iStones, August 18th

[hellawrath]

[Here's another announcement by your favorite elf! Only this time, Lup hardly sounds like herself. She sounds, just, so tired. Like having fought and lost an impossible battle, tired. There's no fire or hope in her monotone voice. But whoever's still around to hear this, needs to hear this? She's got to say it anyway.]

If you haven't been here long... The dead come back in the temple. Should only be like, a few days, I-I hope.

We'll be waiting there, for them. You're welcome to join us.

Comments

[wisdomspring]

[ ... What? How can this be possible? ]

The dead can return to life? [ There's a tiny, awed breath: she doesn't dare to believe it fully. ] Who has such power...?

[hellawrath]

[Ho boy. Lup doesn't really have the energy to play 'Death Is Fake And Kind Of Played Out Honestly' 101 here, but she sounds so young...]

The Storyteller, sweetheart. [It's said in the same neutral monotone as everything else, whether due to exhaustion or something else, who knows.] They don't want us kicking it here, in the wrong plane, where it's not the-- the right ending to our stories, I guess. So they-- they tear out the last page, rewrite the whole thing. [She'd seen it herself, their tome of stories, touched the serrated edges of way, way too many deaths.]

[wisdomspring]

The Storyteller can do that? [ But only here, in this realm. Her spirits fall a little thinking of what such an ability could mean in, say, the fight against the Calamity. Maybe I could even see Mother again. But, as usual, her hopes sink as they're faced with the truth. ] ... I see. Thank you for explaining it to me.

[ It's still an incredible feat, even contained as it is to this one world. ]

[hellawrath]

You sound disappointed. [Not to judge or anything, it's just a bit weird with everything else that's happened.]

[wisdomspring]

I - My apologies. I was only thinking... well, hoping... that it could be used in worlds beyond this one.

[ She won't burden Lup with that, though. The other woman seems to have more than enough else to think about. ]

[hellawrath]

There's nothing wrong with hoping. [Though the lack of conviction in those words makes it seem an empty reassurance. Sorry about that.]

The Storyteller hasn't got that kinda power, in other planes. They barely have power around here, after their thousand year nap. [And if they did, can you imagine getting them to resurrect people in other worlds? Haha, Kravitz would have a fucking conniption.

Maybe there was gonna be more to that explanation, but Lup just trails off, too tired to continue.]

[wisdomspring]

Thousand year nap? [ She'll have more in common with the Storyteller later, when she spends a century holding back an evil beast, but Zelda hasn't experienced that yet. As such, she looks surprised, but only for a moment. The Storyteller is a god, after all, and it shouldn't be so strange that they have lived for so long. ]

... Thank you for your explanations. I should leave you to your thoughts.

[hellawrath]

[Her thoughts are kind of the last thing she wants to be alone with right now? Nice try though, kiddo, and Lup almost chuckles bitterly, barely more than a huff of air rasping through her abused lungs.]

Sure. But hey, don't-- don't be alone, okay? Just... Come to the temple, if you've got nowhere else to go.

[wisdomspring]

I will. [ She thinks to say the same thing back to this woman, but doesn't want to make assumptions. As such, the princess instead inclines her head a bit before leaving the conversation to consider what Lup has told her is, and is not, possible... ]