[F02-PP] Coruscating Winds of Change <<Feeding Your Enemy>>

[Freyd 0]

Standing in Urbus' central plaza, Freyd found himself captive to the first shop window he encountered.  Not because of the splendid assortment of foodstuff behind the glass. Guaranteed to be savored and satisfy, under any other circumstances, he simply had no appetite. Nor did the stranger looking back. It moved as he moved, wore a semblance of recognition, yet wasn't the same.  It spoke volumes that a man who could change his appearance on a whim could be so perplexed by the transformation wrought at Callisto's clawed hand.  Fitting that a raid boss named after a cursed nymph, herself turned into a bear, should be the agent of his own transfiguration.  Pulling off a heavy gauntlet, he ran his fingertips over newly grown facial hair, then through the same unruly crop atop his scalp.  Mostly faded to arctic white, veins of grey and strands of black still lingered within, if anyone was persistent enough to hunt for them.

Persistence.

A pang ripped through the Whispers body at her name.  He'd already checked every menu, every subroutine, even scouring the full extent of his expansive inventories on the off chance that she might be buried somewhere.  Nothing. Vaunted tracking skills fared no better.  The irksome little mongoose had simply ceased to exist.

How?  Why?!  What happened?

Eyes flitting about found no answers and no sanctuary within which they might settle a shaken spirit.  The shopkeeper, spotting him staring with uncertainty, wandered out to her doorway with concern.

"Is everything alright, sir?"

Blue eyes, faded from fatigue, focused on her bleary form.  He couldn't even pretend to say yes.  Wiping hands caked with flour and bits of nuts, she squeezed his arm and begged him to wait a moment.  He hardly felt her through the armor, and his mind was too lost in space to even register her words.

"Here.  Take this.  I use it to feed the birds in the square when I need some time and space to think."

"Elora."  Blurting out the name was all he could manage, but it somehow seemed to be enough.

"Sounds like someone important to you," the woman replied, patting him on the shoulder. "Take those.  Go see her, if you can.  Maybe she can help?

Walking to the edge of the High Fields of Crossing, his heart numb and shoulders heavy with the weight of thinking through what had transpired, Freyd knew he had no answers.

"It's still there."  A heavy sigh of relief caused him to collapse and take a knee at the cliffs' edge, tension bleeding from his frame at the sight of the home he and his beloved had built. Elation momentarily replaced his persistent malaise and disorientation. Witherwind Rest still stood, nestled in the valley near the region's edge, though the rush of water from nearby waterfalls obscured more than glimpses of it in their mist.  Having no idea what signals might have been sent by the system in the wake of the raid's bizarre events, it only just occurred to him to send word.  Please tell me she hasn't been fooled into imagining the worst...

To : Elora From: Freyd Raid's done. Heading home now.  See you shortly. Love, Freyd

Sending the missive and beginning his descent, Freyd had no doubt that the conversations to follow would not be so brief.

****

Freyd obtains Familiar Food from the shopkeeper.

@Elora

Note: CS (Shades of the Gemini) and CSA (Beckon the Void) are in use.  If any other player objects to these, please state in first post and it will be considered inactive.

Freyd consumes:

Spyglass - https://www.sao-rpg.com/topic/20786-general-merchant/?do=findComment&comment=640849
Sweet and Sour Licorice Bites | Tierless Perfect Snack | LD III | 223577g + [Filled]
Deliberate | +1 CD | 235929
Ghost Treat | 203365

Freyd | HP: 1300/1300 | EN: 162/162 | DMG: 21 | MIT:127 | ACC:1 | AA | TAUNT | F-SPIRIT | EVA:1 | BH:72 | VAMP-D: 72 | VAMP-O: 143 | PARA-V | LD:13

Spoiler

Name: Freyd, Kuro bara no kishi
True Tier: 18
Level: 34
Paragon Level: 143
HP: 1300/1300
EN: 162/162

Stats:
Damage: 21
Mitigation: 127
Accuracy: 4
Evasion: 2
Battle Healing: 72
Loot Die: 9+3
Stealth Rating: -5
AA
TAUNT
VAMP-D: 72
VAMP-O: 143
PARA-V

Equipped Gear:
Weapon/Armor/Trinket: 
  - Veritas | T4 Katana) | AA, PVO I, VO I, Taunt
Armor/Trinket: 
  - Negare Omnia | T4 HA | MIT III | VD I
Shield/Armor/Trinket: 
  - Small Konpeito Sack | T1 Trinket | LD III, QTY I

