Following the Golden Thread

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Log Info

  • Title: Following the Golden Thread
  • Place: Am'shere
  • Summary: Harkashan and Rune return to the cave where it all began.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=    The Players    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Harkashan          6'5"     276 Lb     Sith-Makar        Male      
    Sith with red and black scales bearing gleaming lavastone spread across    
Rune               5'0"     100 Lb     Half-Elf          Female    
    Lithe woman in dark leathers w/black hair & blue eyes                                              
Slixvah            5'8"     130 Lb     Eaglefolk         Female    
    A rust red and white Eglarin covered in ribbons and shawls.    
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  As the GM  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Riptide                      Lb                                    
    Blurb. Blurble. Blurghughghuggh.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
Amshere.

This is possibly the worst time to be in the jungle for those who are soft of skin. The days are the worst of the year, hot and humid in ways that Alexandria could never compare. Yet there's a mission that brings three travelers into the jungle and tracing back familiar steps, guided by the words of one Kiira Theran: "Go back to the cave. Even if you can't see it, it's there. Tell it you're ready to finish the story. Go from there. I'll explain more when you're there."

It takes some time to arrive at the cave... Or where Harkashan and Rune have said it is before. Yet seemingly true to Kiira's words: it appears to not be there.

Harkashan still remembers it. The cave. Though his memory had gone rather /strangely/ fuzzy in response to the first initial visit, the second approach had been a clear event for him. The strange warp in the air. The strange way the wall had looked, and the symbols of the golden hourglass.

And what's more, a particular friendly butterfly who had led him away. No doubt in order to protect the fool if a Sith-makar.

Bringing a basket of coneflowers, as well as a little jar of nectar retrieved from the lovely flower, the Sith-makar approaches in full armor. Ready to finish this story. To come to understand what they are missing about all of this.

Answers.

Looking around for any signs of that butterfly. 

<OOC> Slixvah is going to put hex: ward on rune at the start of the trip
<OOC> Slixvah says, "+2 deflection to AC and +2 resist to saves until hit/fail save. Slix knows when it pops"

With the heat being omnipresent throughout Am'shere, Rune is wearing a bit less than her usual armorments. Instead of the leathers and padding, she wears only her sleeveless mithral shirt, which leaves much of her tattooed arm on display, but it also helps with the temperature. In this case, she follows behind Harkashan, trusting that his recollection of the place is far more recent than her own.

Rune is anxious. Who wouldn't be in her situation? There are so many questions that they have unanswered, and so many answers that could fundamentally change her understanding of much of her adult life.

"This... we have to be close, right?" She finally speaks up, her voice still kept soft as her eyes look around, trying to connect this place to the cave in her memories. Rune's hand goes to the necklace at her throat, thumb touching over it with that same nervous energy. 

GAME: Harkashan casts Magic Vestment. Caster Level: 8 DC: 18

And doubly so that are covered in a down of rust red and white feathers. In a rare display, Slixvah has removed most of her robes, opting for just a plain brown one tied around her waist and a vague, thin vest covering her torso hanging open. It's clear she is a very skinny egalrin with all the glitz and glamor put away (except those ribbons, those /stay/).

Slixvah doesn't complain about the heat, but she's panting and gulping quite a bit of water as they go. A while back, the witch gave the half-sil a little nudge of luck just in case things go awry.

She looks about, fanning her flimsy vest with her feathers puffed out to vent. This whole ensemble with threads and fate fascinated her. And, well, she had to help a friend. At least this time she brushed up on fey diplomacy just in case. Last time was embarrassing. 

GAME: Slixvah rolls alertness: aliased to perception+2: (18)+13+2: 33
GAME: Rune rolls perception: (3)+18: 21
GAME: Harkashan rolls Perception: (19)+6: 25

There's something about the place, this area where Harkashan has been before, where Rune has been before. It feels familiar and yet something's not _right_. Something doesn't match up with the memories, even though Harkashan can remember how it looked from that clearer second memory. It is like the place itself is lying to everyone, even Slixvah: "I do not exist."

