un: blushing beads of heft and beauty | audio | After Sizhui and Eleven question the miners

[paperbutterflies]

[ Sizhui hasn't spoken much over the network, but for those who know him, he sounds extremely subdued, though his words are clear and his voice calm. The execution has not happened yet, so. ]

This is Lan Sizhui. For those who might be curious, Eleven and I talked with the two miners that... were taken.

In short, their story started when they were snowed in - and iced in - for far too long inside the mine. They had not expected that, so there were no provisions. First one, then another of their number died of hunger, and then the two dead bodies reanimated and ... asked what they would give for the hunger to stop.

What they are becoming, they chose, under duress.

The two who had died first already became among Unhalad's soldiers. I do not know why the remaining six were asked to choose it, rather than waited out to be just taken. I don't think they know, either.

And if they remember what exactly was done to them after they agreed, they are not telling us.

I think this is more or less the information we found from them. Thank you for your attention.

Comments

un: dappled pearl of the parted seas [voice]

[beitangmoran]

So they did not know how the first two came back to life? Or did they choose not to tell?

... How does this work? It doesn't make any sense. It's as if some of these people have absorbed something beforehand that might turn them.

[paperbutterflies]

I am sorry, Senior. When I asked, all I was told were reassurances that they really were dead. However, they did not die at the same time, but rose simultaneously. The two here were surprised by that.

[beitangmoran]

This is completely illogical. If they were alone when it happened, then who did it. Or was it done to them in advance, knowing that such a tragedy might befall them and preparing for it? Why would two of them wake early and then turn the others...

[Sorry, Sizhui, he's basically thinking out loud.]

Unhalad has something to hold these people, beyond his undead soldiers. In the way he makes them undead. It seems like it might strike anyone.

[paperbutterflies]

I... am sorry. Other than the miners, who must have worked there for a long time, not expecting the cold or the probability to being trapped by the ice - they indicated nothing that I could think of to have been different about this trip to the mines in the first place.

[ He wishes he could answer, but... ]

[beitangmoran]

It seems we are ending up with some answers, and even more questions.

But then, not much makes logical sense in this world.

[paperbutterflies]

[ And is saying that enough?

He wants to ask but at the same time, he knows that the people who are taken to this world are unlikely to have the answers. ]

Or we don't know the logic yet. Or how people let it get this bad...

[beitangmoran]

... It doesn't seem fair to blame them for the situation when we don't quite understand it ourselves, young master. Besides, these types of things don't happen overnight. A gradual slide into it is more likely.

[paperbutterflies]

Perhaps not, [ quietly, ] but someone had the power to make these changes, and in numbers. To make these mirrors.

Gradual or sudden, it was still someone's doing.

[beitangmoran]

Indeed. But people have to survive. Sometimes, that means taking the path of least resistance.

[paperbutterflies]

Are they? Are they going to survive, the way things are going?

[beitangmoran]

Maybe, maybe not. But they're doing what they can, with what they have

[paperbutterflies]

Most, at least. I feel like there is more than we can yet know, and knowing it would make a difference.