Combat Mastery:
  - Combat Mastery: Damage R3

Combat Shift:
  - AOE Shift

Familiar Skill:
  - [Inaccessible]

Custom Skill:
  - Shades of the Gemini (CS)
  - Beckon the Void (CSA)

Skills:
  - Battle Healing R5
  - Charge
  - Energist
  - Extended Mod Limit
  - Extended Weight Limit
  - Fighting Spirit
  - Heavy Armor R5
  - Howl
  - Katana R5
  - Lock Picking R1
  - Quick Change
  - Searching R4

Extra Skills:
  - Disguise
  - Survival
  - Leadership R5

Inactive Extra Skills:
  - Forgotten King's Authority
  - Meditation
  - Lady Luck
  - Photosynthesize
  - Brawler
  - Assault Mode
  - Frozen Hide

Addons:
  - Focus
  - Focused Howl
  - Iron Skin
  - Precision
  - Reveal
  - Stamina

Mods:
  - Detect
  - Night Vision
  - Emergency Recovery
  - Impetus
  - Inspiring Speech
  - Rally
  - Tracking

Inactive Mods:
  - Press the Attack
  - Steadfast
  - Elusive

Battle Ready Inventory:
  - Bear Trap (Reusable 1/combat) x1
  - Crystal of Divine Light (Reusable 1/thread) x1
  - Mass HP Rec [Inst] (+10% HP) x7
  - Meathook (Reusable 1/combat) x1
  - Ordsea Crystal-B (Reusable 1/combat) x1
  - Night Shades | T3 Trinket | ACC III | EVA I
  - Rhino's Horn (Reusable 1/combat) x1
  - Samael's Pride | T4 Katana | FLN II | HLY II  x1
  - Teleport Crystals x7

Housing Buffs:
  - Bedroom: -1 energy cost for the first two expenditures of each combat
  - Bathroom: The first time you would suffer DoT damage in a thread, reduce damage taken from DoT each turn by 20% (rounded down)
  - Basic Kitchen: Increase the effectiveness of a single food item consumed in a thread by +1 T1 slot. This can exceed normal Cook enhancement caps. Ex: A perfect T2 MIT food gives 35 MIT instead of 30.
  - Storage Closet: +1 Battle Ready Inventory Slot
  - Living Room: Increases out of combatHP regen by (5 * Tier HP) and decreases full energy regen to 2 Out of Combat Posts.
  - Attic (Bedroom): +1 Expertise to declared utility skill. Cannot boost a skill without ranks, or increase a skill past its maximum rank. Cannot boost a skill the user has not learned yet. Ranks obtained using this buff will make the mods of that rank available for purchase. Mods obtained this way are unusable if this buff is removed until the skill is returned to the appropriate rank by way of SP purchase.
  - Basement: Gain +1 to LD, Stealth Rating, Stealth Detection, or Prosperity to one post in a thread. Can be applied after a roll
  - Guest Room: Players can have one «Amenity» in a «Guest Room» and the «Amenity» cannot be recovered. Players are allowed to change which «Amenity» is in the «Guest Room». Multiple instances of the same «Amenity» do not stack. This buff affects the player and their choice of up to two party members.
  - Extended Workshop: +2 Crafting EXP per crafting attempt and +1 crafting attempt per day
  - Ornate Fishing Pond: +2 Fishing EXP per Attempt and additional +1 LD & CD to fishing attempts.
  - Dining Hall: Turn 3 identical food items (same quality, tier, & enhancements) into a Feast. A Feast contains 6 portions of the food items sacrificed. Feasts created this way cannot be used outside of the thread they are created. Limit 1 item created per thread.
  - Mega Slime Farm: +10% EXP to a thread. Limit one use per month. Must be used on a player's first post in a thread. Cooldown begins counting down when used in a post.

Guild Hall Buffs:
  - Trading Hall: Reduce LD needed for Salvage by 5 (10+ for Alchemist crystals, 6+ for everything else). +2 EXP per craft. Rank 9 crafters and Rank 4 merchants/performers receive +1 crafting/identification attempt per day. Rank 10 crafters and Rank 5 merchants/performers receive +2 crafting/identification attempts per day.
  - Treasury: +5% bonus col from last-hit monster kills and +10% bonus col from treasure chests.

