[4:36 PM] LadyDeme: The boat had passed Damona quietly, easing its way around the curve of the Sacred Lake. The mouth of a river had slipped by in the night, a strange place where the water dipped and altered, changed -- they met each other and turned away, like a strange pair of magnets. The sleek ship had known smooth sailing, but now, they hurried by a shore held by Ethysians, and the recent news -- the true nature of this war -- made it hard to say completely that this would remain so. The Sacred Lake might not have been so inviolable to an army so devoted... Except, perhaps, that no human in Junith would have fired ballista or catapult onto the Sacred Lake.
Delphine had spent the night considering her options: This was absurd, and there were no options, except on a broad and theoretical level. It was not a real option, commandeering a skiff and rowing home. It was not a real option, jumping overboard and swimming. It would be a bad idea, for a single healer to try and foster resistance in a place where she was publicly known and had already lost. She knew these things theoretically, but she'd still imagined it for much of the night. She'd be 4 miles from her home: she walked further than that for picnics.
It was still early morning when she left her cabin, a book and pen in her hand -- feigning, maybe even to herself, her own motives. She was greeted by a morning mist, hanging over the lake like a pure white cloud. It obscurred the water around them, and clung damply to the cabin walls. Delphine's sigh -- she could not say if it was relieved or disappointed -- stirred the cloud slightly. She went and leaned on the railing, looking out into the misty water of the morning lake, before opening the book and --without turning away, so she could look up at any moment, trying to write something.(edited)
[4:43 PM] MCVII - The Whale: Lorenzo strode out from the male's portion of the ship sans his armor, silently looking about the ship. Any other day, he would be up early, in his armor, trying to condition and train himself for warfare; the ship had put an end to that. His sleep schedule would refuse to shift, leading him to leave the cabin and aimlessly wander.
Noticing his friend barely, he strode quietly in approach, clearing his throat. "...ahem. Couldn't sleep either?"
[4:57 PM] LadyDeme: Delphine jolted, pulled suddenly from her thoughts -- she nearly dropped her book over the railing, catching it only as it fell. When she turned around, letting at a sigh to relaxe her reflexes, she looked a little tired -- not the weight of sleepless nights... But just the one.
"Kind of. But if I had, I don't know if I wouldn't have gotten up early anyway...Oh, wait... do you need to use my cabin for a while, Lorenzo? It'd be something of a cozy fit, but I'm sure we could manage." She asked, recalling their arrangement in the city. In the woods, he'd been a little closer to fine. Right now, her face fell into its natural, neutral smile. Her stomach still felt full of butterflies, an anxiety and an anticipation wrestling up in her. "No, I'm just... Have you been keeping track of the ship's progress?"
[5:02 PM] MCVII - The Whale: He shakes his head quickly, coughing a bit. "Er... ah, no. I am certain Lord Finn would not allow me to sneak into the women's quarters. I have been sleeping well enough, for it being on a ship."
The question makes him frown, and he nods solemnly. "I... somewhat. We are going to be nearing Floribar soon, are we not? Or at least its coast?"
[6:27 AM] LadyDeme: "If Finn had a problem, he could take it up with me," She said in a cheerul voice -- one dripping withn a sort threatening undercurrent... Which she broke off into a laugh. "But it's good that it's going well."
She turned towards him, resting her elbows on the railing as she leaned her head back. As she did it, she tilted her head back until she could briely glance through the liting fog. The world in the distance was still foggy and indistinct, but a few pale yellow sun rays were beggining to poke through. Delphine looked like she might have been basking in them.
"That's right. We crossed over onto what was once the Floribian Coast during the night... I'd gotten myself rather worked up and turned around, soaring with anticipation of having a peek... Or perhaps it's nerves."(edited)
[11:53 AM] MCVII - The Whale: Lorenzo nodded, keeping a solemn frown as he ponders. She looks rather nice in this light... I suppose the sun smiles upon her. "You wanted to see your home... get a glimpse of Amarana. I've lost sleep wanting that same opportunity."
[12:06 PM] LadyDeme: "I'm transparent in the morning, it seems -- like glass, maybe... Yes. I think a lot of us are getting homesick, if we weren't already." She always had been, from then. But she'd heard the sentiment expressed a little more and more. The war wasn't just a matter of fighting nations, or acting as ordinarily soldiers. As long as that could have been, this was deeper and farther out than that. She shook her head.