But then there comes something beautiful. Something that comes down from the trees and almost lazily flaps down. A little blue-winged butterfly. Slixvah spots it first, then Harkashan does. It takes a moment before it lands on Rune's shoulder.

"Hello again," comes the voice of a woman from the butterfly.

Harkashan, of course, is not particularly bothered by the heat. To make things worse, he's radiating heat constantly. He's fantastic during the winter. During the summer... maybe a little bit less so for the softskins and the cold-skinned ones.

"We should be close." Harkashan answers Rune with a sense of confidence in his voice. He's familiar with his homeland. Perhaps not as much as his Hunter Caste Kin, but he's still quite familiar.

He touches the back of his hand to hers. Looking into her eyes for a moment. "Let's do this." The big Sith-makar rumbles to her, as the gleaming sun reflects off of those intricate patterns across his body. Beautiful flowing bits of orange and yellows and blacks amidst his red scales.

"And this time I will venture not to make foolish diplomatic faux-pas." He remarks. "Since we do not have someone looking out for us that can keep this fool in check." 'little lava' rumbles.

Only for the butterfly to appear. Flitting about near Slix and himself, before landing upon Rune's shoulder. "We meet once more." Harkashan rumbles pleasantly. "Yet, we still do not know what to call you." He remarks.

"I am Deathsinger Harkashan." He introduces himself. 

GAME: Harkashan rolls Diplomacy: (18)+14: 32

Rune is clearly distracted. By this place, by her own thoughts, by her memories that threaten to rise up more powerfully in times like these. It's enough that she is clearly not paying as much attention to her surroundings as she might under normal circumstances. It's the actions of someone who may very well be one step into another time and place.

Then, Harkashan's hand touches hers and Rune looks up, blinking away whatever had previously flitted through her mind. "Right. Right." The word is repeated, as if she were trying to convince herself of this fact.

Rune takes a step forward, about to approach what looks to be a rock wall, when she feels that feather-light impression on her shoulder and hears the voice beside her. She blinks, looking momentarily surprised. "Oh. Hello again, my friend. It's been a while." Harkashan had mentioned the butterfly to her, but Rune had not seen this particular Fey being in quite some time.

As they look about, Slix scratches her head before wafting a hand about idly in the air, as if she was sampling something. She wasn't too unfamiliar with odd sensations due to her nature. But this was... different.

She watches Harkashan for a moment, watching the shimmer with interest before giving an open beak grin. "I brushed up on shtuff this time, ain't gonna make that little goof again!" she holds a finger up in elucidation. "Still sorry 'bout that!"

She glances up. Perks. And gives a little wave, seeing as it was speaking primarily to the other two. 

GAME: Slixvah rolls knowledge/the planes: (1)+9: 10 (EPIC FAIL)
<OOC> Harkashan says, "Oh! Harkashan will give you a free reroll on that, Slixvah." (Tier 3 Racial Memory Aspect)
<OOC> Harkashan says, "Reroll with a +5 bonus~"
GAME: Slixvah rolls knowledge/the planes+5: (5)+9+5: 19

"You come bearing gifts, Deathsinger," the butterfly says, although there's not a mouth on the little thing to _say_ these things--it is a voice that comes from it like magic, and it probably is. "Yet I recall that the last time we met, I said I would ask for a favor in return. One that would not be unkind. And..."

The wings on the butterfly flap a few times. "You are here. Near the cave, yet not near the cave where we first met. Life repeats."

The last phrase lingers in the air for a moment before the butterfly responds, "It would be irresponsible of me to give a form of address so near this cave. Call me Blue."

Another flap of wings, and then Blue adds, "I suppose this is another part of her story, or your story. That I am here at all, that is. I will have to ask you a favor later on, then--as I suspect if I do not aid you, you might not leave the cave alive. Do you consent to this?"

For a moment, his Skysister looks... ponderous. The witchy one is difficult to read sometimes. But for a moment, Harkashan lays his hand on her. Gripping her arm firm in a friendly manner. "Are you alright, Skysister?" He inquires with Slixvah...

In that moment, a flash. Red. Fire. Magma. Flowing. Volcano. Fire. Blood. Scales...

Clarity. Memories of the world, flowing from Harkashan into Slixvah.

