once in twenty lifetimes

Late nights, all entwined
Made a promise to never say goodbye

When Tal had shared the news that the Greatwood had been cleansed, Sohalia's first reaction had been disbelief. After all, had she not come here after her kidnapping, only to fall ill as a result of the Void flora's effects? And it had been everywhere then, so how could it be that things were better now?

Her second reaction had been excitement. Finally, after all this time, she could complete her quest!

True to his word, Tal had insisted on accompanying her, and they found themselves at the Bodega with a couple of recently-acquired fishing rods in hand. A basket sat between them, containing a packed lunch and some flasks of water (and perhaps, hidden within, a bottle of wine, if they wanted to partake). Soh sat on the edge of a pier connecting to the marketplace behind them, her legs dangling over the edge, and cast her line into the water.

"So how exactly did you help cleanse the Greatwood?" she asked, wanting to hear the story again. "Did you really see the Mathair?"

I replay it in the back of my mind
Over and over again

Sohalia

To say that Tal had been pleased as punch to be able to tell Sohalia that the Greatwood was safe - ish - to visit again would be like saying that the sun was a little bright. He was excited for his friend to be able to complete her quest, and maybe a little hopeful that seeing the cleansed Greatwood with her own eyes would help bring some healing after her experiences in it.

The Peregrine had carried them to the Wildwood, and from there to the Sidhe Village. By intention or coincidence they settled down to fish outside the very teashop where they had first met, and Tal had grinned at the memory. He settled down beside the Luminary with his fishing rod in one hand, and the other resting on Boreal's head to keep her out of the lunch basket. His own legs were crossed as he flicked his rod idly through the water, trying to tempt a fish to bite. "I wish I could say I did it with my Dagger an' my dashin' good looks," he admitted ruefully, still riding high from their success. "An' I did help weaken 'er when the Void had its claws in 'er, stabbin' at th'vines an' roots that kept grabbin' Noah. But, uh... actually..." he shrugged a little sheepishly. "It was mostly Flora. She called down Rae an' They planted a Lily right at th'Mathair's base. It cleaned th'Void right out o' her! An' then she made herself look kinda almost human t'talk to us." His grin faded at that memory, a shiver running up his spine. "She's one scary goddess, lemme tell you!"

He glanced over at her own fishing rod, his grin going a little lopsided. "I'm surprised y'aren't fishin' in your owl shape?" It might have been meant as a statement, but his tone rose to a questioning lilt at the end.

Late nights, all entwined
Made a promise to never say goodbye

Soh wasn't much of a fisherwoman, but she was determined to see her quest through all the same, and so as Tal regaled her with the tale of cleansing the Greatwood, the Luminary kept her eyes on the bobber that floated atop the water. It was disappointingly still, though it moved along with the waves, tricking her once or twice into thinking a fish might be grabbing ahold of the bait floating below. "So now you've seen - all of the heralds, right? And Mort and Rae, and the Mathair?" she said, her voice filled with awe. Tal had certainly been fortunate!

Soh glanced over at Tal in time to see his grin go a little lopsided, then looked back at her rod, wrinkling her nose as she considered. "I don't like hunting," she said. "Which is ironic, given that both of my shifts are predators. Sometimes the instinct is there, but I never want to hurt anything, so I just... ignore it, I suppose." She shrugged, her line going taut with the motion. "I just want to catch a whisper fish and release it, without killing it. That would be hard to do with talons."

I replay it in the back of my mind
Over and over again

Sohalia

Tal's bobber was living up to its name as it floated atop the gentle ripples of the water and his line went alternately slack and gently taut with the action of the tiny wavelets that lapped at the pilings of the dock. Fishing wasn't something he'd done much growing up; the depth of the ice in Halo prior to the War had made it pretty damn near impossible. He couldn't claim any particular expertise in the area, but he could keep Soh company and provide moral support for her quest the same way she always did for him.

"I think... I've seen 'em all now, yeah," he said slowly, tilting his head to the side like one of his sled dogs as he counted them out. "Oh! I can't believe I didn't tell ya! Me an' Koa called down Vi 'imself t'help cleanse th'Oerwoud after we fought th'Void Horror there!" That one had been him - and Koa - and the attaboy from the God of Life had fueled Tal for days afterwards. "But Mort's still my favorite," he added loyally, giving a little shake of his head to set his earring swinging with a proud grin.

It softened a little when he asked his question, and faded towards more serious consideration of why she had chosen the rod over her talons. He wrinkled his nose before finally giving a sharp bob of his head in understanding of her reasoning. "Sure, makes sense. I think?" Lacking any animal shapes of his own he could only try to imagine having the same instincts and urges as Boreal. The courier was a lot more pragmatic and a lot less squeamish about hunting, however. "D'you know what we're lookin' for? I don't think I've ever seen a Whiape Fish before."

