not despheration. Mmm. Ya alwaysh did have an eye fer knowin' what goalsh yer chashin'. I mean, ya came shtrait fer me."
He smiles a little more. "Didn't even get caught up in the pyreflies there... ha ha ha!"
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna leans back a bit as Lanval begins to talk about the Guardians. She listens, with a contemplative frown on her face as he explains.
"...I guess a part of me did always know that." She concedes, massaging the back of her neck with one hand as she rotates the Medium in the other. "I always did feel a connection to this one - like I was meetin' someone I always knew, but never saw or spoke to. Guess it makes sense, with how much time I've spent out on the water. If they're one and the same..."
Even if they were the waters of Lunar, rather than Filgaia.
She smirks, though as he comments on her eye for knowing her goals.
"I'm a pirate, after all. I see something I want, and I take it. Whether it's treasure...or the world's future." She remarks, and then laughs.
"Aye, lad - that I did. 'Sides, I figure they've got enough problems of their own, without mortals gawking at them all the time." She replies with a shrug. And the fact that there was something about them that subtly unnerved her.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
Lanval has a good laugh with the whole 'taking the world's future' thing. She sure has, a few times, hasn't she? Taken it away from the jaws of oblivion alongside everyone else. As the laughter subsides and Layna discusses matters about enough problems and shrugs, Lanval eases up a little more.
It's just the two of them here, and also the pyreflies. The pyreflies haven't randomy turned into Everything Great-Hating Grody Entities (...Fiends) yet. It's a beautiful evening.
"...What if I shaid there'sh a problem ya could help with?" Lanval starts, quietly adjusting his sitting posture so he faces Layna. He might need to get up and find another place to be seated, since this ground is not level. "...I've sheen a few Hellions here, in Spira. Now... somethin' about the pyreflies and Malevolence ish shtoppin' the latter from really shettin' up sho, but... don't change that a Hellion ish capable of shettin' foot."
Lanval lets that hang for a moment. "...There ain't many with ash shtrong a heart like you. Able ta really shee what the Malevolence doesh ta shomeone... let alone withshtand it when it shtartsh gettin' sho thick it blotsh out everything elshe..."
At this point, he does have to rise. He does have to stand up, and relocate, for what he wants to do will require level ground. For the moment, he stands over Layna.
He smiles a little wider.
"Now... the Guardian I sherve ain't Lucadia, of the Sea... but 'm pretty shure that Schturdark, Guardian of Water, would more 'n agree that - fer all ya did fer shake of Filgaia - I'm shtandin' right in the company of a more than worthy Seer. One entrushted with a part of the Guardian'sh power, through their Oracle, in which ta Purify the Malevolence..."
Lanval takes a few steps - steady ones! - down to more level ground, where he goes to a kneel, and faces Layna anew. "It ish a burden... but it ain't one forced, it ain't one ya have ta take in obligation. It'sh one we share together... between ush, and Schturdark."
Lanval drinks from the gourd again, as clean, sparkling, beautiful water starts to pool around him. (It is notably devoid of shiny pyreflies. They can go play over there. This is Seraph Swim time.)
"There'sh hardly any mortalsh I could think of, pasht and preshent, worthy fer it." There is Talise Gianfair - the very first - but he doesn't cite that name as to not create an undue expectation that she should. He wants the choice to be in her hands.
He knows Layna values her freedom, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
From anyone else, it might be an alarming turn of phrase. But whenever Layna said it...everything always seemed to turn out alright.
"A problem, aye?" Layna considers, turning her attention to Lanval himself. "Lay it on me, lad. I'm all ears."
She listens as he explains - that he's spotted Hellions in Spira, and the Malevolence that comes with them - though the pyreflies seem to keep it at bay. Layna frowns consideringly.
A strong heart...Layna had never really given it much thought, but it was true that she seemed plenty capable of withstanding Malevolent. Whether it was a big, concentrated lot of it...or weathering it over time, from a girl lost to its throes who felt alone in the world and needed help.
