the waters are sleeping

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

"I think so, yes. Ownership doesn't even seem to capture the arrangement but," he shrugged his shoulders. "I made the promise before Ronin..before Aoife and all of this."

Kicking a foot in the water, Remi nods his agreement. "I know it's true, yes. What I don't know is why." Why can't the doors just be closed. Why can't everyone be content to let the world spin on without them managing every aspect of it? Eyeing Amalia over his shoulder, Remi sighed slightly. At least he didn't have to break the news. "With Seren...I assume it'll be more difficult. I was going to help him as well, but now I wonder if it isn't better that I stay in Torchline with her."

Amalia "Because humans are a historically contrarian species. And because as long as someone puts themselves in danger, someone else will need to save them." Someone like her- and as much as she knows she's part of the problem, she knows too it is not something she is liable to change soon. At least she is strong enough now to do the rescuing, rather than needing to be rescued. Of course, Seren. The girl hadn't been a part of their lives when Ronin told her his plans; now she glances over at Remi, wondering how he truly feels about playing babysitter through Long Night. Were it Deimos going out she would be aching at the bit, yearning and anxious and desperate to be at his side, fighting his fights. "I'll take care of him," she murmurs softly, once more bumping her shoulder against Remi's. "He'll make it back to you. To both of you. I promise." reach for the stars: but child, first recognize the constellations of light you already carry inside you

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

'You sound like Deimos.' Remi replied with a chuckle. Not very long before, the eagle had said something along the lines of there will always be something else, and it seemed equally apt in this conversation as it had during the one by the Miana Pool. 'That there will always be whose who open doors and heroes who need to save them."

Looking over his shoulder, Remi nods with a faint smile. He isn't so naive now to believe that Amalia's good will has the power to save his husband, but...well. The pair of them together are a formidable force. "I appreciate that." He agreed with a faint nod.

"So...this adventure of yours." The Alchemist prompted, a brow raised.

Amalia "Deimos would have said it in fewer words," she points out with a quiet laugh of her own, clearly pleased by the comparison. "We're, ah, we're getting married, by the way. At the end of the season. It's going to be small, but there'll be a reception... we'd love for you and Ronin to come." Flushing pink and smiling, she doesn't meet Remi's eyes. She can hardly expect him to leave Torchline for something so insignificant, but she is hopeful nonetheless. Of course, there was a reason for her coming here, lost as it may have been among the news of changes in Remi's life. "Right." Worrying her lip Amalia frowns, her dark eyes scanning the edge of the sea. "I... don't know if you're aware of the situation in Halo. With Loren's brother as Warden, and Zariah as his right hand... and now Neron is Ascended." There's clear distaste in the girl's voice, as she waits for Remi's feelings on this development. reach for the stars: but child, first recognize the constellations of light you already carry inside you

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

Despite the Alchemist's raised brows, he didn't seem terribly surprised. Remi had spoken about nuptials with both Sword and Shield over the past seasons (years, by now?), and so if anything, whatever surprise was writ in his features more or less asked why now?

"Send us a raven, and we'll be there. I can't promise we'll behave ourselves or enjoy being back in the Grounds, but for you, I think we can make an exception."

At the mention of Halo, Remi's expression turns sour. He dislikes the icy city to the west for more than a handful of reasons. He grumbles in acknowledgement of Neron as Warden (the portal guardians having gone to see him once, after all), but grows still at the mention of the former-lawyer as an ascended.

"Oh good. I'm sure nothing bad will come of that." Remi says with a frown. "What's that got to do with your adventure?"

Amalia "Thank you." The gratitude is sincere, appreciation in the fact that he has agreed to make a difficult journey for her. That whatever they are to each other now, in the aftermath of the great disaster, they are somehow still bound close enough for this. Still worrying her lip, Amalia frowns deeply at the sea. "I was asked to help... help lower the Ascended influence. Before the Voice can take hold, like she has in the Grounds." It is her first time admitting that her home might be lost, too tightly clenched in the Voice's vice grip to ever be truly wrenched free. She picks up a piece of wood from the dock and fiddles it between her fingers. "I'm worried about her influence spreading. To Halo, and here, and everywhere else. You said yourself- with the portals active, who knows where the monsters will go? The Greatwood was nearly destroyed. The Old Gods tasked us to try and prevent this, but so far..." Amalia's voice is frustrated as she trails off, both with the circumstances and herself. Finally she looks at Remi again, searching in his face for some sign of understanding. "If there's something we can do to stop it - something the natives of Halo want us to do... shouldn't we try? Will you help me?" reach for the stars: but child, first recognize the constellations of light you already carry inside you

