Completed A Residue of Sympathy

[Everleigh Ebersol]

[art cred]
Before anything could be done, they were falling. The cold got even colder, even more glacial than it had been before as they fell off the ravine. It felt like every nerve had been stung by a Ixchel Wylds Sap Wasp, this cold so cold it felt almost hot and searing.

Yet there was that frisson coursing through her blood, seeming to keep her warm enough that she could feel the thrill of this free fall. Even if falling down here was the worst thing that could possibly happen at this moment. At least she could tightly hold onto the tightly woven pouch made out of chainmail that held the item Initiate Caeso Diemut and Proctor Everleigh Ebersol had been sent out to retrieve.

Everleigh hadn’t wanted to go with him. She understood it was part of the passive aggressive punishment that had been put on her for her failure of Death Lotto, but that had been long ago at this point. Because at least for when she had devised the trials, she hadn’t purposely done anything to really harm the initiates out of malicious intent. But then she saw Zael and heard his story.

Caeso had kept quiet about their duel. He was there at the aftermath of Ganfarred Keep, and still he had said nothing. It made her see him in a whole different light.

Before Caeso was, in her opinion, one of the duds at the Academy who wouldn’t know what fun was even if his father wrote it out for him word by word. Besides, who got that many letters from their parents? Had Caeso drank from Lord Diemut’s teat instead of his mother’s?

Although perhaps those thoughts came from her bitterness of having been rejected by her own father, Everleigh still thought it was always strange whenever she had been snooping around other initiate’s mail during her last five years as an initiate. She could never quite open the nobility’s letters due to the wax seals used, but it seemed those tied to House Virak always got a lot of mail. What could possibly be in those letters?

“USE FORCE! Break up the water!” Everleigh screamed at Caeso, breaking away from her thoughts as she realized that what was beneath them was rushing river with a thick layer of ice on top. They would be flatten like those Elbion crepes if they didn’t do something. And while Everleigh was confident she could use a college magic spell of air to help propel her up and perhaps give her a better chance at landing and not turning into a red and purple puddle, she couldn’t do the same for Caeso.

After all, it was her fault that they fell down here in the first place. She had ignored all of his suggestions, only going with her plans. While they had the item that the Republic desperately wanted, they also had to try and invade the pursuers who all rode on fearsome snow beasts. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if it wasn’t for one particular mage who could make the earth bend to their will. Could’ve been worse if you asked Everleigh, they still had the item.

And now they were just taking a little detour.

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Proctor Ebersol didn't have to tell him twice. Or once for that matter, but such trifles were of no matter in the moment.

This mission stank of the routine, despite the exotic locale of the Spine; it was almost insulting to have a Proctor accompany him on such a run-of-the-mill mission as though he were an Initiate several classes below, but then...given which Proctor it turned out to be, it made a kind of amusing sense, didn't it? A shame, really, that Proctor Ebersol's poison magic manifested in the color purple, when green would have been far more suitable.

In any case, this surprise sinkhole that had swallowed them up proved thus far to be the most eventful and challenging part of the mission—and that said something.

Caeso shifted about in the air, facing down, seeing the river below with its top cover of ice. He shot out both his hands and projected a Forcewave that went gliding down faster than either himself or Proctor Ebersol. The rippling impact of the Forcewave upon the ice was, frankly, majestic to behold. Chunks of ice and sprays of flew in a near perfect circular pattern.

Then Caeso's body hit the water and immediately the piercing daggers of cold turned the whole of his being into sharp agony. The shock of it was enough to disorient him for a second, two seconds, before what scant light descended from the sinkhole far above guided him up to the river's surface. Caeso's head erupted above the river, and his trembling, wet hands couldn't quite clear his eyes.

The river's current carried him along rapidly and he bumped hard into the edge of the ice (this having been formed by his Forcewave's impact). Numbed as he was he barely felt the pain of it; more importantly, it allowed him despite his blurry vision the chance to grab onto something, lest he be swept away under the ice by the river's current—an almost assured death sentence.

"Proctor Ebersol!" Caeso called out, glancing around, holding onto the ice's edge with one hand and wiping at his eyes with the other.

Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

She the water and was engulfed in its freezing touch. Despite gritting her teeth, Everleigh gasped at the shock, regretting it immediately. It filled her mouth and throat and seemed to reach into her lungs and heart. The cold seized her and reminded her just how small and worthless she was. The current moved her like a ragdoll in a child’s careless hands, not caring if she kicked or used her arms.

Her eyes burned in a way she hadn’t experienced before, keeping them open was worse than opening her mouth. Tightly gripping the chain mail that seemed like it was beginning to attach to her own skin, Everleigh had only seconds to decide what direction she should head in. The wrong choice would very well end in her drowning.

Unfortunately, all around her looked dark. No light trickled down and with the coursing river, she was most likely underneath a sheet of ice.

Everleigh swam upwards, or at least what felt like up should be, and held out hand. Everleigh felt something solid and chilling. How she hoped it was the surface and not her touching the bottom of the river. Luck would have it that her body would be pressed up against something that allowed her to stay in one place, even if the entire right side of her body ached. Eyes were glowing gold as she summoned forth her acid snake, using her teeth to make her tongue bleed. Her lips were pressed against the cold sheet of ice, and out burst between her lips a iridescent glaucous snake.

It burned through the ice, creating a hole big enough for Everleigh to pull herself up, getting fresh air. Oh how her lungs had burned. Her skin still felt like it was burning but Everleigh was pulling herself through that hole, climbing out of the chilling water like a wet rat. Violet hair was sticking to her face, blurring her sight until she was safely on the ice.

“Caeso!” She said, blood staining the white beneath her from her bleeding tongue. She was quick to look towards where she heard his call. “Can you climb up?” She reached out towards the initiate, only then realizing that her hands were free of anything, and her right hand in particular, though red and raw, was no longer holding the item they had been sent out to retrieve.

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Caeso didn't accept the offered hand, he just upon hearing and seeing Proctor Ebersol pulled himself up and out of the river. Water dripped all around him on the top sheet of ice, pittering and pattering and these sounds seeming to be amplified in the enclosed cavernous environs. He came to squat upon the ice, trembling furiously, and he wrapped his arms about himself in vain.

"Gear's soaked," he managed. This, of course, meaning the cloaks and sleeping blankets which could have been used to dry off, and to a lesser extent the kindling which could have been used to start a fire. Other means to start a fire could be procured (this depending on how difficult it proved to get back to the surface, however), but in some manner the cold and the dampness needed to be remedied immediately. Falling victim to the elements could happen swiftly in a frigid and mountainous region like the Spine, leading to delays at best and deadly vulnerability at worst.

Caeso hadn't yet noticed the disappearance of the package, the very thing they'd come out here for.

Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Both her and Caeso looked like rats in the Anirian Gutter that had survived days of rain, which meant despite them shivering and trembling to prove they were alive to the world, they were soaked to their very bone. Hardly fitting the terrifying image of a Dreadlord.

“That’s the least of our worries.” Everleigh said through her chattering teeth and numb lips. She went to grab one of the three healing elixirs she had strapped against her, only finding that all three of the slim vials had shattered. She cursed, spreading her finger carefully along the shattered glass before swiping her forefinger over her tongue. She could feel a slight burn.

It was only enough to partially patch up the cuts made by her teeth. There was a strange texture on her tongue, a coating that was dry and bitter and not right. Even so, it was still the least of their worries. There was no need to hide it.

“I lost the orb.” She looked towards the direction they were heading. Thinking back she turned her head towards where they had come from. “It’s probably moving with the current.” Which meant they could still have that chance to retrieve it.

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

I lost the orb.

Strangely enough, though this was a prime opportunity to cast all the familiar aspersions concerning, in Caeso's view, Proctor Ebersol's inexperience and ineptitude, he actually in this instance gave no harbor to such denigrations. Neither of them could have expected the sudden sinkhole, and the pure shock of the ice cold river still sapped scores of strength from both of them. Dreadlords were formidable, yes, but they were not demi-gods; each and every one of them was human.

That the orb was lost was done; all that was left to them was to recover it.

Caeso braced himself, clenching his chattering teeth, and then came to stand. "It's a fast current," he said, "and the river could go for miles."

With a quick incantation he summoned a red Magelight, College Magic; the radiant globe floated over his shoulder and cast red light to banish the otherwise impenetrable darkness about them. The mission orb had some peculiar reflective qualities to it, and perhaps the red glow from the Magelight would make it easier to spot through the ice, make the orb shine conspicuously to grab their attention.

