audio | un: yiling patriarch

[weifinder]

We've just heard from our friend Haltham about the fighting between Unhalad and Anurr forces nearby, so here's a question for everyone, brought up originally by our companions who got themselves drugged and fight-happy against the second living: what actions do you think we should or shouldn't take?

In Haltham's encouraging words, think wisely. Whatever we're doing or not doing has an effect by merit of choice. Also, a reminder that we still need to not end up in either's hands or revealing our location, given the reason we were summoned here has not changed, and our deaths can be a benefit to either side. Our lives benefit ourselves and our rescuers and the peoples here, by keeping us out of warlord hands.

( He's not opening up with his thoughts because he doesn't want it as a discussion against his take, but as people offering their thoughts after he asks the question. )

Comments

[bearshermark]

I'd say yes, but.. I don't think I could stay idle if there are lives at risk.

[weifinder]

Which lives count?

[bearshermark]

Anything not yet fully corrupted by undeath.

[weifinder]

And the fully corrupted, is there nothing of them that can be saved?

[bearshermark]

So far as I know, all that can be done for them is freeing their souls in hopes of granting them peace.

[weifinder]

I don't know that in most cases, the original soul is left. Or how the two different types come into being, only that the feel behind them makes me wonder if at least one 'kind' has an entirely different soul after their first death.

( hahahahahaaaaaaaaa oh this is an odd conversation to be having, even if his "death" hadn't been true, and his "resurrection" was physically switching places with someone driven to extremes by the treatment he experienced in the world around him. )

[bearshermark]

You mean their souls might be either further corrupted or replaced? That's worse than I could have imagined. Small wonder they feel sick sometimes.

If only Yggdrasil existed in this world. It's in desperate need of a force to regulate the cycle of life and death.

[weifinder]

It may already have one, or whatever it has may be corrupted or not touch this region. Consider also, the thought that such a state of existence is not new and may be differing region to region.

Solutions from our homes aren't necessarily even possible here. Learning what is must be one of our priorities.

[bearshermark]

[The hope that something like Yggdrasil does exist in some form is something he prays for every day, and he takes that wish further to heart now.]

Then we should see if those souls that have yet to be fully corrupted can be salvaged. I'm sure we could learn a lot from trying.

[weifinder]

I recommend asking, when we find such a soul. Not abducting them to where we are simply out of misguided good intentions, ah?

[bearshermark]

[Misguided--

His pen taps an agitated rhythm on the page for a minute before he writes again, unable to agree, and so shifting the conversation back to its original form]

I can't stand to let them take more souls.

[weifinder]

( Abducting people without permission is still abducting, even if you're doing it to try and save them. He's just saying! )

No one should.

Eleven, with how your magic is powered, do you or your companion from home have a, I don't know, a sort of internal source of energy that powers these things? We have another member of our group who says he can create a confusion array, to lever against the two forces here in an effort to free the captives. Only he needs outside spiritual energies of some kind to assist, and that's not something I can help with, as I am.

[bearshermark]

[His response appears slowly, as though thinking through the words as he writes]

Magic is an internal source of power, though I don't know if I could say it's spiritual. I did have something like that once, but it was stolen from me.

[weifinder]

I'll be honest in saying I don't know how much the 'spiritual' part plays itself directly. However, I'm sorry to hear of your loss, Eleven. That had to be hard.

( Giving up one's spiritual core is one thing. Having it taken away is something altogether different. )

[bearshermark]

[Awkward. Perhaps he should have just said he lost it, as though a spiritual core is something one just misplaces]

Well, I lived at least.

[Barely, thanks to mermaids]

But I could try to help. We could test it, and see if magic will substitute.

[weifinder]

Living is an admirable first step in that process, yes.

If you're willing, then you can speak with him here, you'll hear him talking too. You don't have to, either. Know that, Eleven.

[bearshermark]

I'll give it some thought, thanks.