LadyDeme-01/13/2017
"No problem, Finn," she answered. She'd been toying for a while now over whether he was 'Finny' or 'Finn.' Finn was already a perfectly servicable nickname, but a bit less fun. But 'Finny' was longer anyway. Delphine sighed a little under her breath, letting herself run down that garden path of thought. Delphine still hadn't had time to clean herself off any, her hair coming out of its braid from their narrow escape.
"This lot always gives me the run-around after a battle like this... Well, it's nice to be needed, I suppose. But..." But she'd been avoiding anticipating a possibility that was hanging like a weight in her heart. Rather than get completely psyched out. How long did she have, before that door closed? Should she say something? It might be better not to promise anything at all. It was that sort of question, circling around. It could be possible that it'd already fallen out of her reach... But as long as the weight of that staff rested on her back, a beautiful, ethereal gem of a staff, the blue-haired healer could believe she'd need to try.(edited)
Mappy | Best Dog-01/13/2017
"Is something bothering you, Delphine?" Finn asked, sympathetically, "You've seemed kind of depressed lately."
Finn stood, and thought about the events of the past few days. Had she failed something she needed to in Arcias? Did someone she know not make it out of the castle?
That has to be it, Finn told himself, She's never been this upset.(edited)
LadyDeme-01/13/2017
"...Ah, I'm just intimidated by something I need to do... But I keep thinking it'll be worse if I try and fail, you know?"
She chuckled at it, feeling like the prince had suddenly caught onto her -- took him long enough, she supposed. Compared to previous times, though, she'd hardly say she was depressed. More... Pensive. Still. She fiddled with the end of her braid, turning her eyes downward.
"...There's a promise I couldn't fulfill. Even if I didn't use the words 'I promise,' it still bears the weight and soul of one. You could say it wasn't my fault, or even my promise to keep, but... All the same... It was a promise between one reckless, stubborn fool and another."
While she delivered a harsh summary of Theron, and herself, she did so with a faint smile, without malice... But it was also not a happy smile.
Mappy | Best Dog-01/13/2017
Finn opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly, the tent flaps flew open.
"Hey, is anyone home~" called the girl who had just stepped in without asking if she could. Her eyes were closed, but she also seemed happy at the given time.
She opened her eyes, and saw Finn and the cleric, both of whom didn't seem to be in the brightest of moods.
"Something the matter?"
LadyDeme-01/13/2017
And there it was. If he could have made it to a moment exactly like this, she wouldn't be thinking about this. She'd have other concerns on her mind, big and small and documentation-wise. Her notes for the last battle must be a mess.
"Ah, well..." Do you promise big, or no, do you promise big, or no? Delphine considered this with a tilt of her head, judging the weight of possibilities simply by that motion. She folded her arms, dragging out the instant as long as she could.
"...I was just thinking... About your father."
Mappy | Best Dog-01/13/2017
Noelle responded with a simple, "Me too," before having an internal panic attack due to her nervousness of asking this question.
She knew her father had been with Finn's group, and she knew he was in the castle with Finn. What Noelle also knew was that he didn't come back out. It didn't add up, in her mind, at least.
"I haven't seen him in a while, and, uh, was wondering if either of you knew where he was?"
Finn looked scared to death.(edited)
LadyDeme-01/13/2017
Delphine gave Finn a glance like Wow, nice going there, Prince Bravesalot. Well. This was, she was learning, part of acting as a healer. So she nodded gently, and accepted this duty herself.
"I do. I'm sorry to tell you this, but... He died." Delphine ran a hand through her hair, feeling that stab of regret. At the end of the battle, it'd run wild in her -- and where she was now had been born of that feeling that had made her grit her teeth in wide-eyed despair. Now, though, it hit her more calmly, just that familiar, anxious lurching.
"...All he wished for, until the end... Was to see you." She reached behind her back, and removed the staff she'd been carrying with her, until she had a moment. A beautifully delicate carved wood, the lines following the swirled grain, housing a glasslike jewel -- and this, in turn, housing a dreamlike spell, quick to vanish: perhaps the whole thing, staff and jewel and spell and hope, all at once... Might have been a bubble. And she offered it a nervous smile.
"Even if it might just be my foolish denial, I still... I still have some hope of making that happen."
Mappy | Best Dog-01/13/2017
The entire time Delphine spoke, Noelle stood there, frozen and in completely shock.
