Astvanor Session 177 (12/19)

[cinaed]

Session 177: Day 28 of Saedan (12/19) The day has been saved. There is a sense of serenity but also calm that begins to descend on the Hooligans. They’ve saved Adraetha. They’ve saved the Grove. They gather themselves. Yolov takes up a piece of soul metal and tucks it away before he offers the Disintegrate spell to Galowen in case he wants Elathias turned to ash like Rezod was. Galowen thinks for a moment before he says it’s okay. Yolov nods and goes to check on Adraetha, who is slowly stirring. It’s not exactly confusion, but he senses a quiet that lays over her when she realizes it’s over. It’s done. Yolov offers her a hand up, which she takes as she clears her throat and says that it’s good that it will be a much safer place. Yolov says yes, he thinks unfortunately whoever Elathias was when he was younger, he turned into a man whose death means the world is a little safer. Adraetha says that she spent a long time mourning the person Elathias used to be. Now she thinks that it’s time for her to stop and move on. It’s also time for them to return to the Grove, to the people they’ve saved. When they had left, they’d left the people protected by the guard forces, led by Mae and Tiffin. The people are still gathered in the central meeting area, where the guards have formed a protective circle around them. The second the Hooligans and Adraetha come into focus, there is an exhale of relief from the crowd. There is a sense of relief that sweeps through the Grove like the first breath of spring after a long, cold winter. Tiffin breaks off from the crowd, twisting her fingers together and approaching the group. She asks if everything is safe. Galowen tells her that guy’s dead, as he should have been a while ago. Tiffin says she’s glad. She explains that there’s one person missing from the Grove. They’ve sent people searching but they haven’t found her. Her name was Saven and she was working for the Council, assisting the Elders. Adraetha straightens herself out and says that she thinks it’s best if they talk in private about this. She adds that they will perform the ceremony in the morning if that is all right with everyone. When she looks at the Hooligans, they agree. Audacity says that he’s more worried about the rest of Elathias’ army. Yolov says they might have been sent elsewhere: the Hooligans first encountered his group in Silvrafel. When Galowen says that Elathias probably used them to fuel his soul steel, Yolov looks down and sees people moving within the steel. He recognizes some of them wearing Elathias’ symbol on their armor and realizes Galowen spoke true. Elathias did sacrifice them to empower his weapons. When Yolov tells everyone that, Adraetha says sadly that he couldn’t even leave them in peace. Yolov says no, but they’ll have let them rest one way or another. As Adraetha takes Tiffin aside, Galowen’s mother approaches and flings herself at Galowen. She ignores his protest that he’s covered in blood and checks him over as he assures her that he’s fine. He confirms Elathias was the one who came to the temple and killed his father. When his mother asks if he’s okay, he says he doesn’t know. He’s mostly tired, even though they just woke up. She says he should rest and leads them back to the home where they had stayed earlier. When Audacity tries to quietly follow, he trips over a tree root. Hava whispers not to forget what she said and Audacity stares at her and asks what she’s talking about. Hava says that she doesn’t want to repeat herself in front of their friends and drags him off as Diana gives him an encouraging thumbs up. Hava pushes him against a tree and asks what he wants. He asks her to narrow things down, he wants a lot of things. She says to tell her what they are. He says he would like at least one conversation with the leader of his monastery and the prior about why they lied about his and Ambition’s life. When she asks what else he wants, they both stare at each other before she says she thinks he spends a lot of time not really thinking about what he wants for himself. She thinks she spends a lot of time thinking about concepts and ideas about his future and his family, which are good things. But even though he sometimes drives her completely crazy, he is a very good person. He is a good person. He’s strong and noble. He has a stubbornly beautiful moral compass. He knows exactly what direction he’s running even when it’s away from them. Audacity says he doesn’t really know where he’s going. Hava tells him to reach out and take something that he wants. Something that’s just for him. She says please, she’s begging him. She doesn’t care if they sit and hold hands for nine hours under a tree, just go get it after Galowen’s nap. Or wake him up. She doesn’t think he needs the nap, it