[ can you imagine if i let you get slorped by slime.
harley, you feel it first. you feel this warm sensation in your chest - it's unfamiliar, but it's not bad, and shouxue, yours comes too. above your heads, in the darkness... light breaks through the clouds. it's dappling and thin, but it's there.
... that's right, isn't it?
shouxue, harley. why would you want to kill each other? this is some kind of illusion. it's some kind of falsehood, something twisted and warped by the darkness that you found yourselves in. harley, with your refusal, whatever it was that trapped you in this place breaks.
you find yourselves enveloped in something - feathers. manyue curls up against shouxue's neck, burrowing in close, and the soft, downy feeling of being held, protected, and safe has you both closing your eyes...
--
... and when you wake again, you find yourselves in a temple. it's dark, pitch dark, but you immediately feel like you're safe, at least for now. i won't spare you too many details here, but the air is thick and warm and humid, and you can hear nightbirds and the ocean in the distance. it's silent and dark, but no longer oppressive.
but more importantly, you can see a short set of stairs just up ahead, lit only by the glow of your lanterns, and something very, very important that lies beyond them.
you know you need to move. perhaps you want to apologize to each other, now that the fog of horror and paranoia has lifted.
[ she's alive. why? what is this? why did it have to go like this?
she should apologize. it would be the right thing to do, the better thing to do, but she is too injured and exhausted, physically and existentially. blood drips from the wound in the hand, and she hobbles on a broken foot. they have to move, don't they?
she doesn't need an apology either. ]
... Let's go.
[ she checks to see if manyue is with her before she limps her way up, trying not to hiss every time she takes a step. ]
[she wishes she could say all's well that ends well, but... it's not over yet, is it?
wiping the blood from her face with the back of her hand, the only thing keeping her from collapsing again is her sheer bullheaded stubbornness. the arrow is still sticking out of her face. there are two more embedded in her leg as well. blood trails down her face and leg in rivulets. but even like this, she still holds out an arm to shouxue.]
... Come on, kid. We have two legs between the two of us.
[ yeah no guess what you don't get to die yet! no rest for you guys. this is true octopath actually, where the mobile game tells you to go fuck yourself when you're crawling through a dungeon dying.
at any rate. the girls hobble their way upstairs, slowly but surely. at the top of the stairs is an octagonal dais, and nestled in that is a large metal torch structure. it's not so tall that you couldn't see over the top of it, but it is big, and you get the sense that it's important. it even feels a little familiar.
the warmth in your chest flares. there's kindling at the bottom of the torch, but the light has been snuffed out.
you have your lanterns, and you have each other. you both feel very, very warm. ]
[ the girls toss their lanterns in to light the kindling.
it feels like there should be more fanfare - but there's not, not really. the fire in the lantern that you kept alive all this time touches the kindling, and something sparks. it takes a few tries. once. twice, three times.
but on the third, the flame catches, and it begins to light - blazing a pure, bright blue and beautiful. shouxue, for a moment your form flickers like it too, in harley's eyes, but you don't really notice it; instead, the flame takes your attention entirely.
this, you realize with a start, is the sacred flame. it's one of four parts of it, sent off to the different corners of the continents to protect the people who live in solistia. it's the basis of the faith of the order of the sacred flame, but it is the protection of the entire continent. it is its hearth, its home. it is the dawn.
("And the people of Solistia may live in its light, warmth, and protection, evermore." says a soft, familiar male voice.)
the sacred flame relights. and with it, the two of you are swept up in its warmth, protected like being lifted on the wings of an angel. you close your eyes into the blue, blue moment, and you let the sacred flame guide you...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
she just. takes in a deep breath, heaving.
and rolls over to lay on the ground, too.]
no subject
harley, you feel it first. you feel this warm sensation in your chest - it's unfamiliar, but it's not bad, and shouxue, yours comes too. above your heads, in the darkness... light breaks through the clouds. it's dappling and thin, but it's there.
... that's right, isn't it?
shouxue, harley. why would you want to kill each other? this is some kind of illusion. it's some kind of falsehood, something twisted and warped by the darkness that you found yourselves in. harley, with your refusal, whatever it was that trapped you in this place breaks.
you find yourselves enveloped in something - feathers. manyue curls up against shouxue's neck, burrowing in close, and the soft, downy feeling of being held, protected, and safe has you both closing your eyes...
--
... and when you wake again, you find yourselves in a temple. it's dark, pitch dark, but you immediately feel like you're safe, at least for now. i won't spare you too many details here, but the air is thick and warm and humid, and you can hear nightbirds and the ocean in the distance. it's silent and dark, but no longer oppressive.
but more importantly, you can see a short set of stairs just up ahead, lit only by the glow of your lanterns, and something very, very important that lies beyond them.
you know you need to move. perhaps you want to apologize to each other, now that the fog of horror and paranoia has lifted.
you're both alive. ]
no subject
she should apologize. it would be the right thing to do, the better thing to do, but she is too injured and exhausted, physically and existentially. blood drips from the wound in the hand, and she hobbles on a broken foot. they have to move, don't they?
she doesn't need an apology either. ]
... Let's go.
[ she checks to see if manyue is with her before she limps her way up, trying not to hiss every time she takes a step. ]
no subject
wiping the blood from her face with the back of her hand, the only thing keeping her from collapsing again is her sheer bullheaded stubbornness. the arrow is still sticking out of her face. there are two more embedded in her leg as well. blood trails down her face and leg in rivulets. but even like this, she still holds out an arm to shouxue.]
... Come on, kid. We have two legs between the two of us.
[might as well limp up those stairs together.]
no subject
at any rate. the girls hobble their way upstairs, slowly but surely. at the top of the stairs is an octagonal dais, and nestled in that is a large metal torch structure. it's not so tall that you couldn't see over the top of it, but it is big, and you get the sense that it's important. it even feels a little familiar.
the warmth in your chest flares. there's kindling at the bottom of the torch, but the light has been snuffed out.
you have your lanterns, and you have each other. you both feel very, very warm. ]
no subject
she stares at the torch structure. it shouldn't feel familiar, but it does. ]
Should we toss our lanterns in there?
[ she doesn't think she has any other way to light it up than using the flame in their lanterns. ]
no subject
Might as well. There's nothin' else here...
[carefully, she will scoot down to the kindling to light the torch with her lantern. she'll help shouxue keep her balance, too.]
no subject
it feels like there should be more fanfare - but there's not, not really. the fire in the lantern that you kept alive all this time touches the kindling, and something sparks. it takes a few tries. once. twice, three times.
but on the third, the flame catches, and it begins to light - blazing a pure, bright blue and beautiful. shouxue, for a moment your form flickers like it too, in harley's eyes, but you don't really notice it; instead, the flame takes your attention entirely.
this, you realize with a start, is the sacred flame. it's one of four parts of it, sent off to the different corners of the continents to protect the people who live in solistia. it's the basis of the faith of the order of the sacred flame, but it is the protection of the entire continent. it is its hearth, its home. it is the dawn.
("And the people of Solistia may live in its light, warmth, and protection, evermore." says a soft, familiar male voice.)
the sacred flame relights. and with it, the two of you are swept up in its warmth, protected like being lifted on the wings of an angel. you close your eyes into the blue, blue moment, and you let the sacred flame guide you...
... back to the cavern of the sun and moon. ]