She watches with an eyebrow raised as he stands and smiles...and speaks, of Schturdark.
"...A Seer..." She repeats, as he kneels. A burden, but not a forced one - a shared obligation, between herself, Lanval, and the Guardian of Water.
Layna thinks on it for a moment - and the water pooling around Lanval as she does doesn't go unnoticed for a moment. In the end, though, it doesn't really take much thought. It was a responsibility - but she was already a captain, after all. She was used to responsibility.
She reaches up and takes her hat, carefully setting it aside. And then she rises to her feet, her arms folded in front of her and that confident grin of hers crossing her face.
"...Well, lad, I'm honored. Though, ya hardly need to ask - if it'll help you out...'course I'm in. What do I need to do?" She asks.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"...I'll tell ya in a shec~" Lanval says as he drinks deep of his gourd. Deeper than its visual dimensions make it suggest. Each and every drop. His eyes shut tightly...
And reopens them anew. From where Lanval kneels, power projects from him. It feels like the mists of a crashing waterfall, a fresh rain... just about anything and everything water.
And mirth, of course.
"If thou doth wish to share the burden... first, I bid thee, state thy name, thy deeds in service of Filgaia, and present unto me thy means in which thou shalt take up arms for its sake."
The water level in front of Lanval has a sense of depth that seems weird. Any weapon Layna wishes to wield to this effect is to be placed before him, in this water that appears shallow to the eye. Any weapon that Layna intends to use for the act of Purification is to go here, before him.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna watches as Lanval drinks deep, then opens his eyes. She can feel the sense of power emanating from him - the sensation of the water itself, in all its many forms. Powerful and unbridled, but at the same time it supported and sustained life. She feels that...and the comfortable, familiar mirthfulness she had come to expect from him.
"...I'm Layna Manydays! I lead my crew in an invasion of the World Eater's fortress, fighting her forces and securing a route for those who would challenge her directly. I challenged the Adversary of Man's plans at Krosse, to liberate it and its people from the Malevolent Domain that had overtaken it." Layna considers for a moment, and continues. "...I've fought, many times. And I've done anything I could, for Filgaia's people that have fallen under Malevolence's sway."
In her own way.
It takes her a second to consider what means she should offer. She wasn't one to wield weapons - she usually fought with her own two fists. But, eventually, she unbuckles one of the bracers around her wrist - one of the pair of fire-enchanted bracers she had used ever since she found them.
She sets it before Lanval, into the shallow water in front of him.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Layna Manydays of Lunar... she who led a charge 'pon the fell nest of the World Eater Mother, who came to Krosse's aid at its most dire time of need, who would brave the Malevolence that would infect Filgaia." These feats are spoken with respect... reverence. That she has done this much, and still remains willing. "She who doth pledge to ease the burdens of the water of Filgaia, Schturdark..."
Lanval recognizes the elemental charge of the bracers. He does not speak of an objection nor a suggestion that she re-think the choice. She has chosen what best embodies what she will take up arms with.
Instead, he leans forwards to Layna, holding the drinking gourd in his hands. The old thing that he uses as a focus. He presents it to her, presenting it as such as though it were a gift.
"...I invite thee to take grasp of the water of Filgaia itself. She who would aspire to the title of Seer of Water doth require they carry its burden. Layna Manydays... raise this water to thy lips."
It's not hard to have it in Layna's hands. It's not a big thing in terms of size.
Mass is a different story. It will prove to be the single heaviest thing she's ever put her hands to. Heavier than any cannonball. Heavier than any cannon. Heavier than any haul. Heavier than... anything.
Like it's something that usually cannot be taken within two mortal hands. If Layna is of the will, she may be able to lift it. It grows more taxing for every inch, with the encroaching feeling of an even greater burden growing as it rises.
If Layna can do it, it will take everything - tiring out far more than just muscles.