Scents of the Wild Totem:
  - Yamata no Orochi

Crafting Profession:
 - Appraising[3478exp] R5
Gathering Profession:
 - Fishing[576exp] R5

 

Edited December 24, 2024 by Freyd

[Elora 0]

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

 

For days, the constant pings of pointless notifications had eaten away at her. The longer she'd waited to hear from Freyd, the more restless she had become. Every obsessive visit to her menu, every hopeful glance at the sender's username, had paired with another shattered expectation. That was, until...

Elora was out of her seat in a matter of seconds. Finally --, she breathed a sigh of relief as lingering nervous energy swelled within her, He's alive -- "They did it!", she found herself rejoicing to no one in particular, her hands balling up into fists of victory. Borris, a small rock familiar that Elora wore over her wrist, gave a supportive squeeze in celebration.

"I need to get ready -- I think --", she stammered as energy overloaded her capacity to act, "I should brush my hair -- change into something nice? No, he won't be gone much longer -- will he?"  Confused steps carried her first toward the bedroom, then the kitchen. "What if he's hungry? Should I make him something to eat? A warrior's meal or something -- what's his favorite dish??" Options stumbled through her mind like a slot machine barreling toward a mismatched outcome, even worse -- the dubious sway of a wasted bloke making a break for the furthest bathroom stall. 

RICE!, her conscious finally decided with the conviction of screeching tires. "Shit -- I gotta make rice! Rice from the greenhouse -- I have time to grab some!"

Rushing out toward the gardens, she'd nearly missed the glint of something bobbing near the property's outskirts. Eyes snapping to survey the shiny distraction, an accompanying hand raised to block the sun's beams from obscuring her vision. Slow observation distinguished dark armored plating, their occupant dawning a head of...White hair...?, thought Elora confusedly, What's...Kil doing here...?" 

Momentary concern became vignetted by a barrage of questions. Is he...here to visit? Why didn't he message me first? Does Freyd know he's...? As the person drew nearer, her thoughts transitioned from complete befuddlement to an uncanny recognition. He walks just like...

"...Freyd?", Elora called out, her voice made louder to accommodate for the distance that remained between them.

Clanking metal echoed from within the canyon's cliffs, their cold, accursed chorus now the heartwarming anthem of a loved one returned from war. Before she could think, her heels had carried her forward, her heart aching to reconnect with the other it had scarcely lost.

"FREYD!!", she cried again, this time with giddy enthusiasm.

Unruly hair draped loosely down Elora's shoulders, the makings of her usual armor replaced by the fabric of an oversized shirt. A reunion begged no time to conceal what she'd worn in his absence. It seemed that had proven true in both of their cases. 

Finally reunited beside the gate to their home, arms shot outwards to sling around his neck. 

"Welcome home!!", she greeted him with glee.

Edited December 27, 2024 by Elora

[Freyd 0]

Eyes instantly locked upon the distant source of her voice, Freyd felt his spine melt at the sound.  Joyful.  Happy.  Not what he would have expected if the worst of his fears had manifest and she'd somehow thought him dead.  Relief palpably swept through every inch of his exhausted form, draining away unspoken tension and lifting his heart with a warmth that the raid and subsequent floor had fought hard to smother.  

"FREYD!!"

Hair like a verdant wave spreading out in the wake of her passage, she ran out to greet him in the coziest of cozy tops, surreptitiously borrowed from his closet.  The same one she often wore to keep away the cold while lovingly cuddling up against him by the hearth. It was a conscious effort to leave it out deliberately for her convenience, given his own meticulous nature. Feeling through memory the warming tenderness of that embrace, Freyd found his footfalls increasing to a flat out run.  As her arms wrapped their blessings around his neck, his own wound themselves around his woman's slender waist and pressed her close, just to make sure she was real.

"Welcome home!!", she greeted him with glee.

Burying his face in her embrace, clinging to every scent and sensation that made her who she was, Freyd clenched his eyes closed to keep everything he'd been feeling from spilling out at once.  That same hint of mint mixed with the freshness of morning dew together with his own sweat and a deluge of built up tears waiting to burst the dam.  Armor disintegrated from around his frame - was he taller - replaced by a more casual dark grey haori over a storm blue kimono. Both matched and drew attention the changes: a thin black beard with hints of grey hiding careworn lines drawn deeper into his face, not to mention the contrasting head of white hair variegated with hints of black and grey playing upon the edges.  He looked older, like life had both taken a toll yet also granted its wisdom by the same hand.