"In the best case, the orb will become stuck on something."

And, forcing his way through the arresting shivers, Caeso, albeit tenderly at first, began his walk along the layer of ice.

Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

“Wait, Initiate.” Everleigh said, slowly standing up herself. She was hunched over, arms crossed over her chest, shivering hands unable to hold onto her shoulders. As much as she disliked Lumen, now would actually be a good time for her to use her magic. “S-Shouldn’t you undress?” Lame, she was sounding like Zinnia now. She tried to clear her throat but all she could do was cough.

The chill was creeping in everywhere. Deep in her bones, deep in her blood.

“We have less than ten minutes, no, seven now.” Everleigh said. How many layers was he wearing? He had to be colder than her, surely. “We should search after we get ourselves handled. I c-can dry our clothes off with a elemental spell and maybe could make something to warm us.” Like those salts that Erland had; there was something about that was toxic and despite being called salt, they shouldn’t ever be put in food. She could recreate it, maybe, hopefully.

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

S-Shouldn't you undress?

Caeso stopped. Turned around slowly. Shivering though he was, he managed to perk an eyebrow. He said flatly, "...I beg your pardon?"

In the shroud of that moment, pierced through by the (though reasonable) unorthodox request, he had ceased to see Proctor Ebersol and instead saw Everleigh Ebersol, once an Initiate only one class removed from him but, moreover...a woman, and he was a man, and such a thing as was being suggested was uncouth in the extreme. His own careless blunder had led to an uncouth drunken situation in Vel Yuna, yes, the communal showers of old were likewise uncouth and near intolerable when he came of age to truly understand why they were so wrong, yes, but he need not hurl himself headlong of his own free will into another such improper situation here.

He recovered enough from the unexpectedness of the request to regain his bearing, however. "Proctor Ebersol, where do you propose to place that something to warm us?" To illustrate his point, he lightly tapped his foot on the ice, the only thing upon which they were standing. His own weight felt precarious enough upon it. To tempt fate further by weakening it? Melting it?

Best hopes lay with finding a rocky alcove somewhere along the river tunnel, Caeso supposed.

Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

“In our hands,” Everleigh answered quickly, sucking in cool air and wondering how it was possible for her to feel so numb and so cold at the same time. Her clattering teeth sounded like a poorly made music box and if she wasn’t careful she feared that she would bite her tongue. “Just enough to hold in our hands and do this,” she made two weak fists and nestled them into the crook of her arms. “Head and torso warm, remember?” There was a slight hint of exasperation. These were basic survival skills taught to everyone.

“I’m probably going to have to be the one to dive back in there,” she said, “so drier clothes and some heat brought back into me is needed.” Her clothes, minus the winter coat issued out to her, were skin-tight, the fabric plastered against her freezing pale skin. “I’m not asking you to strip and hold onto me while we huddle underneath a blanket, but if you pass out from the cold, I won’t be able to carry you out of here. Or to Vel Anir. Unless you want everyone to see you as a six-foot-one ice cube.” And with that, Everleigh removed the coat and then pulled up on her tunic.

Water leaked from the coat and wool-lined tunic, falling down onto the ice in a heavy thud. She peeled off her undershirt, seeming to shiver more as the air touched her bare skin and made all the translucent hairs on her body stand at attention. For her sake more than Caeso’s, the cotton bindings remained.

She crouched low to the ice, picking up her undershirt first. She mumbled, her lips looking pale even under the red glow of Caeso’s Magelight. At least she could write that he knew more than just his powerful force magic. Wind seemed to sweep around her, flowing in and out of the sleeves and neck. It wouldn’t make the shirt warm, it felt just as cold as it did before, but it was dry.

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Caeso immediately turned around when Everleigh's hands went up and the motion of removing her coat began. Getting dry and warm was a priority—it wouldn't do them much good to find the orb and then succumb to the elements shortly thereafter—and this was a suitable way to do it. He'd done this before with Lumen, facing about when the two of them had to change into different clothes before the onset of a mission. In this way would the dignity of both himself and Proctor Ebersol be preserved.

Fumbling, quivering hands worked on his own armor after removing his twin swords from his back. His leather breastplate was first, followed by the gambeson beneath, and lastly his undershirt. Everything below his waist, however, he did not touch.