How had he fallen? He was the strongest and smartest man alive in her eyes. Why did he fail? She would have rather died for him. Did he even die for her in the end?
These thoughts and many more ran through Noelle's head. She began to sniffle and cry, slowly.
"...How?" she managed to squek out after several attempts, which had failed, resulting in incomprehensible sound bites.
It didn't make sense.
LadyDeme-01/13/2017
Delphine offered her a comforting hand, crossing to place it lightly on Noelle's shoulder. She got the feeling Noelle was not asking about her intentions, and so she answered, drawing in a long, full breath. It drew up a mist into her eyes, clouding the tent.
"...He charged the throne, where Gaulter had been waiting for him. He wanted nothing to stop him until he reached you."
A part of her couldn't help but think of how foolish it had been, in the way that things born of love and stubbornness often were. Her sort of foolish. And a part of her realized with a strange, lurching feeling -- When it was me on that side of the news, I was not nearly so surprised. She'd been sad. And she'd been frightened. But it had always been possible, that her father would run to his death.(edited)
Mappy | Best Dog-01/13/2017
Well, she had meant how he could possibly see her again after a fate as cruel as his, but that was helpful to her, too. He did want to help her; it wasn't just some silly mistake. Though it did seem rather reckless, if anything.
The girl continued to cry softly.
"How is it," sniff, "possible for him to see me again?" She hoped she didn't sound selfish, but the cleric had noted there was a way for them to reunite.
LadyDeme-01/13/2017
"Ah, my apologies..." Delphine was a little relieved, somehow. She took a deep breath, and gestured to the staff still held in her other hand, placing it evenly across her two palms.
"This is a staff I found in the castle -- a Rebirth staff, with a power that can, under the right circumstances, push beyond life and death."
She glanced uneasily back up at Noelle, knowing that even if she had this hope, it wasn't something she could just give to someone freely -- it was a very fragile thing, after all, and Delphine's heart was pounding and nervous.
"It's a tempermental magic, and it's been a while... But. The spell still exists in this staff. So I think I have to try. You can blame me if it doesn't work, OK?"
She delivered that last part with a smile, almost a laugh -- it was OK if she was blamed for not being good enough for this, as long as she got a chance to try.
Mappy | Best Dog-01/13/2017
She nodded gently, not able to make out any words.
Noelle smiled, emitting a metaphorical beam of hope. Maybe she could see her father again.
Finn remained mostly silent through this ordeal, but did seem rather sad as well. He would have comforted Noelle, but Delphine seemed to have it covered. Hopefully she wasn't upset at him for not helping her in this difficult scenario.
January 14, 2017
LadyDeme-01/14/2017
Delphine nodded, and took a step back. With a deep breath, she reached out with her heart, through the staff, causing a glow to fill up the room, shimmering through her hair like moonlight.
Theron... Theron, please here this... I said I'd never pull at you again, but... Well. This once... Don't you want to see it again?
She summoned Arcian coast, with its cool grey waves, and the flutter of a pegasi's wings. She summoned the way its deep forests dappled the sunlight, and the music rendered with such heart it made men weep... This was something that was waiting for him, that she bundled into channelling it.
And far, far vaster: There, the light of Noelle's smile like a beacon as Delphine raised her face to see it -- the hope of it, and the way her tears had tangled up her voice. The way the world could bottom out, knowing someone who'd always been a part of you could be gone, just like that. If that light was something he would have wanted to preserve -- because that light was something he had so wanted to preserve he had to hear this.
She pushed as much magic as she could into this reaching farther and farther with her prayer, through space and time -- into a cold reach. She'd made a promise -- even if she'd never said those words, what did that matter? She knew it was an oath. That she'd do all she could, not for him as a ruler, but as a father. Something warm was gliding slowly down Delphine's face as she prayed, from the bottom of her heart.
Please, come see her. Come see that she's OK with your own eyes.(edited)
Mappy | Best Dog-01/14/2017
A great shining light surrounded one of the nearby infirmary beds. It was so bright, it would probably blind a person if they were to look into it. Noelle covered her eyes, unable to take the intense light, and the heat that radiated from it.
From within, a figure began to form, laying on the bed. The spell must have been working. Noelle prays to Olphira, folding her hands in respect.
Dearest, divine mother Olphira... Guide this woman as she attempts to bring back a holy, wonderful man from the hands of death. Allow her to suceed with flying colors and to use her powers to bring us one step closer to bringing peace to Junith.