"As soon as thou bring the water to thy lips, 'tis proof you may grasp the burden. A Seer doth grasp... but she also must hold this grasp. This grasp must withstand times of mirth, times of misery, times of trial, times of rest... the Seer shalt sip of this water, but a sip..." Lanval rests his hands on his lap. The smile's still there.
Why a sip? The moment Layna does...
"Every drop must be held by the Seer within thy sip of the water. Thou shalt experience every joy and every sorrow the water doth live. To spill from thy mouth is to reject the water at its most wounded. To consume is to take for granted the wter at its most bountiful." Then, she's to... what? "Layna Manydays... I ask of thee, carry both, for the burden shalt encompass this water at its best, and its worst."
A sip feels like way more. Like she's putting an entire keg's worth. No... even more than that. Somehow, all of it, in that one sip. The water at its finest... clean streams, delicious beer, sweet syrups... that she cannot swallow. The water at its worst... might remind her of a few hazing rituals in her older days. She has to keep every drop of it, good and bad, as she experiences it all at once. All of it. No drop can leave her mouth.
Lanval watches, silent. It will feel as though it goes on for far longer than it should... as one's senses take leave of almost everything around them. The evening air, the trailing prismatic rainbows of pyreflies, the enthusiastic shoopuf jockey not far from there, or the sight of Filgaia above...
...Until it feels there's only water left.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Lanval listens to her deeds, and repeats them back to her. And then, he presents his gourd to her. Layna reaches out to take it...but the moment she does, it feels like she's grasped something immense.
She lets out a grunt of effort as she tightens her grip to prevent the gourd from slipping out of her fingers. She hadn't expected it to be so...heavy. She hadn't lifted anything quite like it before. It felt like her arms would dislocate at any moment.
...But even so, she lifts.
It was difficult to grasp...but her hands are the ones that seize the future. As she said, she was a pirate - if she wanted something, she took it. Even if that something was the mantle of Seer of Water - a greater responsibility, she was finding, than anything she had taken upon herself thus far. She would claim it, but not for her own sake.
And then, she takes a single sip of the water - only one. But even that is enough to bring her to her knees. One hand goes to cover her mouth and the other goes to the ground, to support and prevent herself from toppling over, as her eyes open wide in shock.
It was so much. That single sip of water felt like an eternity's worth of experiences - good, bad, and in between, all crashing in on her at once and overwhelming her. It would be so easy to put a stop to it here - to spit it out or to consume it.
In the past, she very well may have. She might have decided that it wasn't worth it, and put a stop to it here.
But the Layna Manydays of today does not.
Layna's hand on the ground tightens into a fist. Even as the water overtakes her senses, such that it feels like there's only water left, Layna forces herself to her feet - unstable, as she has to fight to remain standing, yet confident. She lets both hands return to a calm state at her sides.
And all throughout, despite the immense effort it no doubt required, not a single drop has escaped her mouth. She holds onto all of it, at its best and its worst.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
As Layna starts to fight against what is asked of her to keep, Lanval moves in to take back hold of the drinking gourd before the shock of it sees it spill - as though it were something to be avoided as best as possible. As though every drop of water in there were precious.
"Water shalt be the foundation in which all living things flourish," states Lanval throughout this harrowing experience, "Layna Manydays... she who hath proven capable of taking hold of the burden, and keeping said hold, I bid thee, allow thy water to join what surrounds thee..."
It is suffocating... but Layna Manydays endures it. She endures it for a bit longer than she 'needs' to. This is to keep the amount of time consistent with how long Talise was asked to, following a hiccup where he realized he hadn't spoken clear of the next step then. Every Seer after this will have to endure that same extra bit of time.
"...And thus let it spill forth." But by his word, it can leave her now. It can leave her mouth, into the water... where her very saliva has thus intermingled with every fate water can have within the machinations of mortals. When she does spit it up, it goes into the water.
The water that is now everywhere.
Above, below, to the sides... everywhere is water, and not all of it aligns to physical limitations. Both Lanval and Layna are now partially submerged in a lake, but she can hear a roaring waterfall ahead. She can feel clean rainwater from above. The pulling currents of a river nearby... water. In all its natural forms.