"Indeed I do." He then answers the butterfly. "And I have not forgotten the favor I still owe you." The Sith-makar answers. Before bowing his head. "Very well. Blue for now, then." He croons pleasantly, and offers the gifts to her. "I consent to this. Such is why I brought you this gift. As I understood when you led me away, that there was danger beyond this fade."

Despite how far Rune has traveled on this journey, there are moments like this which have some part of her second-guessing if this is the right path. Her brows furrow and her lips draw together, taking a deep breath that seems to end in a look that is one part resignation and one part determination. "There are certain things I would like not to repeat, but... sometimes you just have to follow the path laid before you."

There is an inclination of Rune's head at the introduction, for what it is, acknowledging the name that is not a name. Rune had given one of her own to the Fey creatures of Am'shere. For now, she is simply quiet, weighing the very real danger she may be putting both Harkashan and Slixvah in by following her this far.

"I consent to your aid. If nothing else, I know little of the places beyond this realm, so whatever guidance you can offer, I'll accept." However, Rune still looks unsettled, her hand wrapped around the necklace, uncertainty in her blue eyes. 

GAME: Slixvah rolls sense motive+2: (11)+5+2: 18

Slixvah isn't particularly sure what she's needing to do here. Last time she opened her beak, it was harmful. So this time she opts to flip through her mind of whatever this fey butterfly could be.

It ends up with her staring with a hand scratching the side of her beak, sticking out like an awkward third wheel.

And then Harkashan gives her a hand. Her eyes widen, the sky blues losing focus as she stills. She felt hot. Like she downed a whole pot of coffee, but far, far more intense.

Intellect snaps forth as her eyes dart about at something. Parsing. Calculating. "... hot," she blurts out, her gaze landing on Harkashan.

Blink blink. "... well, you too," she grins weakly before rubbing the side of her head. "... this place is... givin' me weird memories. Cute lil' Blue over there is bigger than they let on."

She gives 'little lava' a pat on the shoulder before turning back to Blue. Slix is silent. Reading the butterfly. "I'll consent," she says after a pregnant pause.

There's an almost sad little hum from Blue. "People don't want to repeat things, no," she says to Rune, "but sometimes... they have to. Sometimes it's something bad for the sake of something good. Sometimes it's a happier thing altogether. A child grows up to follow in the mother's craft and footsteps."

Then Blue takes flight from Rune's shoulder. She lands not a far distance, in front of what looks like the side of a thick wall of stone embedded into the earth. Harkashan and Rune can both remember--this is where the mouth of the cave should be. But there isn't.

"It's here," Blue says. Her wings flap two times more. "You were told what to say to the cave, yes?" The answer appears to be directed to everyone. 

GAME: Rune rolls bluff: (3)+19: 22
GAME: Harkashan rolls Sense Motive: (9)+16: 25

"We met Blue in another form once, but I can't say for certain that is their real form or not, either." Rune explains, looking over towards Slixvah. "They got us out of a bad situation with the a darker Fey being who wanted to turn us into snack food." She doesn't speak the name of the individual, as names have power. It wouldn't surprise her if certain Fey could sense when their name is spoken.

Watching the butterfly take flight, Rune responds in a softer voice, "In some ways yes, someways no. I've never been the storyteller my mother was. But... I did follow her footsteps, at least this far."

As the butterfly indicates the point that Rune had already been walking towards, she nods her head and steps forward, taking a breath, straightening her shoulders. Rune's voice speaks with more confidence than she feels. "I'm ready..." And then that confidence seems to break slightly. "I'm ready to finish the story."

"Hrrrm." Harkashan had seen the little butterfly in its elfin form once already. He knows she is no doubt bigger than she indicates. But since she opposes the Corpse Eater, and protects people from them, he does not doubt that she is powerful as well in some way. One does not just teleport without some might and magic at one's fingertips.

He then winks at Slixvah at the comment on being hot, taking it in stride. "This place is... indeed strange. It does not wish to be perceived." He rumbles.

The Sith-makar then readies himself as Rune steels herself for what is to come. Stepping very purposefully next to Rune. Showing he will stand by her side. As her shield, and as her friend. Staring straight forward...