"...But even when the fog lifts, I guess I won't see what it is I really want to know. The buildings are just places, after all." That sounded like consolation to herself, even if it was true: things were things, buildings were buildings. You could replace every building without doing anything... And yet. And yet, she still missed the castle where she and Viana had run about as kids. And she still wanted to see that city she'd dreamt of making into a city of marble. Those things didn't have no meaning, even if they weren't important... "Perhaps what I really want is to use it like a kind of divination, or a signal."(edited)
[12:18 PM] MCVII - The Whale: He nods, leaning on the railing--and keeping a hand held tight. Lorenzo felt his own homesickness tugging at him, a bittersweet sensation between his troubled sister and loving mother. "I see... I've wished for that sometimes, myself. Trying to find guidance from something there. Suppose I just miss it, the place I had known as a child. It's a faded memory to me... now, it's just a place to me. Something I had to defend and failed."(edited)
[12:34 PM] LadyDeme: "...That might be something all of Floribar is, for the people who were there. Well, maybe not Persephone... But it can be the memories and the place, and that defeat, too, all at once. There might still be a guidance there... A place is a strange thing, when you understand their weights in a heart; I've heard you never really go to the same one twice, because you're different, each time. But I think I understand what you mean, anyway. The location itself hardly matters, compared to the things you really miss."
She said, softly. She reached over for that balled fist of a hand, letting her prop onto the rail go a little lopsided with her hand, leaning her body a bit closer. The sunlight was starting to pierce a little more fog, the water around the boat turning a clear, crystalline blue, like an aura spreading out.
"I thought -- I hoped -- that if I see it, I could know what they people there are doing. If they're OK... If they're waiting for me. That's what I really want to know... Because even if it's the place I knew as a child, that's what matters to me."(edited)
[12:53 PM] MCVII - The Whale: "I see... it's hard for me to see it the same way, if I understand what you're saying." Lorenzo relaxes slightly, shifting his hand a bit closer to hers, turning so his side leaned on the railing. "By the people, do you mean your friends and family, or just overall the people of your realm?"
[1:12 PM] LadyDeme: "My perspective might be a bit odd, I admit... I'm sorry, I might not have understood your point as well as I'd hoped... But I do understand missing it, even if it's gone a little hard to think of."
Maybe that was what she meant -- or maybe, she just understood that there was something mixed in those memories. Or maybe she hadn't been clear. She rested her hand up against his for a moment, just slightly, before it came close enough to place her open palm over his fist, and rest it there, just faintly.
"Hmmm... Well, it's not exactly my family: not literally, anyway. My mother fled to Arcias with me -- and now she's jumped ship, because if there's one thing you have to do, it's stand by the winners, thanks, Mom..." She shook her head, getting off-focus. Her mother could do that to her. "And my father's already dead. I found more family here on the road than I did in Amarana, if we count by blood...
But I could neither invent a distinction that would dissolve the connection between my home and my family and my people: they are all one and the same to me. They were my family, when I might satisfy no one else. Even the people I never really met: they worked hard, and paid their taxes, and my life had its structure because of them, all along. Because they had the expectation that I would be Countess, and I could protect them... They took care of me as family, too."
Delphine ran a hand through her bangs, blinking her eyes ferociously. The fog might have come back, if only before her eyes, a soft blurring of the world. The words, the notion, flowed out of her like water, catching themselves on the fingers that seemed to squeeze her chest on the way out. She'd never explained that feeling to anyone.(edited)
[2:46 PM] MCVII - The Whale: Lorenzo nods, looking toward her. "...I had never thought of it like that. I had always been... putting them out of my mind, since there was either my family or my training to be committed to." He scratches the back of his neck, sighing. "That worries me about my capabilities as ruling. Perhaps after this whole war ends I should start studying such..."
He shakes the thoughts from his head. "Never mind. I can understand where you're coming from, and I can say I would like to find guidance in a similar way."
[3:43 PM] LadyDeme: "I've put a lot of thought into it, in my own way. I could probably talk your ear off about it. Honestly, while I'm interested in the theoretical properties of rulership, I think if I didn't think they had placed on me the expectation -- of law and order and protection that is, regardless of the appointment of gods, what truly seperates a leader from a tyrant ..." She shook off the fact that she was, in fact, talking his ear off. "Well... anyway. I always thought I'd have more time, and so I should try and understand, first..."