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

If Remi has any idea where she's going, beginning the way she has, he keeps his face carefully schooled as he looks into the water. Once, he'd never have done such a thing, his expressions and emotions clearly writ across arms and eyes and lips. But neither of them have the hearts they once did, not after everything that has happened, and all the things that haven't.

For a long while the Alchemist is silent. This sort of broody contemplation isn't a look he sports well, and in those moments of silence he just looks older than he should and oh so tired. Eventually, he runs the flat of his hand up the side of his face, then lets it tangle with ebbs of frustration in his curls.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I never asked to be a portal guardian, never agreed to any of this. The ascended...I'm not sure that they don't have as much right to live where they chose. I don't have the same allegiance to the old gods that you do Amalia, so I care very little for arguments about the way things should be, or how the old gods want them."

Tilting his head back, eyes closed, Remi takes a breath and as he exhales, he tries to find some semblance of peace within himself to grasp onto, but finds it lacking. "But...there is Ludo, and what I am to it." The implication of course being that once upon a time Ludo allegedly asked Roanna to kill the ascended.

Amalia She waits for his response with quietly baited breath, not sure what to expect from the man who has changed so much in so little time. And honesty, his response frustrates her, causes her to clench her jaw and tense her toes beneath the water. Because of all the things he could have said, this one sounds the most like an excuse. "Maybe you didn't ask for it in so many words," she replies slowly, voice measured but underscored in frustration, "But honestly, Remi? You came to Caido and made it your own. You prayed to our gods and gained their gifts. You traded with Ludo, and were chosen in ways many of us have never hoped to dream." There's bitterness in her voice, loneliness, failure: but steel and iron, too. "You didn't just... just stumble into being chosen. It wasn't random. Your actions led to all of it. You belong to the Old Gods as much as any of us do- more than most of us." With a deep sigh she furrows her brows, hands clenching and unclenching over her bare thighs. Dropping her head, Amalia looks away from Remi, licking at her lips. "You don't have to help me with this, Remi. But don't say you didn't pick a side, when you have from the beginning." reach for the stars: but child, first recognize the constellations of light you already carry inside you

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

He glances over his shoulder at her, surprised but not unhappy with how she chooses to respond. Like him, Amalia has changed in fundamental ways too, and despite hating the road that has brought them both here, he's glad that at least they're able to talk openly.

'You sound like Maea. She said something similar, though I ought to feel so grateful your gods have taken an interest in me, even if that interest manifests itself in curses and punishment." Snorting under his breath, he kicks water against her foot, breaking the tension of their conversation by breaking the water. Or trying to, at least. 'But I take your meaning." He says with a sigh.

Without warning, Remi pushes himself off of the dock and into the water. The rush of cold is a brilliant thrill that makes him want to gasp and laugh all at the same time. Colour rushes to his cheeks, and treading water as he is, his clothes loose around him, he looks ridiculously boyish and carefree for a moment.

"If they want your help, I'll aid you." He says after a moment, glancing up at her. "And...I'll ask Ludo what its expectations are from me with regards to...well. All of it." It was as the raggedy god had told him oh so long ago, when first they'd met. There was always a choice. Death was always an option; if Remi didn't want to help, he didn't have to.

Amalia The comparison to Maea stirs an aching sadness for her lost friend, the Shield briefly closing her eyes before opening them again. "Maybe instead of curses... Think of them as tests." Shrugging, and he girl rubs her thumb over her wrist. "Tests you passed, it seems." She's startled when he slips into the water, not sure if she ought to follow or not. For now she stays on the dock, leaning forward on her elbows and mentally calling for fish to come and swim around him playfully. A playfully that swiftly fades again. "All of it?" she repeats softly, the unsaid things clear. "Does it... Want the same thing it wanted from Roana?" reach for the stars: but child, first recognize the constellations of light you already carry inside you

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

Remi wouldn't argue with the Shield, not when their views of fealty and religion differed so greatly. So instead he just hummed a note of weary respect, if not agreement.