At a wall.

Slixvah nods towards Rune as she shakes off the last vestiges of the strange memories off. Weird visuals and happenstances were common for her line of work, but this was... obtuse.

Let's file this away for later. "Wrong kind of snack, it seems," she quips, trying to lighten the mood. "But, yeah, m'mojo's all wonk here. Feels off. If it ain't wanna be seen, I sure ain't seein' it."

She follows after Harkashan, stepping to Rune's opposite side as she lays a hand on her shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

At least it's a nice wall. 

GAME: Harkashan casts Comprehend Languages. Caster Level: 8 DC: 16
GAME: Harkashan casts Light. Caster Level: 8 DC: 15
GAME: Slixvah used a Wand of Mage Armor.
GAME: Slixvah casts Light. Caster Level: 7 DC: 15
GAME: Harkashan casts Shield Other. Caster Level: 8 DC: 17
GAME: Harkashan casts Status. Caster Level: 8 DC: 17
GAME: Slixvah casts S2: Owl's Wisdom. Caster Level: 7 DC: 17
GAME: Slixvah casts Heroism. Caster Level: 7 DC: 18
GAME: Slixvah casts See Invisibility. Caster Level: 7 DC: 17
GAME: Slixvah casts Comprehend Languages. Caster Level: 7 DC: 16

At Rune's words, it seems for all the world like a veil's fallen away from the stone. There's a gaping hole. It goes into the darkness that no eyes can penetrate on their own. "I will follow you in," Blue says. "Go on."

And so the group enters. Going into the darkness and walking. It doesn't take long to realize that the mouth of the cave appears to have vanished behind the group of travelers--presumably whatever veil dropped upon the correct words being said has gone back up, leaving the travelers alone in the vague path of darkness. Somehow one can sense the walls, sense the path--

And after some time of walking, there's light again. It comes in the form of a passage of shards of crystal that line the walls in this cavernous structure. Slixvah, Harkashan, and Rune all in duplicate as they walk and travel, following along with them.

Yet Blue doesn't appear in the crystal at all. She flaps through the passageways.

"This cave is not of the mortal plane nor of Faerie," she comments. "It feels far too different here. Closer to the home of my people, but... It feels suffocating in some sense."

Blue eventually takes point on Rune's shoulder. "I don't like this place," she says quietly. "It feels... Sad." 

GAME: Harkashan rolls Survival: (1)+6: 7 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Slixvah rolls knowledge/the planes: (2)+9: 11
GAME: Rune rolls knowledge/the planes: (2)+4: 6
GAME: Harkashan rolls Knowledge/The Planes+Ancestor+OtherworldlyKnowledge: aliased to Knowledge/The Planes+2+2: (11)+4+2+2: 19

Harkashan prepares a few spells, and touches that stone between his horns. Light burning from it while outside. But once they step in... darkness.

The light not reaching through, he instead touches his hand to Rune's. Taking hold of hers as well as Slixvah's if she'll allow it. Though he loses his orientation rather quickly!

Stepping forward, letting Rune lead the motions, driving through the darkness by walking. No walls come too close. Glancing behind them for a moment. Nothing but darkness. Sensing onwards. Following the path that does not wish to be found...

Then, light. Shards of crystal. A cavern.

He releases the one(s) he's holding onto, and is... stunned. This is utterly different from what he recalls. Had the cave been replaced? Or... had his memories been made anew by something when they last visited this place?

He takes a moment to blink and recover, noting the duplicates. Then the words from Blue. A flame at the back of his mind. This heat. A radiance from those markings across his body. The lava seeming to shift across his scales. He can't grasp at the answer. It slips from between his fingers. All that comes to mind is... "We are in... Tlahko. A Between." He rumbles with his brow furrowed.

For all that Rune has seen wonders of magic in recent months, things like this still amaze her. Her eyes go briefly wide as the void of darkness opens before them, leading onward to whatever path may await them. "Right. Bravely forward." It's a mantra, words from her mother that she's held on to for all these many years. There is a glance to the right, then to the left, acknowledging both of her companions before she steps into the pressing darkness.