He set the breastplate, the gambeson, the undershirt off to one side on the ice, making sure not to turn around nor look back in the slightest as he did so. When it was done he wrapped his damp arms tightly about his damp chest.

He thought it would have been some sort of fire Proctor Ebersol would conjure to dry the clothes, but apparently not. Whatever it was (he couldn't know, for he wasn't looking, nor could he hear it over the sound of the river) it didn't seem to damage the ice; hopefully it would get the job done quickly.

By what means she intended to warm herself, and to provide to him to warm himself, he didn't know either.

It was all Caeso could to wait as she worked.

Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Everleigh looked up, seeing Caeso’s back towards her. Her dark brows furrowed together in confusion. Why was he so far away from her? Why was his back turned towards her? Why wouldn’t he bring his things closer to be dried? Did he think she was trying to ogle him? Or maybe it was from Death Lotto and he was worried about being poisoned? One seem far likely than the other.

“Sheesh, I’m not going to poison you. Turning your back towards me wouldn’t help you much anyways.”

Her undershirt and tunic were dry, the coat would take far more time. She was quick to put them back on, ignoring the chill and instead appreciating the fact that the freezing droplets on her skin would soon enough get absorbed into the fabric. The bindings however were as wet as could be. Everleigh glanced back at Caeso, seeing nothing but his back and slipped her hands under her clothes. She untied the bindings and held them in one hand. She stood up, not feeling much better but pretending to herself that she did.

She went over to Caeso’s things, the wind following her like a dog rubbing it’s snout against her calves and shoulders. She took a deep breath, concentrating once again and having the air dry the undershirt first. The moment it was ready she picked it up, bunching it into a ball and tossed it right at his head. His gambeson and breastplate were next. It had taken her a few minutes and she was still shivering, but now it was time to truly warm themselves.

Looking around she realized that she surprisingly had everything they needed. She went about collecting things: iron (how wonderful she had all those needles and throwing knives still on her,) water, salt from the heavily salted kelp bread they had been given (and which all initiates would rather eat their own fingers before this), and with her blood she could make those strange mix of toxins. With deft precision as if she had done it before, Everleigh got to work, remembering every step that Erland had shown her at her last visit.

The concoction didn’t smell nice like the sort he had and used. Everleigh grimaced, getting a second sniff and thinking it actually smelled moldy. She ignored it and used her discarded chest bindings to hold it in her lap. She scooped it up with her hands and could feel the warmth immediately soothe her numb hands.

“Alright mitts out, time to get you toasty.” Everleigh said with a cheerful lilt that didn’t match the current predicament, thinking back to her time in Arnim. She couldn’t help but to tease her own heart with a mixture of his words. That outdoor bath hadn’t nearly been as bad as this, even if she thought back that she would be ready to take a dip into the Spine. A smile formed on her face as she held out the source of warmth, thinking only how it was so dull compared to Zael.

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

What an...odd comment. The tone of it seemed wholly unbefitting of a Proctor, and, to Caeso, further brought to prominence Proctor Ebersol's youth. More than just the natural authority that came with age, so too came a preeminence of thought, poise, temperament. There was no comparison between, say, Proctor Pallatrix and Proctor Ebersol, just as, in fairness, there was no comparison between himself and the late Lord Virak.

"Pardon me," Caeso said, keeping himself measured. "My concerns lay elsewhere, Proctor Ebersol."

It was never the Proctors one truly had to watch out for: it was the very Initiates around you. Caeso could count with merely the fingers of one hand the number of Initiates he would actually turn his back to in such a manner as he was doing here. Propriety had to make necessary exceptions in all those other cases.

The balled-up shirt struck the back of his Caeso's head and fell to the ice. He reached behind himself silently and collected it, neither turning around in the effort nor putting it on once it was in his hands—he was holding out for that warming method to possibly dry his arms and chest.

An unpleasant smell, faint but noticeable, wafted toward him, and his nose wrinkled. Kress, what was that?

Alright mitts out, time to get you toasty.

"Yes, Proctor."

Caeso simply held his hands out behind himself, palms up, as if offering them to be bound behind his back. He still didn't turn around nor look because he wasn't yet sure if Proctor Ebersol was decent.

Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

He still wasn’t looking at her. In this instance which reminded her so much of Arnim: the cold water, one initiate— that wasn’t right, was it? She was no longer an initiate of the Academy— helping another, becoming warm and preparing for the next part of the mission; Everleigh Ebersol became acutely aware of how different this was.

For obvious reasons, of course, Caeso was nothing like Zael, who she had later learned did snag a peek. Not that she could complain, she had looked through those same weathered holes. But more than anything else, it was how she felt. She had felt anxious then with Zael, as if she were being watched. Now she felt the same prickle of anxiety along the back of neck and arms, but for an entirely different reason: there were no prying eyes here, no hidden ears.

“Why aren’t you turning around?” She asked, withholding the heat from him, violet gaze staring hard at the shadows on the back of his head. “Kress,” she breathed out a shaky, barely-there laugh, pieces finally clicking into place. “Are you trying to give me privacy? I piss on things for a living. I haven’t felt shame in…” her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth, keeping the truth behind her teeth, it was only yesterday she had felt the oily feeling in her gut. “In years. Weapons don’t need things like shame, do they?”

And because she wasn’t like the others, Everleigh dropped the bindings filled with the heating salts onto Caeso’s open hands.

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

He felt the item being placed in his hands, a cloth bundle of some kind, felt the warmth radiating from it. He brought the bundle to his front and gripped it with both hands while holding it to his core. Soon when his hands were warm and dry enough he would use them to evaporate the rest of the dampness plaguing him.

For a time while he was so warming his hands Caeso said nothing, for in his mind dueled the drilled obedience to a Proctor's authority, all circumstances surrounding Proctor Ebersol's appointment to the position, and his own desire to speak freely in reply to what she said.

At last he came to a satisfactory answer; not entirely deferential, not entirely impertinent.

"You may not ascribe to your own body much worth," Caeso said, "but I do. I afford this for all until an exception must be made."

He could have went on, furthering his point, but chose not to do so.

Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

“That’s not true.” Everleigh said, standing up and walking around Caeso. She squatted down right in front of him. “I like my body very much. I’m pretty when I want to be, strong when I have to be, quick and nimble when I need to be. I can even do magic.” She paused, looking up for a moment as if she had to parse through her thoughts or had forgotten where she was headed with her words. “I think my mind is more worthwhile, though.

“So if you had the choice, what would you rather keep: your mind or your body?”

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Caeso made a quick motion to look off to the side when Everleigh squatted down before him. But through his peripheral vision he could see in the red light that she had at least clothed herself again, so at last he ceased averting his gaze.

She had entirely missed his point with her response, but it was not worth pursuing. Nor appropriate, to be frank, so he was pleased enough to move past it.

The following question was an asinine one, though.

"Proctor Ebersol..." he wanted to say that the question was pointless, but honesty was oftentimes not congrugent was giving due respect—however tepidly that respect was in fact given.

Better to just feign ignorance and let her unfurl her explanation, give some perfunctory response if she pressed him for one, and be done with it.

"...I do not understand your meaning."

Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

She smiled. Everleigh let the silence linger and lounge about between them. The cold bit against her face, her long braid an uncomfortable, icy reminder that all around her was cold. The rushing river right underneath the ice and that sometimes made her rock back on her heels so she had to push herself forward was a reminder of how bitingly cold it could be again.

Her blood ran hot. A white-hot heat that came from her heart and spread out to all of her extremities. How could she feel cold when rage blanketed her in its fiery embrace?

“It’s a dumb question, right? What’s more important, your mind or your body? Here’s the truth: they’re both important. Having one without the other— well, we’ve seen what happens when someone is….” She held a finger up to the side of her head, circling her index finger over her temple. “But I’d choose to have my mind go before my body. So if you could only pick one, which one?” There was an inquisitive tilt of her head. “I figured since you read so much you’d want to keep your mind. Am I wrong?”

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Perfunctory response it was.

"I would keep my mind."





Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

“Is that the truth?” The smile hadn’t faltered, her violet gaze unwavering as she stared into Caeso’s eyes. “I’ll warn you now that one of my many hidden talents is detecting bullshit.” The grin widened. Everleigh leaned forward. She felt one particular current bump underneath the ice but she remained steady.

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

"Yes."







Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

“Liar.” Everleigh leaned back. “Do you like semantics, Caeso?”

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Liar.

No matter how he answered, this was always going to be her conclusion. A tactic used by many a Proctor, to craft a series of inquiries that invariably resulted in the Initiate being wrong; it wasn't anything Caeso hadn't weathered before. Though both possible answers were incorrect, it was objectively the worse of the two to change his answer: that mistake tripped up almost all of the younger Initiates.

Caeso began with one hand to rub his damp chest, arm, back, all as best he could to dry himself; in his other he kept hold of the bundle with the warming salts.

Another question. It was all he could do to endure it, just as he had in all the years before with all the Proctors before her; only when graduation came about could he offer any manner of unrestricted retort. At least this one wasn't so pointless. It was mildly interesting, even.

"In the hands of the unskilled, it quickly becomes tiresome. Otherwise, a study of the utmost import for any who strive to be an eloquent speaker."

Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

Blah, blah, blah, I’m SEEEE-SOOOOOH and I think I know everything. I’m so great. I have mighty magic that will automatically put me at second level and I’m over six feet with a six pack (probably) and my last name is Diemut and I have thick eyebrows! Have I mentioned that I know everything?

Everleigh was tempted to ask Caeso what the winning lotto numbers would be, but she kept her face neutral as if she weren’t mocking him in her thoughts. For a moment she looked at his hand, watching the motions as he moved it over his torso.

“Humor me,” Everleigh said as something uncoiled itself from around her heart. “Stop calling me proctor.” Before he could protest she raised up her hands. She took a deep shaky breath, reminding herself of the golden rules of gambling, or at least the rules Marianne had told her long ago. Always play to win, never play to not to lose. An emotional mind is a weak mind. Don’t show more than you have to, especially when you haven’t been asked to reveal it.

“My class may have graduated but I still have plenty of eyes and ears around the Academy.” Everleigh gave him a look with a arched brow. “So I know you’d like to call me anything other than Proctor. Call me whatever you want while here, away from the Academy. Feel free to get creative: stupid, idiot, cretin, loser, bitch, whore, cunt.” The words fell easily from her lips.

“But answer this for me, since you like semantics so much— and maybe you’ll be the first initiate to know the difference between these two words— but what do you believe in? Fate? Or destiny?” Everleigh smiled then. “Like I said, just humor me, Caeso. I’m curious what someone who values mind over body thinks about this.”

Caeso Diemut

 

[Caeso Diemut]

Humor me. Stop calling me Proctor.

Caeso's brows, scrunching in suspicion ever so slightly, betrayed his own inner thoughts. This didn't seem right. It almost felt like some sort of trap, baiting him into a false sense of security before all due military bearing suddenly gets re-established and then anything and everything he said could then be used against him. He absolutely wasn't going to use any kind of profanity toward Proctor Ebersol, certainly not any of those crass latter three suggestions she offered. This was something on principle, even if he had no suspicions at all.

Proceeding with caution was his best route. And quickly getting himself (his torso, at least) dry so that he could don his gear and they could be on the move was part of said route.

He had to make a conscious effort not to address her as Proctor Ebersol. But the effort was made, and he said, "There are no gods who hold dominion over Vel Anir. Therefore, any Anirian who entertains a notion of fate is a fool, for there is no divine hand to shape and guide events. What is left is Man, and only Man, who commands his own destiny."

Everleigh Ebersol

 

[Everleigh Ebersol]

She smiled as if his answer pleased her. Maybe it would have a year ago. Maybe she would have been excited to discuss the possibilities of why people wanted to believe in things like gods and fate instead of destiny which put them in control of every action they made. Maybe she would have used the same analogy she always did about the different paths to take to the village.

“Yeah, right? That’s the right way to think of it, isn’t it? Destiny means you take accountability for things. Destiny means you’re responsible, even when you fuck up.” Everleigh said, impressed with herself and how calm she sounded. “Oh, but you know what? There’s one thing that confuses me a little bit. Maybe you can clear it up for me? Because here’s the thing, sometimes you have no control of your body, right? I mean, I learned that with Lumen, didn’t I? So humor me again.” Her eyes lifted up into their usual crescent moon shape and she fixed it, looking serene instead of smug.

“Was it still destiny when Kimble turned you into a human ice cube?”

Caeso Diemut