She shook her head, shaking off the broader questions of how she'd been considering and preparing for a future that had slammed into her, in its own and unexpected ways.
"Right now, I don't really know how to rebuild. Or what will need rebuilding. Or anything like that... So we'll have to both do our best, ri --"
She stopped in mid-word as her heart fluttered, faster and faster -- her stomach knotted, and even the breath in her throat froze. The fog, all the way out to the shoreline... Was beginning to lift.
[3:51 PM] MCVII - The Whale: Lorenzo pauses, giving her hand a small squeeze, clearing his throat. He speaks softly to her. "...Delphine?"
[5:27 PM] LadyDeme: "...And there it is," she said. Her voice was a breathless murmur, like she might have been afraid of frightening it away: that the image on the horizon, not the fog, was the thing that could dissolve in the sunlight. She kept her hand in Lorenzo's, but turned as far as she could, staring at it...
Rising up away from the lakeshore was indistinct land -- a beach that would give way to gentle, rolling fields that Delphine could imagine, without fully seeing. Sitting there, perched on the horizon, was a castle. There was the tower she liked to watch the stars from, little more than an indistinct blur. There were the walls that were perfect for pranks, rising up. Perhaps they weren't as whole as they looked from the distance, but her departure must have bought them something. Intact, around it, a little city, nothing more than the skyline from the distance. It wasn't a remarkable city -- not yet.
But it was whole, right there, and real. Delphine hadn't seen it in almost a year now. Her breath caught in her throat, as she tried to sort what to make of it, and it came out in a sob. Her mouth struggled with her flip-flopping, lurching heart, which didn't know if it was tight or soaring. What had she expected? What had she imagined? She didn't know, but there it was.
[5:43 PM] MCVII - The Whale: Lorenzo follows her gave, watching quietly. The sob causes his head to turn, and he bites his cheek. "Are you alright...?"
[6:10 PM] LadyDeme: She tried to collect herself, and sort out what that view was giving her. Not the grass, here an indistinct color, but in her heart a green that was fading slightly into gold under the august sun; not the nostalgic almost smell of the place, a phantom in her nose. But this: that all of that was at least a little true. There was still the castle, and still the city -- and it meant...
"...I don't know," she admitted, pulling herself to Lorenzo's questions. "It's... It's a lot to take in, somehow... But look. The city's right there. It's..."
It was so near. And it had to have people in it -- people baking bread, and people selling crops from the fields. There were people making leather and people teaching children -- and -- and ... She shook her head, and smiled.
"...I don't know why, but I'm really relieved. I think -- laugh if you must, it's absurd -- I think a part of me was really worried. That life might not be able to go on there... That maybe, things couldn't go on."
[6:47 AM] MCVII - The Whale: He smiles, giving her hand a squeeze as he watches with her. "Sometimes a conqueror's malice is underestimated. If the village isn't razed and new laws aren't imposed, it's mostly normal life as usual for a commoner."
He leans on the railing, smiling as he tries to picture his own home like this. Frequently he had taken tours through his county--his father's county--but they were mostly in carriages along roads... A sight like this was rare for him.
[7:48 AM] LadyDeme: "That's about right... So far, they've been little interested in razing, so I managed to convince myself not to worry... So I thought, anyway." She answered, laughing a little, her chuckles still a little choked up. Her grand efforts in convincing herself she wasn't imagining a smouldering wreck had, apparently, come to nought... Her comments gave her a little pause, during which she idled her fingers across the back of his entwined hand, and looked back across the water.
And for a moment, hearing that, a little doubt crept into her. If it was the same to the people, then perhaps it served her nothing, to have let the safety she'd had in Arcias: well, while it lasted. And yet... Those damn fools.
"I wonder... How much it really might be the same." In a perfect world, there'd have been no need for that. And it would have been a pointless war... If they hadn't needed her... Would that make her happy, or sad? She couldn't tell. And it occured to her how deeply this wasn't so; how the Ethysians operated as a government, and the look on Maurice's face as he'd shoved her into the carriage, flanked on either side by worried faces. The words she'd been sent off with. As long as you live, Amarana survives. And it pulled that from her, at least for the moment.