When light returns, it almost feels like her eyes adjusting rather than light at first, followed by the shards of crystal along the walls. Her brows furrow looking at them with an unfamiliarity that suggests that they are an entirely new sight to Rune. "One of these days, I'll need to find out more about other worlds from Cor'lana. My knowledge is sorely lacking." That, and something about this place seems to make it hard for her to think.

Harkashan's statement about where they are has Rune turn, looking towards him with some confusion. "Tlahko? I... don't understand." There are a lot of things she doesn't understand. Magics or religious terms that are beyond what she learned in her knowledge as a emissary under her father's tutilage.

Her footsteps slow a bit, likely cautious given the strange circumstances. "Sad..." She repeats this, then shakes her head. A gesture not of denial but simply to clear her head.

Slixvah goes about a number of incantations right before they step in.

"Ehws em het ithlg." A pale light illuminates from a feather that sticks up on her head. "Pone uryo hridt eey." A cyan outline of a vertical eye opens on her forehead. "Htsi si uroy torys." A touch to Rune's arm, and the story writes itself. "Etl em erha. Etl em ees." Two more glimmers, her eyes glowing.

And she steps in. Her light winks out. Eyes dim. "... somethin's blockin' sight," she mutters. She perks as she feels a warm hand slide into hers, her thankful for the guidance as she steps closer.

Her attention draws upwards at the crystal lining the walls. The fractalness of it evoking an touch of empathy. Oh. Hey, it us! Where's Blue though?

Hmm. Maybe Blue ain't supposed to be part of this place. Or... "Ain't part of the story," she murmurs to herself. "Fitting, Hark."

"I can give ya a little fun run down later, Ruru. After all this is said and done," she offers, following the slow gait down the tunnel with her two friends.

It doesn't take long before the group enters something new. A chamber, something open and wide and a welcome relief in that it's a reprieve from the crystalline passages that seem, somehow, like you've walked through them forever even though it surely hasn't been that long at all. The chamber is lined with more crystals, yet these show... strangely enough... none of the travelers. No Slixvah, no Harkashan, no Blue.

No Rune.

But at the end of the chamber there is suddenly something in one shard of crystal on the wall. It's a set of markings decorating an arm. The person it's attached to turns around and it's someone that Rune hasn't seen in a long, long time. Yet cruelly, she is within the crystal, kept from Rune by the nature of her prison.

"I'm so glad you came," Kiira Theran says. One might expect a teary-eyed reunion from Kiira. But her voice is oddly resolute, although there's an undeniable warmth and affection there. "I owe you a long explanation. All of you."

"A place between places. It is like, that gap between buildings that are built against-another. The infinite white border of a spiral's black lines. Like what happens to the contents of one's tail-bag or sack if you put it on the ground. It is bad luck." He answers Rune with words that, the way he says them, sound like they may come from a place of supersticion.

They proceed onwards. Firmness in Harkashan's eyes. Watching, leery of what might happen. The sense of sadness making him tense.

Onwards, into that chamber. Open and wide and welcoming almost. Yet, they reflect in none of them. Instead, there's the sight of someone. For a moment, he mistakes the marked arm as Rune's. But instead...

"It's..." He begins, but doesn't finish that sentence. Looking to Rune instead. Reading her emotions in that moment, before looking back to Kiira Theran. An explaination is offered. So he will accept this in silence.

"I'm... still not sure I follow, but I think I get the jist of it." From what little Rune is able to gather, this seems like some sort of between place. A place which may very well not be seen in any sort of positive light by those who have experienced it or know of it. Yet, to Rune, this is not a place without beauty in the quiet silence of the crystals and the dim light.

However, the sight that awaits her is one that stops Rune in her tracks momentarily. None among those who know her well have ever met Kiira Theran. Besides the tattoo, the two women do not have very many smilarities at first glance. Kiira's hair is red, her skin tanned tone of one who likely lived on the planes or near the ocean where sunlight is more previlant. Even their eyes are different, but the likeness is there in more subtle ways. Her build, the way she carries herself, and a subtle gentle quality of the voice that the two share.

"Mom..."

