innocence died screaming

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

Safrin's recent actions had been the final straw. For all that Ronin had given to the goddess over the years, that he was now being made to feel guilty for not giving enough was one thing, but that the Nova didn't even know the full story was no longer something Remi could abide. While he wouldn't risk the life of their son, he couldn't keep his thoughts caged any longer.

Having been in the Greatwood recently with Jude, Remi had opted to stop at the shrine within Ludo's woods rather than venturing back to Torchine. The Greatwood had always felt like home, and for all the trauma the herald had caused him in these woods, still they were too familiar to abandon completely.

So, with a piece of paper and a hanged-man drawn upon it (there were 5 blank spaces awaiting letters), Remi set down the little game and waited for the herald to arrive.

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

Ludo has been having A Time, and a visit from its demigod does not miraculously make it all better. Whether Remi is aware of the issues in the spirit world, or whether he cares, is not something currently on Ludo's radar. For all of this, though, it still responds when the Lullaby... well. He doesn't call for the raggedy god, exactly. But he comes to play a game, and that much is enough. "A," Ludo announces, meaning A to be the first letter it chooses. From above in the branches of the trees, the black eyed child dangles its bare, frostbitten toes, and Ludo cranes forward to try and see the paper more clearly. LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

Glancing up at Ludo, it's with what feels like a banshee's wail barricaded behind his teeth, that Remi nods. In greeting as much as recognition of the herald's first guess.

_ A _ _ A
The first A was likely expected by the god, but the second? Trying to exhale steadily, Remi held the bit of charcoal in his fingers as loosely as he could lest he snap it and find himself reduced to tracing out letters in the dirt.

Whether Ludo was as omniscient as Safrin was, or pretended to be, didn't matter much to the Lullaby. Either it was enough information or the game would continue.

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

Indeed, Ludo beholds the name with furrowed brow, tilting its head this way and that and finally pushing itself from the branches. Falling with the speed of a feather, on black tip-toes the herald lands softly before the Lullaby, crouching opposite until they are both hunched over the paper. "N," it guesses, its eyes never leaving Remi's face despite the game that sprawls between them. It knows already. Of course it does. But a game is a game, and Ludo wants to be sure this is the conversation they are about to have. LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

Looking at Ludo through a clump of curls as it lands, Remi blinks a single time. Every predatory instinct he possesses wants him to strike before his opponent has a chance to, which makes the tears which swipe at the back of his eyes feel all the more painful.
_A N _ A
the game now reads.

Still, Remi wants to scream. Moreso, he wants Ludo to give him the ability to score a hole in the cosmos and tear Vanya free while also marring Safrin's canvas at the same time. He wants to slam his fist into the soil to declare that she's gone too far this time, that he'll no longer abide the threat over his son's life, that he is done.

Instead, he merely looks back at Ludo and waits for it to guess again.

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

But of course, we all know Ludo does not need to guess again. And, written by an invisible hand in elegant ink rather than the blunt scratch of charcoal, the word fills itself in, and the hanged man avoids the noose. V A N Y A "The world is fuzzy with spirits this season," Ludo murmurs. "It's chaos. Ghosts trundling about as if they are alive again. But this one in particular is the one that has your attention, and she isn't even in Mort's realm." Another herald might have scolded; others still might have punished. But Ludo regards its chosen with soft, black eyes, and it nods. "Speak freely, then." LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

"So I have seen. I thought it a game you were playing." Remi says, his voice only hinting at an upward inflection. He was curious of course, but not so much so that it would distract him from his reason for being here.

"A soul withheld from Mort's realm. Seems an appropriate enough thing for a demigod of yours to be concerned with." The Lullaby adds as reasonably as he can. Taking a breath, Remi sits back on his feet, hands resting on his knees as if to engage in some light breath work.

"Mateo is the greatest gift you have given me and for years I have choked on this secret to keep him safe." Remi's ghostly arm slithered forward, drawing a frown next to Vanya's name. "For you, I would keep silent. For Mateo of course I would. But now..." The Lullaby bites at the inside of his cheek.

"Safrin does not deserve my silence. If there is no way that I can free Vanya's soul from the sky, at least let me speak the truth to Ronin."