Unable to compel the creatures away, diminished in this new state of his, he merely paws softly at them hoping natural means might discourage them from taking too keen an interest in him. 'All of it.' He repeats steadily, sea-glass eyes peering up at her with a stubborn fastidiousness to follow this through.

'I'm not sure. From what I was told later, Roana was desperate to prove herself." The line of Remi's jaw suggested he wasn't in that position with respect to the raggedy god. "And punished as Ludo was for trying to have the ascended killed...I wonder if it doesn't still want the same thing." Continuing to tread water easily, Remi narrowed his gazed thoughtfully.

"What would you do, Amalia? If Vi came down now and asked you in no uncertain terms, to try and kill the ascended? If he said he knew better, and commanded it. Would you try and argue or barter?"

Amalia It's so strange to think about the last time they approached this issue, the people they were then. Young and naive and idealistic, the pair of them had railed against death as a concept, an answer, a cause. They had confronted Roana - Remi nearly killing her in the process - and they had thought themselves, knew themselves, to be in the right. And now? Now the things that make right and wrong are much harder to name. "I wouldn't be surprised," she agrees softly, watching the fish that swim around him curiously. "And I wouldn't be surprised if it was the only one." His question only pries deeper into that suspicion, pressing at issues she had thought about at length recently, things she still does not know how to face. Sighing, the Shield sets her chin in her palm. "I don't know," the girl admits, closing her eyes for a moment. "If Vi commanded it of me... who would I be to refuse?" She has pledge as much after all, sworn to be whatever it is the Lord of Life asks of her. But... the idea of killing, of taking a life - even an Ascended life - leaves ash in her mouth. "I told him... when he asked if I would ever take a life. I told him I didn't think I could. And... I think that's true, still. I would do everything I could to stop the Voice, to serve Him, but I... don't know if I can do that." Meeting Remi's seafoam eyes, the Shield sighs and bites her lip. "But... you chose Ludo, or were chosen by it. We're on different paths, even if they're going in the same direction. So... Would you? If it asked?" reach for the stars: but child, first recognize the constellations of light you already carry inside you

i've seen fire & i've seen rain.
i've seen sunny days that i thought would never end

"Who indeed." He agrees, leaning back in the water so that he might float. With his arms out from his sides, Remi lets his ears fall beneath the surface to hear the mumbled song of the ocean rather than the cacophony that is humanity above.

Hearing her, albeit slightly muffled, Remi lifts his head from the water. "And if you helped orchestrate something which would lead to their deaths? Would blood be on your hands then? How far does culpability stretch, between planning such a thing, and actually doing it?" This he wonders genuinely, knowing that while he might not necessarily have the forethought to concoct the plans Ludo might have in mind, he surely has the ability to carry them out. Or try anyways, which is much the same.

"Who would I be, to refuse?" He said, just the way she had only moments ago. "I have chosen a side even if I didn't intend to, just as you've pointed out. But no, I don't think I'd do so without argument or questions. I'd want to know why, if nothing else."

Amalia "It might be." Watching him float weightless and easy triggers something uneasy in the girl, the contrast between the setting and their conversation amplified, clamouring under her skin. "Which... is difficult, then. If you don't prevent a death when you could, are you responsible for it? Is your sin just as great? I used to think so, but..." But what of nature, of Rae's role in things? Of Mort's? She brings her feet out of the water, tucking them beneath her legs. "I could argue that sometimes death is right and just, but then, how do you know? A rabbit is innocent when a fox eats it- does that make the fox a sinner? Or a survivor?" Running her hands over her knees, Amalia licks her lips. "I would like to believe the Ascended - most of them - are innocents. Pawns to a goddess who seduced them with lies. That they do not, for that, deserve to die. But... if their very existence threatens others, wittingly or not?" She shakes her head, trailing off and rubbing her temples. They are not questions she can answer, and she doesn't expect him to, either. Glancing back up at Remi, the Shield nods. "I think... that's right. Wanting to know the reason for things. It's... it's something that separates us from the Ascended, I think. Makes us more than pawns." reach for the stars: but child, first recognize the constellations of light you already carry inside you