Is the word that comes from Rune's lips, but something about the experience leaves her uncertain. There is no tearful response, but Rune steps forward none the less. The slight uptick of her breathing and the way her posture changes, as if she were remembering some younger version of herself in that moment.

Rune's hand comes up to her necklace, "I think... there's a lot I need to understand."

"Aye. Harkie speaks true. Ain't ever true border, always somethin' in the inbetweens," the egalrin adds on. But Slixvah's eyes go wide as they enter the new, crystalline chamber. "Wow..." she whispers, walking even slower, head craning about and taking in all the things. But now they harbor no reflections.

She squints. Fingers drumming her side and taking mental notes. New words get her attention to fly back and- Slix blinks. Glances to Rune. Kiira. Rune. Kiira. Looking for similarities, more mental notes.

Her throat tightens with an empathetic emotion as she gives a quiet nod, unable to voice a need for explanation. Hitting a little close to home.

There's a sad smile on Kiira's face. "In one sense," she replies, "but yes, my daughter. Kiira's daughter. So an explanation I will give."

She clears her throat. And her voice rings out in the chamber. "A long time ago and not long ago--"

Another Kiira appears, off to the group's right, in another crystal shard. She speaks. "I met a woman here in the jungles with one of my traveling companions by my side, a sith-makar guide I had hired to guide us. She was inconsolable. Tears running down her pale face. She looked at me and she begged me to come home as though she knew me, and I--I felt compelled to answer. I said yes and I let her take me. It was here into this cave, and she took care of me. She gave me beautiful things and told me beautiful stories. She cared deeply for me, and I cared for her--but not to the measure and kind that she did for me."

Then another Kiira, off to the left, in another crystal shard. She speaks."She told me then that something was wrong. That she knew that she was wrong. That she could not live her life without 'her' but had tried to fill the void with the presence of someone else. And I learned that she lost someone she loved so deeply, someone who had gifted her all of those beautiful things and beautiful stories. Her wife, her soulmate. They were supposed to be bound together, yet... she was lost, far beyond her reach, far beyond anyone's."

Another Kiira appears, this time to the left of the first Kiira. She speaks. "If there is one thing I have learned--about stories. Sometimes they are not so linear. Sometimes they don't go neatly from one place to another. Sometimes they don't follow the same perspective. Sometimes they shift around a different cast of characters, and by the end of the story, it's a different collection of people entirely."

Another Kiira appears, this time to the right of the first Kiira. She speaks. "And sometimes stories move around time, and they move around space, and so, looking for someone that the crying woman lost, I believe I've finally found her. But I've--gotten too far into the loop. I can't break out because there's no entrance and there is no ending. That's the problem with a time travel story."

And then there's a Kiira from behind the group altogether. The entrance is gone. When did it disappear? She speaks.

"Except one. She did find an ending. She found a way out. I found a way out. And it's with you. Your mother passed away--but I am alive and I am dead. I apologize if it doesn't make any sense. But you are the key to the ending. An ending where everyone's happy--it's called a golden ending. A golden fate."

Harkashan has... questions. Trying to make sense of what is being said.

"So you are... stuck within a loop of people looking to replace their long lost soulmates. Losing eachother each time, only to try and replace that void with another?" He tries to grasp at straws.

The idea of time and stories looping is difficult for a Sith-makar, who live so much in the now looking onwards, and do not generally look back into the past.

A golden ending. A golden fate.

One can see the two Sith-makar braincells working hard as his brow creases.

The fact that this woman, who wears her mother's face and sounds so much like the woman who had been her rock and her comfort, speaks as if she were two beings, that leaves Rune with brows furrowed and a deeper uncertainty there in her features.

And yet, her mother's stories were always the thing that had brought her comfort. So even if this is not one of the songs that her Kiira would sing at town gatherings, or one of the bedtime stories she would tell in the late hours of night, Rune still listens with that same, rapt attention.

There were stories her mother had told that echo hauntingly to some of what is said. Stories of love that are far beyond the scope of what she knew of the relationship between Kiira and her father. But that is as far as Rune's mind is able to follow the tangled threads. The idea of time looping back on itself, of different casts of characters playing out the same story.