"It's me."  Spoken to address the questions forming behind her eyes.  "And it's no trick of skill or light."  She could see the truth of it in his eyes, and only then come to realize the absence of armor something small and skittish should have made her appearance.  Water pooled around the downturn of his eyes, lips pursing for his fallen friend yet conflicted by the jumble of joy and other emotions whirling at having her safe and sound in his arms.

"Did you feel anything while I was away?  Get any systems notifications or have anything happen to the house?"  Not daring to let her go, just yet, he swept Elora into his arms and carried her towards their Witherwind, lips meeting hers before she could even answer.  He'd waited too long to taste the sweet succor that made everything else fall to the background, even if only for a little while.

Edited December 26, 2024 by Freyd

[Elora 0]

"I know...", she softly assured as a curious hand traced the edges of his jaw, her thumb pressing back hairs to glimpse the corners of a frail smile. Reaching back further, she pushed past the folds of his cowl to offer a congratulatory pat to... Oh, Persi's not here., thought Elora, She must be off exploring someplace...? Sights lifted to interlock with Freyd's as his features slowly sunk into a somber disposition. Behind the fading mirth of those pale blue orbs, she swore she could watch the spirit of something...breaking within him.

Unburdened from all of his armor, yet carrying the weight of a loss so much heavier, Freyd appeared more fractured now than she had ever seen him. Gone was the pride of a well-earned victory, absent the playful demeanor she had come to associate with him. Instead, he appeared completely exhausted, on the brink of fighting back tears. 

"Freyd...", she began before his arms had suddenly lifted her into the air.

"Did you feel anything while I was away?", he posed the question to curtail her rising concern, "Get any systems notifications or have anything happen to the house?" 

Notifications?, her mind began, its audit prematurely cauterized by the heat of a kiss. Elora found herself clinging tightly to his neck, her worries suspended in a moment of pure passion as he carried her to their house. Wispy green and gray hairs draped to rest between them, her lips struggling to bid purchase behind the interference of those and other haphazardly-curling facial hairs.

Finally reaching the threshold of their door, she pulled herself back from his fervent embrace. "Freyd, I --", she gasped to chase after her breath and whatever else she had meant to answer. "Everything's fine...", she quickly insisted, "you don't need to worry, please --" Doting eyes were eclipsed by a serious expression as her hand rose to intercept the path of another kiss. "Turn that analytical mind of your's off for just a second -- what happened out there? Are you...", she trailed off before asking,

"What happened?"

 

[Freyd 0]

"Everything's fine...you don't need to worry, please --"

Relief.  Indescribable elation as those words reached his ears and bled away the terror of what Cardinal might have inflicted by sheer force of doubt and uncertainty.  Had Elora's obliviousness somehow insulated her from its tells, or had nothing rippled its way out from the turbulence of the raid?  It doesn't matter.  She didn't have to endure a harrowing.  That's all that matters.  She's safe.  She was spared the agony I thought I'd caused.

"Turn that analytical mind of your's off for just a second -- what happened out there? Are you...", she trailed off before asking, "What happened?"

Water pooling in his eyes, a tide of dread repelled, reflected hers in the same light they'd both experienced at the Eyvinsung.  Lips warbling like those of a child caught in an outpouring of emotions that threatened to overwhelm, it took him several seconds just to dare enough to part his lips.  More, to structure the fragmentary words floating within and struggling to bind.  When one finally emerged, it sounded hoarse and parched, like the effort had drained him of essence or vitality.

"Wulfrin." 

Speaking the name, like some sacred admission, nearly tore his heart to pieces as the memory that drove his choice replayed itself in his mind's eye.  His friend, doe-eyed at the realization of the risk he'd just exposed himself to.  Dawning awareness of manifesting fate, or ill fortune, at the hands of a raid boss - the very picture of lethality in a cruelly unjust world.  A choice laid in his hands. The harshest and most difficult of choices.  Break the heart of his beloved, or his friend's?  Ciela's jubilant laughter rung in memory, the images of his own hand placed over theirs as he bound them to each other.  Him?!  He'd felt an honored fraud and charlatan performing the act, yet wholly blessed by their trust and eagerness.  Merest hours had passed since that moment, fast forwarded to the young groom's life fainting within reach of his fingertips.  

"He's alive.  Spared."  Still struggling to keep composure, the words were more curt and uncertain than she'd ever heard him speak, laden with ominous overtones.  "I... I managed to reach him, just in time.  But, at a cost."

Flinching involuntarily at the recollected flash, the searing pain and sinking of giant rotting claws and decaying teeth into digital flesh.  No algorithm could spare anyone those sensations.  Even if the nerves were dulled entirely, the mind knew and would provide for itself what it should have felt.