"Well, I hardly doubt they've left everything as it was -- and even so, the government that binds them there is completely illegitimate. Also, apparently backed and now ruled by some sort of hate-god. Can't neglect that," she added, in something more like her conversational tone, wiping the tears from her eyes.(edited)
[9:01 AM] MCVII - The Whale: Lorenzo contemplated, nodding slightly. "...I may be acting cynical here, and I apologize if I hurt you, Delphine, by saying this... If Floribar's citizens have seen anything of the likes I have seen in service, they have reason to accept their government. To Ethysia, we're the Arcian resistance. Defeated and running. They are just waiting for us to attack something. Then we faced more than we expected, stronger foes, better ones. And no matter how much pressure we apply, our forces our broken, killed."
Lorenzo leans down, covering his eyes. "...I don't like to say such things, but I cannot deny that it is almost an eventuality. Talking about our situation... encourages my spirits."
[9:35 AM] LadyDeme: Delphine felt he rather missed her point -- yes, they had reason to bear it. But this was not what she meant at all, when judging if her actions, any of them, had been worthwhile. If their expectations would be so betrayed, had she simply never returned. It may harden her a bit, hearing that -- but it didn't hurt her, because it only argued her point precisely.
"...You misunderstand my thoughts entirely, and your cynicism here well supports my point: if they've seen what you've seen, been forced to bear what they must, why -- this is the illiegitimacy of Ethysian government, the tyrrany of it. If it were otherwise, I might have... Well. I don't think there's anything I'd have found worth fighting for, then, otherwise." But at the same time, she could see his struggle with the war, creeping back over him. And the passion of the ideals of it all left her voice, leaving it gentle. She squeezed his hand. And she smiled, gently.
"I don't think it's as inevitable as you, especially given our goals now... But let's leave this discussion, then. I admit, I wasn't prepared for light conversation this morning, but I did bring a little of my poetry with me, or the restaurant is likely open," she offered.(edited)
[9:42 AM] MCVII - The Whale: He nods as he listens to her, then straightens up, giving a small, vacant smile--like he was daydreaming. "I see... I may have gone off track, but my point was the tyranny was the legitimacy. But!"
Lorenzo waves a hand dismissively as he pushes himself of the railing. "Perhaps we could find a seat within the restaurant and I could listen to your poetry. It's been far too long."
[9:47 AM] LadyDeme: "I've never believed military supremacy alone is a substitute for the actual purpose of a governme --" she started, in a far more pleasant, if sparring, voice. She'd had this talk before with philosophers, and was prepared to defend her favorite thoughts re: the nature and purpose of a functional society... But she paused.
"...Lorenzo?" That smile sat ill with her, like a sudden cold draft. "...Are you really alright with this shift? You can tell me, if you'd rather not."(edited)
[10:01 AM] MCVII - The Whale: He raises an eyebrow, then nods quickly. "Ah? Oh, no, not at all... I was just pondering, you know. At how I've missed... all our talking. An odd time for this to come up, I know--you've been with us for this entire 'campaign'--it's just... we've talked about so much." His smile broadens, chasing away any dour thoughts.
[3:45 PM] LadyDeme: Delphine, for a moment, didn't quite know what to say -- was, in some ways, silly: they'd in some ways spoken more often during the war than outside of it, no longer held to the distance of letters, of training, of being rather confined to the county.
"I do enjoy a long, rambling conversation from time to time. It's certainly never boring," she answered -- it was the sort of thing that might sound sarcastic, but she said it in a sincere tone. "And a fine use of one of my particular talents, that is, talking a lot... But there's few people I share quite this much with. When it's been a while... I miss it, too."
She glanced over her shoulder towards the shore one more time with a soft expression. It had only been recently... That she'd begun to suspect that she might get to go back there, someday. But it wasn't today. This was as close as she could get, as the stakes mounted up.
"Alright, enough wistful sighing... It has been a while, since then. And since I've heard your descriptions of things, too... I think I collected some rather odd news, too, that I don't think I've really had time to tell you about."
[7:21 PM] MCVII - The Whale: "Oh, truly?" Lorenzo's arms hang at his side, and he shuffles his feet slightly. "What might that be?"
[7:51 PM] LadyDeme: "Well," Delphine said, motioning for him to follow her towards the raised cabin that acted as their restaurant, towards the stern of the ship. It was designed to be a reasonably aesthetic place, so the view of the lake was, at least, never far away. "...As it turns out... I have a sister. A half-sister, my mother's firstborn."(edited)
[7:13 AM] MCVII - The Whale: He followed at her side, nodding slightly as he gave the lake a glance. "Truly? And you had never heard about this?"