"Who are you?" She asks, as it is the only question that seems to come to her lips. This woman who is part her mother but part something else entirely. "What exactly do you believe I am meant to do?"

Slixvah drifts her attention to the Kiiras that elucidate the tale. Her gaze softening. What a tale. To give all so much that the inbetween even makes it a void of reality forever and for never.

She softly smiles. "It's like I was sayin' befo', Ruru. Stories twist and bend and wind. Th' path ain't straight."

She turns to the Kiira behind them. The entrance is gone. Her brows furrow, then... -click. "We saw our reflections in the crystals in the tunnel. Because we've done this before. But we don't see ourselves here because we've not done this, standing here, before. Your momma got out, had you, and is back in this stuck state. Time passed, and we're here," she elaborates her theory. "Somethin' like that, I think, Harkie."

The first Kiira speaks. "I--me--one possible me tried a new avenue. Instead of dying by adventuring, she fell in love, the kind that the Golden Fate wanted from me but could not receive. Your mother settled down. She had you, and she told you stories, because..."

She shakes her head and she sighs, and all of the other Kiiras disappear. Yet they are still here. "The reason this is happening because I wanted to help her. I wanted to save her. I wanted the Golden Fate to have her golden ending. I wanted her to have her hope, her love, her warmth, her reason to live again. I couldn't love her but I wanted her to be loved. I couldn't walk away from this sad story."

Kiira looks at Slixvah. "It's something like that," she says. "I exist in infinite possibilities--except for one where I succeed in doing anything other than finding the Golden Fate's bride. I cannot bring her back. It's the cruelest stroke of destiny. In the times I have tried--it's become apparent that whoever cursed the Golden Fate's wife knew that I would come to save her, and so put into the curse that I would fail."

She smiles warmly at Rune. "But you. You are not me. You are my daughter. And that's how you've survived this long, and that's how you left home, and that's how you found Harkashan--who is kin to the guide that took me into the jungle. You exist outside of what I have become--you live on your own and you stand on your own two feet. You are not living in my shadow. If I take you to the place where the Golden Fate is imprisoned--you can free her, and you can put an end to it. You, your cihuaa, your friends. And I can finally rest."

Kiira lets out a long noise like a sigh. "Because that's the way my life should end, has ended, and will end. As your mother. Having found love with your father. I want to experience it all myself."

"As do I," come the voices of all the Kiiras in the room, but in a whisper. Because to say it any louder and it might be a scream, because it's a choir of whispers.

Things seem to begin to click for Rune somewhere within this expansion of the story, and as she stands there, still trying to hold onto that strength that has brought her this far, a single series of tears starts to trail down her cheek. Though she had known all this time that her mother was dead, this is the confirmation of it. These other echoes, these possibilities still remain, but they are not the same.

Her hand grips the necklace at her throat more tightly, giving a quick nod of her head. "I think I understand." There is a pause before she speaks in a quieter tone, "If it's any solace... she was happy. Even with all my father's faults, she loved him, and me." In that moment, Rune truly feels like she is back in that dark room, saying her goodbyes.

She clears her throat, wiping at her eyes, Rune is clearly struggling in that moment, but she sniffles once before whispering, "Tell me what I have to do."

The words are almost a plea. A plea from a girl who had always been a part of different worlds but only ever felt at home with a woman who is now dead and gone. A woman who each of these whispers is an echo of and that seems to strike to the core of her heart, causing a deep ache there.

"I'll do whatever I can to help... just show me the way."

Harkashan remains there, listening quietly. "So that is why... your voice is not truly being sung by the Deathsinger's Great Hymn." He remarks with a sorrowful tone. Not yet. His tail sweeps a bit, curling around near Rune's feet. A hand reaching up, touching against her shoulder. His head lowering a bit.

Kin to the guide. A repeated story, yet not a repeated story.

His claw grips a bit more firmly onto Rune's shoulder, before he draws her closer for a moment. Against his side. Letting her know that he's here. He's here for her.

Cihua.

How often has that word been repeated so recently regarding the two of them. A word that so oft is but a whisper amongst his people. "She won't do it alone." He then rumbles to the reflections of Kiira.