feels more like a mom thing. She tells him to go get it. She’s saying this as someone who loves him and cares about him and who sees the things she wants and takes them. Audacity chuckles at that as she says it’s fun. He’s not going to feel selfish or silly. He’s going to feel really good. Now she’s begging him to turn around and go after what he wants. Audacity takes both sides of her face and then kisses her forehead before walking off with a wink. Hava immediately sits down and complains that they’re exhausting. Before he goes in search of Galowen’s mom, he takes a bath. Then he goes to find her. He finds her at a small, circular table beside the place where Galowen is sleeping in a tightly curled ball. She is knitting with moss and lichen. It’s some natural fiber. She pauses as he comes inside and says to forgive her she’s been so distracted that she’s been a terrible host to Galowen’s friends. Audacity tells her not to apologize. It’s understandable after he’s been gone for so long. He asks to join her and she says of course, sit with her while Galowen has blanket time. Audacity looks intrigued by the phrase. Galowen’s mom asks if he crochets, and he says he draws. She invites him to do so and they sit in silence for a moment before she asks if she can ask him a question. She says to forgive her for being forthright. Her husband always said she was far too abrupt. She asks if Audacity is her son’s boyfriend. Audacity tentatively says not yet. When she says that’s an uncomfortable place to be, he agrees before he explains the oath that he made to Galowen. She says she wants to know what her son has been doing these last few months. Audacity begins to sketch. He draws their first meeting, and then Galowen being silly in Tessvar, Galowen restoring Yolov back to life, Galowen giving him Endurance’s head, and a dozen scenes of his life within the Hooligans. Galowen’s mom watches all this with clear affection. Audacity asks if he can ask a question as well. When she agrees, he asks if she would like him to look into her memories and draw a portrait of her husband. She says that’s very kind but she holds him in her memory. She adds that she’s certain he didn’t come here just to talk to her. Audacity says Galowen doesn’t say much. Galowen’s mom says he’s always been a curious boy. He’s always wanted to protect the people he cares about. It’s difficult when someone sees themselves as a protector and forgets that people want to protect him as well. Audacity dryly says he’s nothing like that himself, of course. Galowen’s mom agrees, amused, before she says with the time he’s been given, it would be helpful. As long as he continues to protect her son, she’ll continue to agree that they both suit each other. As he blushes, she pats his arm and says she’ll leave them to talk. Before she goes, she taps the picture of Galowen throwing Az into the water and asks if she should send Az to them. Audacity blinks and says no, if Az wants to talk to Galowen that’s up to him. He sees her re-evaluate and make a considering noise before she leaves. Audacity sits and draws an intricate sketch of Galowen for his mother as Galowen sleeps deeply for eight hours. Elsewhere Hava goes to find Cal’travor. He’s near the Tree with his mother, weaving a flower crown. He doesn’t look up as she approaches. When he tells her that she did well, Hava says that he did well too. He says he didn’t do much and she says he doesn’t give himself credit. He says all he does is watch and she says observing is important. Cal’travor says that there were a lot of ways for it to have gone poorly. Hava says she’s sure he’ll think of all the ways it could have gone in the weeks to come but they didn’t. It went well, all things considered. Cal’travor tells her that she’s going to be able to let him go eventually. When she asks what he means, he says he’s seen all the worlds where she doesn’t and she fails and everything collapses into pieces. But he doesn’t think she’ll fail here in this world. Hava asks if he’s talking about her father. He says yes, there are timelines where it doesn’t work, but he doesn’t think she’ll fail. She asks if that means she can get her father back. He says that eventually she’ll be able to let him go. She asks if that means she can’t get him back. Cal’travor says she can’t, and she says she knew that, she just wishes otherwise. When he tells her that it will be beautiful when it happens, she laughs a little and calls him odd. He says he’s told that a lot. She says she didn’t mean it as an insult and he says he knows he is odd. It comes with territory. Hava asks if he can tell her something fun about her future. Cal’travor muses that it depends on what roads and what paths she takes, but he is going to throw a little bit of a fit, but he’ll be so happy in the