PSL - Felih and Rihnn go to the First...

[featherfoot]

And it's not right.



P'rihnn is honestly not sure what happened. One moment he had been fighting Zenos - or rather, Elidibus in Zenos' skin - and the next he was here. He vaguely remembers being hit by a powerful headache and seeing Elidibus approach him as if for a decisive blow, but the voice that had called him didn't seem quite the same as before. Was this how it had been for the others? For the Scions? Did his body lie on the ground in the Ghimlyt Dark, soul torn away? And for this?

He looks around his surroundings, frown growing deeper and deeper as he realises he hasn't the slightest clue where he is. There is no place he knows with such dense, purple foliage... and the light shining down on him is strangely oppressive, though he can't say why.

Fortunately he can see a nearby structure, and what looks like it might be a path. He can vaguely make out something beyond the trees, too, so... that way, then. After checking to make sure he still has his chakrams, just in case, P'rihnn makes his way to the wooden structure, looking around him to see if he can spy someone he can question.

Comments

[crystaltower]

“How many more times will you ask?” the Exarch asks in return. “I will not give in any more than you will, for as long as I yet stand and breathe.”

Even if hope was lost long ago, he cannot simply stop. He has toiled for so long and seen so much suffering, to give up now would only render it all meaningless... he may have lost true hope centuries ago, but by now this single-minded pursuit of his goal has simply come to define him.

“Perhaps I ought warn Felih of you. No doubt your other self will soon seek him out...” And he was always such an immense distraction, both for Felih and for himself.

[emet_sulk]

"Oh yes? 'Beware the Ascian and his honeyed words,' says the man who refuses to answer their questions, who hides in the Tower behind impenetrable barriers. I think you will find that backfires on you, Exarch. Especially when they see you consorting with me behind their backs."

He sneers, taking measured strides towards the crystallised man. He easily looms over them. "Some advice from one who has lived long enough to manipulate scores of better men: dishonesty may win loyalty from those of smaller minds in the short term, but integrity lasts a lifetime."

[crystaltower]

If they see, the Exarch does not say. That Emet-Selch has somehow gained the ability to show himself in the tower could certainly cause problems, he is well aware.

"I have already explored other avenues," he says, "honest and dishonest. I have told them what I mean to do. However..."

He pauses, only to reach up amd pull back his cowl to meet Emet-Selch's eyes. It's not a particularly fiery or defiant look, but one of someone who lives only because he is too stubborn todl die. "Am I meant to show them what manner of beast their friend has become?"

[emet_sulk]

He peels back and twists about and dramatically throws up his hands.

"Oh, goodness me! How horrifying a visage. Truly, utterly, a repulsive mien." He crosses his arms and looks back over his shoulder, mouth set in a thin, unimpressed line. "Such shallow friends you must keep if they would turn from you in disgust after seeing you like this."

[crystaltower]

The Exarch is equally unimpressed by Emet-Selch's dismissal, treating it like it is something only surface-level, but he simply maintains his flat expression and tone of voice.

"If any know well how deep it goes, it is you," he says, gesturing towards his chest - his heart. "I cannot even pretend I am still something human - not a soul in the Crystarium would believe it."

[emet_sulk]

Emet-Selch clicks his tongue. Bereft of a corporeal body though he is, his talent for seeing more than what is physically present yet remains to him. What's more, his connection with the Tower now certainly makes him aware of how it festers within the body of his keeper.

He thinks about his own form and how only one (two) of his friends had ever expressed open admiration for it and his jaw clenches.

"By my estimation you only have a few more millennia left in you, if that, before the Tower finally consumes you body and soul. Yet you waste it trying to find the perfect solution. The ideal timeline. You fool."

He shakes his head in disgust. "They will turn on you. You have set them up with hate and fear, and both only lead to violence."

[crystaltower]

“‘Perfect’, no. One in which this land and the Source are both saved, yes, but I have yet to find the path.”

Well, okay, he wasn’t after perfect, but Emet-Selch has certainly seen one cycle abandoned for the loss of a young woman the Exarch still thinks of as his grandchild. Lyna is a very special exception and there had been no reason for her to die.

He maintains his flat stare and rigid posture for a few moments longer before he sighs and rests his shoulders. There is no point posturing with his prisoner, who has seen so many sides of him over these past few hundred years. “...I realise. It never used to be so difficult to gain trust and faith, even without revealing all, yet it feels as though I have long forgotten how. I would not blame them for turning on me.”

After all, in what’s left of his heart, he can’t help the feeling that he does not deserve to even look Felih in the eye.

[emet_sulk]

He scoffs. "Not perfection, you say? Not perfection to expect not only a world which averts the Eighth Umbral Calamity but also sees that little girl live? Your obsession with her is disturbing. But if her death will drive the crystal further into your blood..."

He trails off on that menacing suggestion. Mayhap he should do it, the next time she come into the Tower. Force the Exarch to reset the timeline, hasten his own death. And then...

[crystaltower]

As deadened as the Exarch’s emotions have become, a threat to Lyna still draws an instant reaction - the one ear flattened back and face contorted into a snarl for a long moment before he catches himself, his bond with the tower causing its ambient aetheric hum to grow loud and threatening. “You will not.”

Eyes narrowed, he fixes Emet-Selch with a glare, the subtle red glow of his eyes becoming somehow brighter. “Make no mistake: the only reason you can roam the Tower as you do is because I allow it - ‘twould be too great a drain to keep you further confined. Should you think to harm Lyna, that will change.”

[emet_sulk]

He smiles thinly. Consciously or not, the Exarch has given away another weakness. So, perhaps he won't kill the girl now but when he feels more sure that it would lead to his imminent escape. Anything that consumes the Exarch's life quicker.

"Through your own hasty, ill-considered actions, you have created a situation wherein there is one more Ascian rather than one less." He laughs. "Enjoy your remaining time with her, Exarch. Pray that you find your ideal world before I break free."

Turning aside, he strides off and fades out of sight. There is a low, crystalline hum from the walls that sound suspiciously like he's still laughing.