Late nights, all entwined
Made a promise to never say goodbye

Soh's bobber wriggled suddenly and she jerked the rod, but when she reeled it in, nothing dangled off the end of her hook - although the bait she'd used was gone. With a heavy sigh, she hooked another worm, trying not to make a face as the barb passed through squishy flesh, and tossed it back into the water.

Soh's amazement at Vi's appearance was tempered somewhat by mention of Koa, with whom she still wasn't sure where she stood. He'd been kind to her when she'd sneaked into Stormbreak a few weeks back, and they'd ended up having an awkward, but not unpleasant, trip to her old home... but she'd also sent him a letter after that she'd yet to receive a response to. "That's really amazing, Tal," she told her friend, bumping his shoulder affectionately with her own and banishing thoughts of Koa to the back of her mind.

Like Tal, Soh had never seen a whisper fish, though she'd read a fair bit about them in preparation for this very outing. "I'm not totally sure, but they are supposed to be a bluish purple color, with golden eyes," she said. "And they are supposed to gather in large schools in this general area, so... here's hoping we find one soon?"

I replay it in the back of my mind
Over and over again

Sohalia

He basked in his friend's admiration, leaning into the shoulder bump that was more than halfway to smug, even if it was tempered by the memory of awe and humility that Vi's presence had instilled in him. He wiggled his rod a little, trying to make the bait on his hook shift in the water enough to draw the attention of the elusive whisper fish, but his own line remained depressingly calm aside from his own efforts.

"Bluish purple... that'd be hard t'see in the water," he admitted dubiously. "But golden eyes sounds pretty. I wonder if th'one y'catch will whisper any secrets t'you?" He grinned over at the Luminary. "Maybe somethin' about Koa?" He and Alys had very much noticed the way Soh and the Dragoon had been avoiding each other during the last time he'd seen them! His grin faded to something less amused and more akin to concern for her heart. "Have y'figured out what y'want t'do about 'im?" It was a good thing his bobber wasn't making any sudden moves, because Tal's attention was all on his friend and her relationship woes!

Late nights, all entwined
Made a promise to never say goodbye

Sohalia was not a secretive person by nature, so the idea of a fish choosing her to whisper them to was almost laughable. The only time she'd kept a secret had ended up being to her detriment and costing her both Jude and Koa, so she wasn't particularly inclined to repeat the experience.

Speaking of... Soh winced. "It was that obvious, huh?" she said with a sigh. She watched her bobber float across the surface of the water. "I don't know, Tal. I'm perfectly content to mend our fences and be friends, but... it's not that easy, is it? I hurt him, and then I wanted to fix it, but... I was kidnapped, and when I came back, it was more complicated than before, and now I don't really know what to do to make it better." She twitched her line, hoping to lure in a fish.

"I saw him again recently, in Stormbreak. And before you lecture me about it being dangerous for me to go back, Koa already did. He found me and wouldn't let me go visit my shop alone, so... he walked me there, and it was awkward, but it wasn't unpleasant? So maybe things are salvageable?"

I replay it in the back of my mind
Over and over again

Sohalia

Tal bit his lip and nodded, feeling Soh's awkwardness like it was his own. He leaned into her shoulder and twitched his fishing pole around a few times, the way he'd seen some other Fae doing, but mostly he was paying attention to his friend. And when she started talking he was glad he'd asked. It was easy to be quiet and let her get things out, just listening to the complications that beset her.

"I mean, you're both my friends so I want y'both t'get along, but..." He shrugged, not having any easy answers, any more than the Luminary did. And then she mentioned Stormbreak and he straightened up, losing his train of thought and opening his mouth to protest--

She cut him off before he could start, defusing his worry down to a toothless grumble of worry that turned into a reluctant huff. "Well, at least nothin' happened. An' I'm glad he found you. I just... I dunno. Have y'asked him what he wants?"

Late nights, all entwined
Made a promise to never say goodbye

At Tal's question, Soh paused, the absent twitching of her line freezing momentarily as she considered. In truth, she hadn't asked Koa what he wanted. It hadn't even occurred to her to ask. She'd been bent on avoidance and, when that didn't work, on trying to keep things as light as possible. Gods, she was selfish. Jude had been right, all those seasons ago.

She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat and shook her head, too momentarily emotional to speak. Although she didn't cry, it would be obvious from the look on her face that something Tal had said had upset her, and she fought to gain control before she lost it entirely. Finally, she managed thickly, "I just assumed he wanted nothing to do with me. But then when I saw him in Stormbreak it was... nice. So then I thought maybe..." She trailed off. She'd thought only of what she wanted, not of what Koa might.

She was a terrible person.