end. When she asks who’s he, he says the one with the blond hair. She asks Kiva and he says if that’s his name. She says they are supposed to meet him again, she doesn’t know what he’ll be throwing a fit about. Cal’travor says it’s just because he’s nervous. Hava says he was right. He said they were going to be great at it, and they did a great job dealing with Elathias. Cal’travor tells her that there was a ninety-six percent chance his mom would die. Hava says not on her watch. He says he was scared but he trusted her. She tells him he should. Cal’travor asks if she wants to make flower crowns. Hava asks him to teach her. Together they begin to make more, Cal’travor grows more flowers whenever they run out. Az goes back to Elathias’ body to double check that nothing magical is happening with the corpse. By the time he gets out there, much of the corpse has already begun to rot. It’s like the timeline of decay and decomposition has been sped up. He looks like a corpse that has been left out for weeks. When he nears the body, the best he can make out is those tattoos, the twisting nebulous galaxy ones that the Hooligans have seen on the Sworn Edge. They seem old. The patterns of the tattoos seem like tattoos have been added over time, some of the lines blown out and covering other parts of the tattoo. It doesn’t look like a new pattern, but it’s hard to say why he did it. The only piece of jewelry that Az finds in the muck of the remains is something tucked into a pocket. It is a small woven bracelet, leather cord, that has a pendant of an elk. It was likely Adraetha’s. He manages to retrieve it. Then he examines a piece of soul steel, trying to see if there’s anything different about them from the ones they encountered back in Striog. He quickly realizes that soul steel is all connected and there are more souls within the older pieces now too. Usually when a demiplane’s caster is destroyed, so is the demiplane. But even though Elathias is dead, the demiplane is still intact. Clearly someone else created the demiplane and granted Elathias access to it. Diana is almost immediately grabbed by Mae. Diana says she thinks she died, or she almost died, before she pats herself down and confirms she’s still here. Mae says she’s glad and she’s sorry it was rough. Fighting is never easy. She asks if Diana is okay. Diana says she’s happy for her friend. But this has all been a lot. She asks if Mae is okay. Mae says after Diana left to confront Elathias, she realized there was a non-zero chance she could lose the family she just got back. Diana says it’s a good thing that didn’t happen and now they can talk together. She says she’s not the only one who’s bad with conversation. She knows she’s asked this before, but does this run in the family. Mae confirms her father was like this too. She’s never been good with words. She’s good with weapons. Words and talking with people is just…. Diana supplies dumb and Mae agrees. Why can’t people say what they need to say and mean to say no one gets confused? Diana says that would be great. She did want to ask once her friends are done with their stuff and they have to leave the forest, does Mae want the sword back. It’s her brother’s sword, and she doesn’t remember her dad, so if Mae wants it, she doesn’t want to take the only thing Mae has of him. Mae says that he would’ve wanted her to have it. Diana says what if they trade it off every few years. It’ll help them keep track of both being alive, and Mae says it means Diana has to visit. Diana says she was already going to do that. The ground here is much nicer than in the city. Mae says she went out to the town just outside the forest once and she didn’t like it. Diana says not to tell her friends but when they get into the cities she gets nervous. There’s too many people. Mae agrees and says the buildings are too tall. Diana adds that next time she’ll want to bring a person she likes a lot with her. She’s very nice and hot and climbed a tree with her even though she’s not good at climbing. Diana adds that she’ll have to introduce her to kids that are not hers. There are kids that her friends found. Well, she helped find them too. Mae says let’s agree to ten years before passing along the sword. Diana says she does want to tell her all the crazy stuff that her friends have done and she wants to know if some of those things are normal or not. Mae asks like what and Diana says it’s not normal for a parent to trap a child in glass and try to take their soul. She watches Mae go through the grief of realizing she’s committed herself to an uncomfortable conversation. Mae says that Diana’s grandparents never did any of that and neither have any of the parents or family units in the Grove, so she would say that’s not normal. Diana asks if Mae wants to go eat. Mae agrees