video;

[wolfishflame]

[It's dark. Whoever's broadcasting is outside in the middle of the night, and the camera slowly adjusts to the little amount of light filtering in from the stars and the barrier overhead.

When the broadcaster speaks, her voice is almost too hoarse to be recognizable, but it's Aly. She speaks quietly, but firmly.]

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
With what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire-- [And at that word, an angry gout of crimson flame flares up from her hands for a moment before disappearing.]
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate-- [The fire flares up again.]
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And will suffice.

[As she reaches to turn off the feed, something that looks a lot like blood can be seen smeared around her mouth.]

Comments

grabs tissues, HONKS LOUDLY INTO THEM

[wolfishflame]

It is, [Aly says fiercely, trying not to cry.] What I did...I might have...if I'd moved faster I could have stopped him! I shouldn't have listened. That stupid...ass!

[Oh, how she so wished he was here to berate as she'd berated him before, as he'd berated her, anger born out of love and out of a connection that was now severed, a bond forever lost. She twists her wrist idly, reaching for spectral cords that are no longer there.]

Re: grabs tissues, HONKS LOUDLY INTO THEM

[unfavorableinstigation]

We don't get to be in charge of what other people do.

And we can talk about what-ifs forever, but that won't change anything.

[Nita's voice breaks on the word 'change.'

Is Aly getting a hug? Well, if she wants.

Nita will let Aly vent as much as she needs.]

[wolfishflame]

[Aly accepts the hug. She couldn't refuse if she'd tried, really. She feels boneless.]

I can change it. No, I need...I need to be able to change it. I can, if I get back there. I'm sure of it. I just need to get him back home.

[Her voice breaks on the last word, and the tears come. He wouldn't want her to throw away the opportunity he'd given his life for, but damn this, damn it all, he's more important.]

CW: mention of events in Wizards Dilemma (aka death, cancer)

[unfavorableinstigation]

... Change it how?

[The tone of the question is neutral, but Nita knows what she was like when her mom was diagnosed, what Dairine was like. They'd been willing to try anything to fix her, eliminate the cancerous cells. Half-wrought plans, focuses that were no easy space for beginners - even nearly giving up her wizardry to the Lone One Itself.]

That's what we do for friends, isn't it?

[Saying if you love something, to let it go is easy, when you aren't in the middle of it.]

[wolfishflame]

[Aly sighs, blinking back tears, her voice thick with emotion, and hating it.]

I have to bring him home. I just have to...the spirit. She'll know what to do. She can fix it. She's done it before. For him, and for me. If I take him back, they can't follow us there. She'll fix it. She has to.

[She rubs at the thin scar on her neck - the one that goes all the way around it. It's not a scar from a wound someone should have survived. Maybe she hadn't.]

[unfavorableinstigation]

The spirit... is that her title, or did she not share her name?

[Maybe talking, learning more about Aly's world, might help. Even if Nita can't exactly help build a plan.

She lightens up on the hug, catches sight of that motion for the scar, but doesn't let go.]

[wolfishflame]

We don't do names, Otherside, [Aly says.] And if the land spirit has a name, she's not sharing it.

[If Sensei had a name, he wasn't sharing it. No. Has a name. She refuses to accept that it's the end.]

Names are powerful things, see. You know someone's name, you can get them. I didn't use my real name here 'til I was sure things were...safe.

[unfavorableinstigation]

[Nita nods.]

Not exactly a surprise.

[She's met people, places, where it was unwise to share her name before, even shortened as it was.]

... Hell, back home, sometimes you don't even need a name, to control someone. Just detritus.

[Nita grimaces.]

Not a long story there, just unpleasant.

And holding out on sharing, with the whole name thing... that's just smart.

[wolfishflame]

[A grim sort of smile crosses Aly's face.] See, you get it.

And yeah. Unpleasant name-detritus stories...those I get, too.

['Keahi' is gone. That piece of her belongs to someone else now.]

[unfavorableinstigation]

[While that wasn't quite what Nita meant, it's also true, so Nita lets the silence return for some time instead.

But, still, there were some thoughts that rose to the surface, in times like this:]

What's the one thing from here you'd want to share with him?

[However that could be arranged.]

Or with anyone you know back home, for that matter?

[wolfishflame]

From here? I don't know.

[She sighs and looks at the stars.]

Maybe that there are worlds that aren't all out to kill us.

Hmm - thread wrap on this one too?

[unfavorableinstigation]

[Nita can't help gazing up that way, too. Unfamiliar constellations, yes, but it's a familiar canvass all the same.]

Can't say I know a way to top that.

[Not without cheapening the concept.]

Think so!

[wolfishflame]