"I... think I died..."

[Elora 0]

Elora squirmed her way out of Freyd's dreamy embrace as avoidant stoicism began to falter. For as much as she wished to savor the sweetness of their reunion, she understood what a moment like this demanded of her.

No -- not what it demanded of her, but what she would demand of herself. In countless interactions past, Freyd had lent her an ear to listen, extended a hand to hold, given her a shoulder to cry on. How long had he meant to go on, carrying the burdens of others to the complete and utter detriment of himself? How long would he continue still...cherishing that servitude, honoring his commitment to rescue anyone, no matter the cost?

As he croaked out the name of his surviving comrade, Elora slung an arm around his waist, the other lifted to cradle his head against her own. Bittersweet tears welled within her eyes as she became captivated by the beauty of it all. How beautiful he was...

If only I can be...even a fraction of what he is to me..., she thought with forced conviction. The briefest flash of her former self insisted that she didn't deserve him. That none of them deserved him.

Freyd had taught her better than that.

"It's ok...", she softly stated. Spoken carefully, the phrase conveyed no dismissal of his feelings, no false promise of a rapturous remedy. Elora understood all too well the importance of allowing emotions to flow through oneself. Avoiding their causation, sequestering their presence, did little to heal an aching heart. Wrapping her arms tightly, fervently around him, she drew him nearer still. What more could she offer to someone who had given so much? Reassurances felt feeble and seemed so misplaced.

With a silent, steady sway, she guided them away from their door toward the rugged foundation of cobblestones below. Held together by a network of concrete, each disparate stone and its fractured pieces remained fused, resolute in their purpose of persisting as one. In spite of everything he had witnessed, every excruciating sensation he had endured, Freyd had made it home to her.  No words could describe such true, tempered strength; no embrace a measured repayment of its unwavering support. Instead, she would offer him the same grace once afforded to her, the recognition of a battle well-fought, its honor, the release from his obligations.

"Let it all out", she gently consoled.

[Freyd 0]

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫

Watching her unfurl from his grasp, Freyd was unaccustomed to such certainty entrenched behind her warm, watering, empathic eyes.  A rose in bloom, shedding away the detritus of past wrongs to stand proudly for herself - for who she wanted to be. Elora was magnificent.  Gently trapping him between her fingertips in a way that he could never voluntarily escape, his heart melted as surely as it wanted to break.

"It's ok...", she softly stated. 

No... anything but that...and yet...

Not what he expected to hear.  Not from her, given her history and staunchly set ways.  Where was the self-castigation, the avoidance or withdrawal?. Where were Elora's tells, as reliably predictable as the sun's setting to hide away from pain?  Nowhere to be found, apparently, which only made his sense of betrayal worse.  Though tears to match her own welled in the corners of his eyes, these were tears of joy, for all she had accomplished to reach this point.

"You're just amazing.  Did you know that?"  Callused tips belonging to long, spider-like fingers swept water from the corners of her eyes, tracing fleeing rivulets down along the framing the edges of her face.  Thumbs pressed softly to her chin, he guided her liquid passions there, to him. 

With gleaming confidence and sympathy, she led him to the edge of the memorial pools, her figure swaying like an angel among wisteria's dancing to her passage and the breeze.  Beads of mist played and gather across salvation's features, casting themselves upon her stunning grace - which he had nearly, foolishly discarded.

"Let it all out", she gently consoled.

Swallowing hard, the steely backbone of resolve that had carried him relentlessly forward was still there, keeping him from crumbling completely.  This wasn't about choices.  He'd made his and come to terms with its personal consequences long ago, or so he thought.

"No tank takes on the role without accepting its potential outcome." Reiterating his own words, they still resonated with truth.  His convictions had held.  But, they always did, didn't they?  They were never the issue.  It was the sudden consideration of cost and consequences that were new, and both options had been god-awfully bad. Moral dilemma was still a shiny new concept, and this one was a doozy for a newbie.

"Callisto - the boss - was going to kill him.  It had Wulfrin dead to rights - the template ready to mount his name on the monument, and everything.  I couldn't let it happen.  I didn't think..."

Guilt forced his eyes closed again, shame eating away the edges of his soul for what he'd done, or nearly done, or both.  Probably both.