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

"Not this time," Ludo laments, as if this really would have been a fun game to play. "I was distracted by the island out in the sea. Things just... slipped through." It wiggles its fingers, sounding a little distant even now, as if its mind is elsewhere. It does, at least, refocus on Remi as he speaks, tilting its head to consider the Lullaby's words. "Tricking you was such fun, once upon a time," it says. "But now you have gone and walked my path for so long, it almost feels wrong." Almost being the key word, there. And it's true that Mateo has since grown into a toddler, a child, a teenager and now a man in his own right, all in the time that Remi has bitten his tongue. "You know how turbulent that would make things, and this is already a time of uncertainty," it remarks. "Are you sure?" LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

Frowning slightly, Remi eyes the herald silently. Theirs had never been an overly intimate relationship such that the Lullaby felt no inclination to reach out and give the raggedy bundle any sort of reassurance or affection. Instead, he just nodded. "If you need me to do anything..." Trailing off, Remi can only shrug. He was Ludo's to command, after all.

Laughing humourlessly, Remi smiles almost apologetically. "Ah, but if you had killed me all those times in the past, who would you beat at Hanged Man?" The Lullaby wonders, thinking how much easier things must have been for Ludo when he was nothing but a naively optimistic fool.

"I am sure."

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

"Only that which you are already doing. Your role is providing peace at death, not so much dealing with the spirits afterwards," Ludo says with a shrug, the black eyed child straighening up to its full (meagre) height and unsuccessfully straightening its rags. "Perhaps I would have a better opponent," it counters, leaning down to collect up the paper and stuff it into its sleeve. (It's still an offering, after all). "Very well," it says slowly. "No longer will your son be forfeit to your loose lips on the matter. But I will warn you - Safrin will know if her secret is shared, and she will know it was you. I would not let her kill you, but you won't be spared her wrath." And perhaps there's something conspiring in Ludo's tone, for how better for Remi to cement his husband's disdain for the goddess, than to put himself in her line of fire? LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

"Perhaps you would." Remi agrees, and had the moment been one of levity, he might have even made a joke about being more than happy to share Ludo's rags with another. Alas, the weight of all the work he did for Ludo combined with Safrin's actions recently had made Remi into an even worse playmate for his herald.

Steeling himself as if expecting the sky to crash down upon him, the Lullaby pauses for a moment, listening to the lazy groans of the woods around them. "Thank you." Now Remi does want to reach out for the god, but instead, he merely pulls a piece of paper from his pocket. Writ upon it is the latest of the names Ludo had sent to him, though in preparation, Remi had folded it into the shape of a frog. Placing it on the ground, he pressed a tab on its back, causing it to hop forward.

"Before I go...do you have any memory of a man called Amun finding his way to Mort's halls? Maea was asking after him."

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.

Lighting up at the paper frog, Ludo of course crouches back down for it, scooping it up only to hop (literally) a few paces away to play with it some more. "You are welcome," it croons with all the distraction of a child who has already forgotten what it has done to be thanked. Making the list of deaths frog around for a bit, it's only as the new names pass Remi's lips that the herald pauses, glancing back at the Lullaby. The blankness in Ludo's expression might be attributed to a machine searching a database, if either god or demigod knew what that meant, before - and with little more than a blink - it shakes its head. "I do not know where this man is, but he does not roam Mort's halls. Not yet, in any case." LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

REMI

the alchemist

there's a feeling i get when i look to the west,
& my spirit is crying for leaving.

"I will let her know." The hope of knowing somewhere in the vastness of the world that Amun was still alive might be more than Maea could bear, but of course it was only for Remi to pass on the information. After today, he vowed never to keep another secret again, no matter the cost.

"I owe you, for this." The Lullaby said as he stood, knowing full well what such an offering might bind him to when it came to Ludo, but offering it just the same. "I fear I might be slow in my duties given what Safrin might due to me, but I will see them done." So saying, he glanced fleetingly at the sky, still not entirely sure it wasn't about to come crashing down upon him, before leaving Ludo with its frog and its spirits.

~FIN

in my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
& the voices of those who stand looking.