They have taken temporary lead of the physical world. Now they are a part of something more, something vast.
...Where's her bracer, though?
"Layna Manydays... thou shalt not be afraid of what thy shalt see now." He's a water elemental in his, well, element. Layna will find she has nothing to fear. She doesn't need to fear drowning. In this place - if it is a physical place at all - she is beyond the need to see to breathing. It's just them, and all the water.
"'Tis much for one. Thou hath shown themselves worthy of sharing the burden. Thou hath awakened to the vast potential of water, for purposes great, and purposes ill - and shown due respect for both." Lanval says, drifting by with a smile. So where's her bracer?
"'Tis the final task I would ask of one who hath proven worthy of the title of Seer of Water... find thy arms thou hath pledged in defense of the water of Filgaia! She who doth bear the intent in which she bears and endures the burden shalt not be overcome by the totality of what she doth vow to protect." He says little more. No directions. Where does she go? How high, how low? See to the rain? Go ahead to the waterfall, fight the rapids...
He doesn't tell her because there is no need to.
A Seer of Water will know where to go to find the means in which she will act on behalf of the water of Filgaia. When she finds it, it will be for her to take... with no further obstacles.
How long this takes is up to her.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
It is not easy, but Layna endures it - but even if she knew this was longer than it had to, she would accept it all the same. She didn't want to do any less than what would be asked of any others.
And only when she says that she can let it go does she open her mouth and release it, allowing it to mix with the water surrounding them.
It is only as she does this that she realise that the water is around them all now...but she does not react with fear or surprise. A part of her could feel it, knew that this was coming. And so, as he bids her, she doesn't fear the realm of water - physical or not - she finds herself in now.
After all, even before all of this, she had always felt at home within the water.
Her eyes are drawn to Lanval as he drifts past and gives her one final task.
Locate the arms she had pledged in defense of Filgaia's water. There are no directions, but she doesn't need them.
She shuts her eyes for a brief moment, nods, and then takes off. She could feel that bracer now, as much as if it was a part of her. In a way, it was, now - it was the symbol of her conviction and dedication.
It feels like she swims for an eternity.
Through a calm, still lake, through roaring rapids that both fought against her and pushed her forward, through crushing depths...
She experiences all of it - and finally, she ends up at a massive waterfall. She swims up it, even though it tries to drag her back down. That, too, was in water's nature. She powers through it, going up, up, up...until she reaches the peak, overlooking everything.
She can see things so much more clearly now - the breadth of water itself, in all its forms. She can feel the foam of waterfall all around her...and then, she looks up, as she feels drops of water on her face. Rain - pleasant, life-giving rain - is pouring down. She looks up...and, with the same clarity that had lead her here, she reaches out as if to seize it for herself...
...and within the falling rain is her bracer. Though it feels heavy with the weight of the duty she had accepted, she slides her arm through it with ease.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
As Layna overlooks at the top of the waterfall, there's Lanval not too far behind, who stands tranquilly atop the waters carrying out over to the edge like it can't even move him.
"'Tis much to absorb," the Oracle of Schturdark remarks. "but thou hath shown thy ability to hold to thy will and intent, even if 'tis but a drop in this great body of water."
As Layna takes her bracer and slides it back on, a sense of surfacing comes. To rise above the floodwaters, alongside her friend Lanval. She will face out to the clear night skies, the color blue more prominent above in the skies rather than those of the prismatic spirit-stuffs that fill and escape the nearby rivers...
...
...
...
They return to where they were before, exactly, like they never left.
Layna, bracer on hand, as one of Lanval's hands on it.
In the other hand, they both carry the drinking gourd... together. Individually, difficult to left. Together, with just one hand on each...
The burden is symbolically shared. Layna will notice she's as dry as she was before taking her leave... somehow... into wherever that drink must have pulled her.