I replay it in the back of my mind
Over and over again

Sohalia

It took the courier a few moments to realize that Soh had gone still next to him. Not simply quiet, but frozen in place. His gaze traveled up her fishing line to the pole, and then back to her hands before finally rising to her face. He didn't know what he'd said to upset her - he thought he'd gotten better about putting his foot in his mouth, but maybe not - so instead he just let go of his pole with one hand in order to wrap it around his friend's shoulders and pull her into his side. He swallowed hard and cleared his throat, but before he could apologize she found her voice again, even if he could hear the tears in it.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. I dunno that he doesn't want t'be friends with y'again," he tried to assure her. "Hail, he might be just as confused as you are 'bout what he wants. An' it's not like it's too late t'ask 'im. Y'can always send 'im a letter an' give 'im time t'think things over?" He was half-babbling at that point, and finally managed to shut himself up with a click of his teeth. His pole was half-fallen from his other hand as he frantically focused on the definitely-not-crying friend beside him on the dock.

Late nights, all entwined
Made a promise to never say goodbye

Too late, Tal; Sohalia was already spiraling. A single tear trickled down her cheek as Tal wrapped an arm around her, and she leaned into his hold gratefully as she forced herself to twitch her line again. "It's not that," she said, her voice watery as she swiped at her cheek with one hand. "I mean, it is, I guess, sort of, but..." She bit her lip, worrying it between her teeth as she gathered her thoughts. "I could accept if he didn't want to be friends," she said after a moment. "It's just..."

It was just that being friends or not didn't seem to be that simple, not when they kept running into each other over and over again. Not when Koa seemed unable to let her do arguably stupid things on her own, and not when she couldn't stop worrying about what he thought of her. It was the dissolution of her friendship with Jude, and the last words he'd spoken to her that day in Torchline, months and months ago now. It was the culmination of all that she'd been through, all the heartache she'd endured, and all the pain she'd caused. "Tal, do you think I'm selfish?"

I replay it in the back of my mind
Over and over again

Sohalia

Ooooh shit, he didn't handle tears well. Unfortunately, he'd had plenty of experience with friends crying on his shoulder - literally - so he didn't pull away or show his distress too obviously. If anything, he half-hugged her closer and tilted his head to rest his cheek against her golden hair, letting her talk without trying to interrupt. Patience wasn't exactly his strong suit, but he found he had plenty of it for Sohalia and her broken heart, with all the confusion and pain that came with it.

What he didn't have was a clue as to how to answer her tearful query, several flags going up in his brain and letting him know that he needed to speak real fucking carefully. He took a slow breath to give himself time to think and swallowed hard to steel himself. Hopefully Mort's lucky earring would help him not fuck things up too badly...

His fishing line dangled, forgotten, from fingers that were only loosely wrapped around the pole. "Not more'n anyone else, and less than most," he finally answered, bluntly honest. "Sometimes people just can't help but hurt each other, even when it's th'last thing they wanted t'do. It sucks, but it's part o' bein' human. Y'just gotta... gotta learn from it as best y'can, I guess, an' keep movin' forward." He definitely wasn't speaking from personal experience, nope.

Late nights, all entwined
Made a promise to never say goodbye

Good job, Tal.

His words seemed to comfort the young woman who leaned tearfully against his shoulder, for she smiled, a watery, wavering thing, and said thickly, "I guess you're right." She stayed where she was for a moment, her line forgotten, savoring the feel of a friend's warmth and letting go, for a moment, of that guilt and shame that forever seemed to plague her. Sometimes she could forget that it festered deep beneath the surface; other times, like now, it seemed that it was all-consuming.

But Tal was right in that there was only one way to go: forward. And so Sohalia sat up a little straighter, rubbing away the last of her tears and shoving her deep, dark feelings somewhere deeper and darker in the back of her mind. "I guess all I can do is try and fix things, if people will let me." And if they wouldn't... well, she would cross that bridge when she got to it.

I replay it in the back of my mind
Over and over again

Sohalia

He couldn't see her smile from the angle of their half-hug, but he could hear the shadow of it in her tearful voice, and he released a quiet, shaking breath of relief. A silent prayer of thanks to Mort for giving him inspiration would be followed by offerings later in Ludo's Woods, but for the moment he was just happy to hold his friend for as long as she needed a comforting shoulder and someone on her side.

As soon as he felt her shifting to take her own weight back, he eased his hold so his hand rested lightly on her shoulder. He didn't take it back until she had wiped away her tears and regained some of her composure. Only then did he remember his forgotten fishing rod, moving to get a better grip on it and flicking it around to make the baited hook in the water dance enticingly. He gave it a sheepish look, but Soh's words brought his attention back to her and this time he leaned carefully into her shoulder. "An' if they don't, maybe Boreal an' me can beat 'em up?" he asked her, pretending to be hopeful that she'd allow it. The dragon in question crooned enthusiastic agreement - entirely sincere - and leaned against Soh's other side, her scaly tail rasping over the boards of the dock behind them in an approximation of an enthusiastic wag.