There's a tremble in his voice, but he holds himself together. For Leirune's sake.

Slixvah shifts to her back foot, her wings ruffling and refolding as she looks a little proud of her deduction. But still, there was a Golden Ending to solve. Her feathered brows rise as its revealed to be Hark's kin that lead her mother to this cave. The cast changes.

The feathers on the back of her neck raise as the chorus of Kiiras echo similar desire. "... because freeing them will make these incarnations experience all the things they've been trapped eternally for..." she whispers to herself.

The knot in her throat tightens up once more, hearing Rune's words. Kiira said it herself. The cast changes. The story wends. Yet, here Slix was.

A grey hand rests on an unoccupied half-sil shoulder. "N-No. She won' be 'lone," she chitters through a taut voice, eyes wet.

"You will need to prepare," comes the response from Kiira, her eyes as tender as her voice as she looks at the woman who was, is, and will be her daughter. "Leave this place. Bring those who you know will aid you and will never abandon you even into certain danger. I believe you can and will end this story--but I cannot promise it will be without trial."

She nods then, just once, to Harkashan and Slixvah. "Should you count yourselves among them--"

And then she stops, as her eyes catch something in the room. The group of adventurers see it quickly after, too. Golden threads within the cave. The light fading. Darkness beginning to fall. Kiira looks panicked now, her hand rising up in her crystal shard like she might try and fruitlessly hold her hand out to Rune to catch her, to pully her away. "Quickly--"

"This is why I came with you," Blue, the fey butterfly resting on Rune's shoulder, says. "Take hands. I will get us out!"

Without even a moment's hesitation. Like the question was asked before it fully register, Harkashan firmly remarks; "I stand by her, always." With a heavy rumble of his voice, brow strong, chest up. "Your daughter is safe at my side." Even if...

When the golden threads shift, darkness begins to fall, Harkashan rumbles; "Do not fear." Before looking to Blue already. And at the request to take hands, he takes Rune and Slixvah's hand while looking to the Kiira that might be behind Rune, as well as Rune at the same time.

"We will be back. Soon." The support from both Harkashan and Slixvah helps to steel some of Rune's resolve, bolstering her strength to follow this path. Because even in the sadness, there is the joy of many long years of love, family, and stories, that all live on in her. They live on in those threads of Kiira that became Rune.

"I will." Trials had never scared away Rune. She had faced them time and again on this journey. These ones, at least, she knows she will not have to face alone.

And then, there is that subtle shift as if something else where taking control. Those golden threads, the panicked look from her mother. Instinct has her reaching out, but Harkashan catches her other hand before she can go far. He still has the sense of mind to focus on the bigger picture in that moment.

"Of course," Slixvah agrees with a firm nod without a shred of a wait. Luck and fate were strings she was used to dealing with, and she was never to never deny a friend.

But all attention shifts to those golden threads. "... oh butter my biscuit, dunk it in gravy and toss it on a plate, we gettin' served," she rambles nervously. "Kick it, Blue!"

She grabs Harkashan's hand back as he takes them, her casting a look over to the crystal. "We got this, hon!" she calls back to Kiira as she tries to take Rune's hand to complete the circle.

Hands join together. Promises said aloud. There's a sense that the words they speak, much like their actions, are binding, but unlike what Rune's mother has gotten herself into--these promises will be fulfilled by their own actions and measures. In the darkness that's almost completely fallen, Kiira's face in the crystal shard that contains her in the wall is all that can be seen, faintly, as she says, "I know." With all the warmth that a mother has. To everything.

The butterfly does her work. The world's washed in vibrant blue magic, all sense of being and standing's pulled out from under the feet--and then suddenly it's there again. But not back in the jungles of Am'shere.

It's in a field outside of Alexandria. It feels like a world away from where the groups was before, because--it is. Back to the Alexandrian type of summer. Has any time passed at all?

The blue butterfly is nowhere to be seen. This time, she didn't stop to say goodbye. Maybe it's because she knows the group has other things on their mind.

Because it's time to prepare for the golden ending.

OOC

Music: <OOC> Riptide says, "Oh, and some appropriate music for this moment :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la_b5AUmJMs"

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