LadyDeme-01/14/2017
Delphine didn't know how it was going -- only that she felt the spell moving beyond her reach, out into the dark; into a cold place that it'd be hard to reach with one's own hands (or, perhaps, easy: but hard to pull back from). The air in the room was growing warmer, bringing back a summer heat that was getting run-down and ragged, billowing against the tent like a sudden updraft.
Noelle is praying, too. Because she wants to save you. Because you left her without saying farewell.
She held the staff higher, one-handed. Sweat dripped from her brow. With her other hand, she reached out blindly, putting a hand out for Noelle, and finding her clasped hands. So that somewhere, he and the gods could feel what she knew was there, doing the best she could for that chance of reunion. With the warmth from those clasped hands, Delphine felt like she could walk the strange, draining, magical tightrope where she found herself.
Feel that, won't you? How badly she wants to see you. Zyenar, can't you feel how joyful the song of their reunion would be, simply by the beating of our hearts? Olphira, can you look at this world the Empire would make a desert and call it peace? Freya, won't you please hear the heart of a father for his daughter, a daughter for her father? Ether, can you find the compassion to help them through this storm?
I only ask you let this reach him, and let me bring him home...
She cast out more broadly, to gods that were not always her patrons, but who she knew how wonderful their world was. A world that surely must have still wanted this man. She pushed those feelings into her work, as innocent and raw as feelings could be.
Mappy | Best Dog-01/14/2017
The figure, still surrounded in then blinding light, became more apparent. A large, older man was seemingly being built from from the power of the staff, its caster, and presumably, the gods themselves.
Noelle continued her silent reflection of pure hope and love for her father.
Slowly but surely, the figure formed into the loving and protective father, laying there, the same way he was back in the castle. Its a miracle that this process was working, both for Noelle, Finn's army, and the entire continent.
LadyDeme-01/14/2017
She could feel that, like a stirring in the air -- like a sound felt on the eyelashes, or the skin of one's ears. That the number of people in the room was slowly rising, that at the end of that cold darkness was something warm, reaching out for this place, and this time, and this moment. And she drew that, by turns and with her own breath, closer. The staff's magic was a burning in her hands.
And she kept up her prayer. Had her eyes been open, the world would have been too clouded by tears to see. She clamped them harder shut.
Come, try to remember... What sort of things you did for her, as her father? Were you afraid of what sort of man she'd take an interest in? You must have wanted to see her grow into a wonderful would-be archduchess. You must have been so happy with how far she's come. Did you hold her hand, and wonder every time -- how it just seemed to get bigger, how she just seemed to get bigger, every time you looked?
If this was a miracle, she was glad to be there in it. Not as a thing to be preserved, not as a moment of history (and, to pull this off, it'd be those, and she'd keep them as best she knew how), but as someone who could do something for somebody else. She'd keep it up until it was done, no matter what.
It was just a jewel on a stick, if you didn't understand it -- that its light was the light of a loving heart in a black world, and its magic the magic of an earnest prayer.
Mappy | Best Dog-01/14/2017
Slowly, the blinding light began to fade away, revealing the man, resting on the bed, eyes closed and sound asleep. It was apparent that he was fully breathing, however. He did, though, seem to be in a decent condition overall.
Noelle bowed, finishing her prayer, and ran over to the side of the bed, "Father!" she cried. She cried in tears of joy.
Finn faintly smiled, and opened his own eyes, closing a prayer of his own.
LadyDeme-01/14/2017
Delphine's breath came out in an uneven sway as the world drifted gently from side to side; she felt like nothing so much as a wrung-out washcloth, compressed and drained and tired. But she could see the rise and fall of Theron's chest, and a weary smile spread over her face. Delphine stumbled backwards, wiping tears from her face as she did.
"Take that... Ultimate Inevitability of... An otherwise uncertain cosmos..." She whispered low enough that only she and the universe could hear it. "...And...Thank you."
She was as lost in a wave of relief as she had been in the wave of exhaustion, the useless, empty staff dropping out of her hands, her hands slipping downward through empty space. The world dimmed around the image of daughter crying tears of joy over her father... And then faded to a contented darkness, as she fell down to the ground in a heap.(edited)
Mappy | Best Dog-01/14/2017
Noelle, in complete shock, ran over to her father's side, making sure he was alright.
Finn, on the other hand, needed to make sure Delphine was alright, and called for another healer.
But in the end, Theron lives.
===End RP===