"Layna Manydays... thou hath spoken the vow by deed, and it is thus acknowledged," says the Oracle of Schturdark as he draws the hand away from atop the bracer to go to his drinking gourd, to allow Layna to withdraw the same way.
"Thou art now the second Seer of Water." The first, Talise, which he did not advertise out loud. "I grant thee the blessing of Schturdark, as thou now grant thy own strength. The burden thus shared, through thy will shalt the water of Filgaia bring succor to the lands and the people under sway of Malevolence for as long as thou observe respect of the water." With these words, Lanval's eyes close, withdrawing back to place the drinking gourd onto his lap.
"May she thus see those shared burdens eased as a friend to the water... ...'n keep that love fer adventure fer ash long ash ya got the legsh ta do sho~..."
As Lanval says this, the fire bracer will flash briefly with the power of water coursing through it - and Layna, too - as she feels a renewed, cleansing feeling better than even the most luxurious hot spring as the Gaia above seems to be able to shine through the ambient light pollution of so many pyreflies just floating about as they will.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna looks toward Lanval, the Oracle of Schturdark, as he speaks, and as she reclaims her bracer. And then she rises, above the floodwaters and facing the vibrant blue sky...
...before finding herself at the Moonflow's edge once more, one hand on Lanval's drinking gourd. She helps to support it, understanding now the weight of what it was he carried with him - metaphorically and literally. And so too does he support her.
Lanval retracts his hand and so does she, as he proclaims her the second Seer of Water...
And she smiles, as Lanval asks her to keep that long of adventure strong - and her bracer flashes briefly with the power of water.
"...Aye, no worries about that." She remarks with a nod, her eyes straying to the bracer for a moment. She sighs and leans back, as a cleansing feeling washes over her.
"...Damn, what a rush. I feel..." She pauses, trying to think of a valid comparison. "...I feel like I could take on the world right now, if I had to."
She stands to her feet, taking a moment to stretch. She felt better than she had in a long time, despite how late it was.
She pauses, though, looking back at Lanval.
"...But, hey. Thanks for standin' by us, for all this time. I'll try to do right by you, aye? You...and Filgaia too now, I guess." She says.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Lanval has posed.
"Ha ha... aww... no thanksh fer me layin' by ya, all thish time either? Ha ha ha!" That could be taken the wrong way, but literally speaking, he sure does do a lot of lazing about. Still, there is a far different character to his looks these days - much less ragged. His beard hairs are far straighter, with a more vibrant 'flowing' to it. His robes look less patchy - even clean. Still no shoes.
Still a terrible idea of what 'walking' is.
"Mmmm. Yer gonna do jusht great... I mean, remember, we're sharin' it together," he says as he reaches out with a hand towards her - a gesture seen as especially initimate by mortal standards. The same might be said by Seraphim ones too - native Lunarians all generate Malevolence naturally, in tiny amounts. There is a reason why the Seraphim and mortals often live separate existences.
An implicit sign of trust, as much as it is friendship.
...Wait, speaking of sharing...
...isn't that a bottle of Quartermaster's Stash on him?! 'Sharing!!!'
"Let'sh have a drink when we get back with the resht... I mean, after what I had ya do, leasht I could do." He puts on a stupid smile, facing away from the mass of pyreflies that beg to capture the eyes and the imagination, under the watch of Filgaia above.
<Pose Tracker> Layna Manydays has posed.
Layna laughs good-naturedly in response, shaking her head. She has noticed how much he's changed lately - looking far less unkempt than he did when they originally met him. It's nice, really.
Lanval says she'll do great, and reminds her that they're sharing it together. Layna grins in response and, when he offers her a hand, she reaches out to take her. Her grip is firm, but gentle at the same time.
"Aye, together." She replies with a nod...and her grin goes even wider as he suggests they have a drink.
"Damn right it is!" She replies, but with a cheer and a smile that suggests she's not serious about it.
She couldn't hold it against him, after all. She knows it was an important part of the process...and besides, her resolve had seen it through.