"Somehow, I placed myself between them.  It shouldn't have been possible, but I did, then felt the…”

Pulling back the edge of his storm cloud haori, snaring the blue grey waves of kimono beneath, the pale flesh beneath still shone with spectral scars of the massive clawed hands that had done the deed. Skin unmarred, he felt the wounds nonetheless, like they would be there forever.  He'd paid for that moment with age, and the corresponding loss of innocence now reflected in his changed appearance.  Freyd felt older, more worn.  Weathered.

“All I saw was a flash.  There was a hum, like the dying ambient charge of a monitor being turned off, the last potential energy ebbing from its circuits and fading.  That should have been it.”

Silence.

“Then, a breath.  Sight marred by blinding chaos and a shift in perspective.  Senses assaulted from all sides with confusion.  I was twenty feet from where Wulfrin had slumped to his knees, still seeing the shards of… me… fading into nothingness.  The rest.. well, we won.  How doesn’t really matter, save that it confused the hell out of a lot of people.”

Gazing at his reflection in the pool, Freyd’s eyes closed, his shoulders at odds with themselves trying to decide whether to stand proud or utterly collapse.

“I don’t regret trying to save a man’s life," he confided, as much to himself as to Elora.  "But, I also don’t know how to deal with having to choose between consigning you or Ciela to dealing with the death of a loved one.”

Tell her…

“And, I’m ashamed that I chose to save a friend instead of choosing to come back to the woman who means more to me than the world itself.”

Edited December 31, 2024 by Freyd

[Elora 0]

♫ The Hand of Fate ♫

 

A trembling hand raised to cover Elora's mouth as she stared crestfallen at the haunting claw marks. Scars carved so broadly across his body she could hardly imagine its remains. Anything indicative of Freyd would have been lost to a corpse maimed beyond recognition. Shrill whimpers mourned the scene of his demise, her pain scarcely disguised beneath the veil of a palm. A sharp drawing in of her breath could not recall the tears that were pouring from her face. Grief beckoned her to tear her sights away from him, to deny confrontation with a reality too gruesome to come to terms with. Instead, she found herself immobilized by a gripping fear, a sinking terror that if she abandoned him now, there would be nothing left to return to. 

“All I saw was a flash...", he began to describe, "There was a hum, like the dying ambient charge of a monitor being turned off, the last potential energy ebbing from its circuits and fading."

Memories of her own demise at The Storm's behest coursed through her, flooding slumbering synapses like a sudden spell of deja vu. She could recall every sensation, feel them submerging her body. Coldness, stinging, asphyxiation. Then, a numbing rush of dread as the final traces of hope were forcibly extinguished. Elora had been made to spectate all of her failures. Every part of her she desperately tried to reject, every potential future she had inevitably fucked up.

Except...she had survived to experience that very future. In the wake of indescribable suffering, she had been given another chance, the gift to continue living. Is it possible to mourn the loss of something that is yet to come...?, she found herself asking. Years flowed by as she continued to write her story. Through daily efforts to become that idealized self, she had undertaken new responsibilities, confronted the shadows of her own past, allowed herself to be loved by the people she treasured most. How many more adventures would she truly taste...how many more tomorrows could they hope to go on living?

"...I’m ashamed that I chose to save a friend instead of choosing to come back to the woman who means more to me than the world itself.”, Freyd softly spoke.

On the not-so-distant horizon, death loomed like an all-consuming wall of darkness behind their celestial dance. Encroaching and inevitable, it would seldom claim them both. There was an unspoken comfort in the delusion of that unified departure. Surely, two souls bonded in life would make their exit much the same. They both understood the folly of that wish, lamented in the harrowing loss of that fated separation. When the other had vanished completely, there would be nothing left but the brightest and darkest memories of times once shared; the minutia of what transpired in between lost to the static of a faintly-held impression fading into bitter obscurity. What was left of the future would remain unwritten, resigned to a figment of what would never be.

Pleading gasps dissipated like the ghosts of false assurances, her throat constricting as she struggled to digest the impermanence of it all. With a shaking hand, she retraced the edges of his jaw. Her eyes affixed on each detail, she seemed to search his features, study every blemish and contour of his face. How could she hope to memorize the smile lines of a man who was ever-changing?

"If not by your hand, then by whose...?", she barely managed to speak, a faint smirk curling from the corner of her lip. "Never be ashamed of who you are, or for the action you take, Freyd. You are so brave, and so selfless...", she trailed off, swallowing dryly, "You are -- the most important part of life. The reason I have kept on living, the reason I will continue to --" 

Another pang of despair.

"My greatest sadness will be an absence of you.", she sincerely admitted.

Edited 18 hours ago by Elora