our hopes and expectations

They rose like a chorus at midnight. Freedom - free - after so very, very long. Ludo had not been able to act at first, having to gather its strength for the task at hand. Never had it guided so many, not all at once. Not three centuries of souls. And when it did emerge from the Woodlands to streak across the sky over the Wildwood, it appeared with a comet's tail of light in tow. Souls and lanterns, each and every one, swarming, bursting forth, eager and ready (ready after so long) for the peace and bliss of Mort's embrace. Those below, across the Hollowed Grounds, across the Greatwood, all would hear it - an ethereal song that did not seem to come from human lips, calling the lost ones home. And Ludo was exuberant with it, laughing with it, proud of it. I kept them for you, the song seemed to say. They're here waiting for you, look! LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

Mort

I knew I loved you before I met you.
I think I dreamed you into life.

If Ludo's bouquet of lived-lives was a chorus, then Mort's welcoming of them was a symphony.

The sky opened and softened hues of prismatic brilliance streaked across the skies as the barrier between the mortal world and Mort's domain was crossed. Into his being, welcomed and wanted, they came in droves, ushered to him by one of his most beloved.

"How well you've done!" A voice radiantly gushed behind Ludo, arms that belayed strength that the small frame wouldn't normally suggest encircling the robed god. Whirling Ludo around as the souls continued to punctuate the barrier with smatterings of light in the darkness, Mort pulled Ludo to himself and danced his unfettered joy.

"How I have missed you!"

There were no words to express the relief and the joy as Ludo finally fulfilled its purpose in shepherding the souls home - but there was laughter, and at the sound of Mort's voice it whipped around, a bundle of rags and a mask, and let itself be caught up in the truly sweet embrace of death. "I tried," it managed breathlessly. "I couldn't get them all but I tried. I'm sorry for not keeping the barrier up, Mort. I missed you too much - they missed you. Please don't be angry with me." LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

Mort

I knew I loved you before I met you.
I think I dreamed you into life.

"I know you did." Mort said soothingly, sweetly, smoothing out the wrinkles of Ludo's rags. Pulling back, Mort gazed adoringly at Ludo, seeing through the mask into the beatific soul that danced in the darkness. "Shhh, shhh. We'll get them together." Mort promised knowingly with a patient smile.

The god's soft cheeks were rosy with delight, his eyes enigmatic but kind. "Angry? With you?" He asked almost playfully, thrusting the arms of Ludo's rags up and spinning it about before pulling it back against his body with a a quite hum of glee. "Never! I am so pleased with you."

The soul within the mask positively shone with adoration, Ludo wrapped snug against Mort like a blanket as they danced and swayed and celebrated the return of the lost ones. "I'm so glad," it said, voice muffled somewhat by the deity's embrace. To have its creator pleased with it, to be welcomed back with literally open arms - Ludo felt a chasm within itself close and heal, even as the souls bounced and danced about them. Quietly, it pulled back and gazed up at the stars - at two in particular. "Safrin would not let me take those," it said. "I don't know how we are meant to get them to your domain." LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

Mort

I knew I loved you before I met you.
I think I dreamed you into life.

Looking up at the stars, partially obscured by the ethereal lights produces by the souls still returning into him, Mort tilted his head gently to the side. Gathering Ludo to him, he tucked the god around his neck, fussing with a part of Ludo that might well have been his neck and shoulders to wear him like some sort of cravat.

"Safrin knows better than that." Mort said, suddenly lifting off of the ground with wings made of the breeze around them, propelling them upwards so that the dancing lights below bloomed into distant and hazy shapes. "Why would she do that?" He prompted softly, his brows furrowing into a softly unhappy shape as he gazed at the two stars burning bright with the souls they still harboured.

Ludo practically purred as it was fussed over and tucked so close to Mort, content to be in his presence over anything else for the next... oh, eternity or so. As they surged upwards it watched the souls that were finally able to leave its keeping, feeling strangely light and unburdened now that it had completed its purpose. "I don't know," it said of the stars. "I believe one was a gift, for a mortal. The other is the mortal himself. She took their child from you, also." It couldn't help but sound grumpy about that, still. "Can you get them down? They belong with you." LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

Mort

I knew I loved you before I met you.
I think I dreamed you into life.

"Ohhh." Mort hummed, strangely bemused by this information as they glided up. As they did, the stars began to bleed away into images. The two of Ronin and Vanya revealed an eternal shoreline, resplendent with life. There were scattered paintbrushes and canvases, a bird sailing high, and a wealth of laughter on golden sands.

"Oh I see." Mort said with a disappointed but understanding sigh. "Their souls are between now. If I pulled them from the sky it could tear them apart." The god said out loud, head tilted in thoughtful contemplation. But to breathe life into them again, only to take it? Hmmm.

"And a child, you said?"

"You do?" Ludo turned its masked face up to gaze at Mort, watching the images in the clouds of the spaces between worlds, of golden sands and deep oceans. It sort of understood, but not to the extent of the deity who held it. It was not Ludo's place to know - only to guide. "Yes, a child. She has stars in her eyes - Safrin's doing, no doubt." It tutted, as though its fellow deity had become utterly unraveled in her time behind the barrier. "Leave them, then. They are pretty trinkets for her to watch." LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

Mort

I knew I loved you before I met you.
I think I dreamed you into life.

Softly Mort looked down at Ludo, able to do so despite their strange positionings. Bending space had always been a gift of theirs after all. Reaching out a hand to gently touch the mask where the wearers cheek would be, Mort's warmth would flood through regardless. Ludo had not got to experience the fullness of love in life as Mort would have liked, and when it showed—when its cracked and sad past reared up—the god's heart beat with monumental love.

"She does like to leave her mark, doesn't she?" Mort replied with an amused shake of his head. Listening to the tone of words used, and Ludo's mention of trinket, Mort frowned warmly and nodded. He'd not comment on the strange relationship between the goddess and his guide, though he did find it odd.

"We will leave them for now then. But thank you for letting me know. You always are so observant." He gushed.

The warmth flooded through Ludo and it wrapped itself ever more comfortably around Mort's shoulders, little more than a god's comfort blanket in that moment. Oh, how it had missed him. "She does, yes. She wanted all the world within the barrier to know her. Whether that was to try and do Vi's bidding or for her own needs I don't know." Mort fussed over him further and Ludo unravelled itself reluctantly from around him, floating before its master like a child requesting permission. "May I go to the woods, please?" it asked. Not any woods. Ludo's Woods. LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own

Mort

I knew I loved you before I met you.
I think I dreamed you into life.

With a deep and resonant laugh, Mort nodded as the world around them blurred and sparkled as they descended. "That has always been her way." The god replied with a bemused sort of smile, having heard similar reports from Vi over their eons together.

"Ah! Of course! How silly and selfish of me to have kept you so long!" Mort cooed, his smile the most pure representation of love. "Please! Enjoy yourself. Your woods have missed you, perhaps just as much as I. " As he said this, Mort's head tilted slightly to the side as he positively beamed at his most perfect and adored guide.

"Not selfish. Never selfish." Ludo's mask shook back and forth in a resonant no, as if it could dispel the very thought from its head, as well as Mort's. They descended untilt the world in truth sparkled below them once more, the souls of the Hollowed Grounds delivered safely into Mort's domain at long last. "I have missed them, too. But not as much as I have missed you," it said, surging up and around the deity's head before letting out a whoop! and rocketing down towards the dark and eerie parts of the Wildwood, keen to see what it had missed. LUDO Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own