immediately. Az makes his way to the room and spies Audacity at the table, next to Galowen sleeping. He looks between them and whispers that Galowen is still asleep, it’s been hours. Audacity says yes, he did just get catharsis today. Az says that’s a good point. He was coming to ask if he still had the soul steel from Striog. When Audacity hands it to him, it has the same properties as the ones he just saw. It shows the walls of the demiplane, still teeming with the same trapped souls. He shows Audacity this. He says he’s not sure how to get in, if they even can. But if they could, they could get the souls out. Audacity says that he knows there’s some way to get into planes that has to do with metal, so they might be able to do something. They both worry over the soul steel and if they could get pulled into the steel if they die with it on their person. They also experiment with peering into the steel and try to see if they can spy Hava’s dad. They realize almost immediately how full of souls the demiplane is. Az gets overwhelmed at the sight of all the souls and puts the steel shards away, handing Audacity’s back to him and then tucks his own away and then leans back and fights against the horrors. After a minute, Az asks what Audacity is drawing. Audacity says a picture of Galowen for his mom. Az says it looks good. Audacity says there are also sketches of Galowen with the group. Az looks through them and remarks that he should draw one of himself and Galowen that is less bloody than the one with Endurance’s head. Audacity says he’s almost ready to start throwing paper dragons at Galowen until he wakes up. When Az offers to send Medrash to chew on his hair, Audacity says that they should let him sleep a little longer. He thanks Az for getting him out of danger. Az says he didn’t want to leave him in danger this time. Audacity’s hand pauses mid-sketch. He looks up and nods slowly. A little while longer, Galowen awakens to Az and Audacity quietly murmuring to each other right next to him. When he went to sleep his mom was crocheting, and now Az and Audacity are there instead. He says he can hear everything they’re saying. Audacity says welcome back. Galowen says he’s been here the whole time, having blanky time. Amused, Az asks if that’s what they call it, and Audacity says that’s what his mom says they call it. Galowen repeats that he talked to his mom and Audacity says yes as Az adds he’s been stretching his artistic muscles. Galowen asks why Az is here. Az says he was picking Audacity’s brain about the soul steel stuff, but he should go. Galowen asks if he’s done and Az says yes, it was creepy but hopefully productive. Mostly ended up with more questions than he had. Galowen asks what time it is. He realizes it’s supper time and he’s surrounded by paper air dragons. Az says he wants to return this. He pulls out the bracelet. Galowen guesses that it’s Adraetha’s. Az says it seems like a safe assumption before Galowen throws one of the paper air dragons at them. Az yelps and then tells him that they should go eat something. The three of them start to leave together. Galowen’s mom spies them and continues to make assumptions even as Audacity draws Galowen aside for a private conversation. The sun is beginning to set. It casts long shadows, stretching and stretching across the chilled earth beneath them. These trees are relics of the long past, the origins of the souls of Galowen’s ancestors and every firbolg and wood elf that walks the world. It’s a place rich with history and life and love and loss. The trees that cast these shadows have seen the rise and fall of kingdoms and families. They were here when the Sunken Ones traveled the world and in the remnants left behind. Audacity feels the weight of it as he draws Galowen aside, knowing he is just one of thousands who has made this exact gesture in these woods. He looks around at the trees and says Galowen’s mom did ask about witnesses. Audacity says there’s two things he needs to say and then it will be Galowen’s turn. When they were figuring out what they were going to do this morning and go looking for Elathias or stay here with everyone or meet Elathias in the woods, Adraetha said Elathias was coming here and Galowen said he wasn’t leaving then. In that moment Audacity thought he meant forever. It made something click in him. He can figure out something from Mikos via a letter. It would be fine. And then he realized Galowen meant that he was waiting for Elathias to come here to kill him. That still didn’t change that realization. Obviously he was going to stay wherever Galowen was going to stay. Secondly, he would like to kiss Galowen. Galowen says first that’s fucking insane. He has stuff to do. He doesn’t think about any of it, he adds, before he picks Audacity up and kisses him.