[7:36 AM] LadyDeme: "There was gossip about my mother having been involved with someone from Ethysia previously, but it wasn't anything substatiated." She had heard it, and had disregarded it -- and now, she waved a hand flippantly in memory of that disregard.
"However... That she had had a child with that person, that, no one spoke of: and my mother wouldn't have ever spoken a word of it, had Rieze not been there when she showed up to speak to me about -- well, it hardly matters about what."
The cruelty of that, casually, still rankled her a little, and her expression soured in response. Eventually, all she could do was sigh. It did hardly matter... But at the same time, her mother had turned against her -- that was what she'd come to say, at least effectively.
[7:45 AM] MCVII - The Whale: "Gods, Delphine, that's... that doesn't paint the best image of her." Lorenzo folds his arms, contemplating for a moment. A child--not taken care of quietly, not disowned, sent to some quiet corner of the country... but not exactly accepted as hers, either, considering he had never heard of him. Which begged the question...
"This was before she was wed to your father, right?"
[8:19 AM] LadyDeme: "No, it doesn't. It's a true-to-life portrait, though... She'll do whatever she must to get ahead, Ianthe."
Delphine shook her head and shrugged, a bitter, bitter smile on her face, and a resigned sigh from her mouth. To Delphine, there was little she could do but expect, and reject, that sort of callousness, as best she could... And to worry after Rieze, her sister who'd born the brunt of that, and tried to knit her way around it.
"That's correct. She'd been previously married , now annulled, to an Ethysian general. My sister was raised by him."
[8:24 AM] MCVII - The Whale: Lorenzo sighs, though whether it's in relief at the news or being distraught at her comment about her mother it isn't showing. "At least she was married... do any of the people of Amarana know about this?"
[8:30 AM] LadyDeme: To Delphine, the question of married/unmarried was a little trite: it was abandonment either way, though she supposed it made Rieze's manuevering in Ethysian society more simple... Though perhaps not: the terms of the anullment weren't clear, but it made the legitimacy of a child fairly abandoned in the process. It was made null, after all.
"No, I don't believe so... I've offered that she can return with me, when that day comes -- they'll know then... But it'd likely matter very little."(edited)
[7:04 PM] MCVII - The Whale: He nods, tilting his head. Hm. Would it truly matter if they're just half-sisters? "Yes... though... oh, you're right, it wouldn't matter, being that your mother wouldn't be in any position of power. If she was, maybe they'd care, but no."
[7:06 AM] LadyDeme: "Exactly," Delphine pointed out, with a gracious nod.
"If they wanted her, or anyone else, for the task, that'd be fine by me, though. I'd just have to find some other way to make good on that which they invested in me."
Her eyes softened, and almost closed, her smile a little rueful. The time, and the energy, and the wishes that they'd placed in her. The love they'd given, expecting in return something. Well, I suppose I am at war with a god on behalf of them and the world, the people and their freedom. That's definitely not nothing.
"But tell me, Lorenzo... You have a sister. I could use some advice. What does one do to earn a sister's love? Of course, you're the older sibling here... Maybe I should ask Artemis for advice."
[3:29 PM] MCVII - The Whale: Lorenzo nods slowly as he settles into a seat in the ship's restaurant. Upon hearing the question, he laughs. "Oh, Delphine... you've no idea. The list of things I've done for Artemis... well, I couldn't fit them in the greatest tome, nor would I want to, because it's always being expanded on."
[3:38 PM] LadyDeme: "How sweet; you really are a good brother."
Delphine tilted her head, and listening to it, suspected Lorenzo completely misunderstood her question. She'd have to ask Artemis for advice on how to earn a sibling's love, after all. It wasn't simply what he'd done... But how, at the end of the day, he'd won her approval. She didn't want to risk Rieze's heart, having so little... Besides, Rieze didn't seem to know where she was going, and, well... Delphine hoped her offer for it was sincere.
"Then surely, you'll have a story or two? When you're done listening to a poem or two, you'll have to share one with me."
She looked, briefly, out a window towards the coastline. She could see the castle in the distance, but if a flag fluttered on it, she couldn't see which it was -- as if she hardly knew. There was someone else... Whose love she still needed to earn, for having been given so long in advance.\
[3:38 PM] LadyDeme: == RP End ==
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