open | an alenroux press release

[sterngaze]

[A couple weeks after the conclusion of the Exalt Oracle trial, a communion message goes out to all Kenos’s shard-bearers — at a brisk mid-morning hour for Springstar residents, and evening for those night owls in Highstorm. Surely an agreeable enough time for all, yes? The voice will be familiar enough to anyone who listened in on the ambassador talk a Kenos month ago; it’s Liem, mayor of Alenroux Meridian’s resident straight man.]

Greetings, everyone. I have some updates to share regarding efforts to make Alenroux fully and safely inhabitable, which I hope you will be pleased to hear.

Last month, prior to the events surrounding the Oracle, a contingent of Springstar military overseen by several shard-bearers launched a multi-pronged expedition north into Alenroux’s forests, in order to locate the source of the monsters that continue to infest the woods. While I’m sure those of you who frequent Alenroux will have noticed that the flow of especially dangerous, augmented creatures mostly died off after the dismantling of Aetós’s underground facility, we have not been able to expunge the general monster population from the forest despite ongoing efforts, so this was an attempt to remedy that.

These expeditionary forces succeeded in locating three separate cornerstones and portals that were previously disgorging monsters. At this time we think it likely that they were connected to the timestream in some way that allowed creatures from other worlds to come through, but the portals themselves proved extremely hazardous to life attempting to breach from this side. All three have now been destroyed, and while we cannot say with certainty that there are no further portals out there, we are optimistic that this will allow the danger to those living in Alenroux to be further reduced by the joint forces still stationed there.

If you have further questions, you may direct them to me, or to Hayame, Akua Sahelian, Keitaro Miura, Gray, Byleth Eisner, Link, Kim Dokja, or Dee. [He means D.]

Comments

[warmare]

I do not make allies of people who kidnap members of my faction.

[(foreshadowing…)]

[wolof]

[ oops! ]

We all make allies with those whom we may not wish to, Hayame.

If one of Zenith's most loyal who had wronged you converted, would you not put aside your disagreement for the greater good?

[warmare]

No.

[... She sounds pretty confident.]

If they were one of Zenith's most loyal, then such a person has proven themselves unworthy of my trust already. I am expected to believe they simply "had a change of heart"? I am supposed to forgive them?

I will not.

Any "good" they might bring to my cause, I will find another way to obtain. One that can be counted on not to stab me in the back.

[wolof]

I see.

[ She sounds... sad, actually.

For all that Akua has confidence, and stalwart belief in what she is doing... she still committed the greatest crimes of all. Tirelessly, she had worked to ingratiate herself to Catherine and her friends. Endlessly she had worked. Only to be told over, and over, and over again: that she would never convince them.

Guilt did not matter.

Redemption was unachievable. She would never be able to make up for her crimes.

She had given her life for it. Willingly.

Hearing that from Hayame stung, even if she could not explain why. ]

I do hope that it will not lead to our defeat, to be set in your ways alone.

[warmare]

[Hayame had always struggled to understand Akua's talk of redemption. Even as she strove for it herself... she had always known it would never be hers. The only thing she could do was to cleanse her honor- she had wished to do it by dying, but now some have tried to convince her to do it while surviving. But do they not know that is the harder, more torturous path?

If she lives, she has to do so with the weight of what she has done, surely never receiving the forgiveness of those she had wronged... ]

Rest assured, Akua.

This faction has never heeded my words or what I advise. To them, [to you?] I am the cruel, heartless beast who lurks on Meridian's borders and bites when they weep and debate instead of war.

They will never make me their commander. If we are defeated, it will be in spite of my efforts.

Not because of them.

[... She sounds sad, actually.]

[wolof]

[ A soft sigh. ]

You deride yourself, and it is unseemly. [ She says, and it is not harsh, but it is firm. ] Is there something wrong with being a cruel, heartless beast? Is there something wong with being the iron grip that keeps those who need it in line?

[ A flicker of something, that flash of darkness that was so cold, so vast. It was destruction and fire and hell and everything in-between. She was a villain in those words, and she was proud of it. ]

You already do what needs be done. If you were to accept those whom approve of your measures, regardless of where they come from, or who they used to be, I think you would find yourself commander of more than simply your own person. You may be a powerful warrior of your own, but you need those to watch your flank.

[warmare]

[Hayame had never had a mother, she'd had an Armless broomare for a dam that never spoke to her, never held her, never scolded her. But if she'd had... maybe she would tell Akua not to sound like her. - Is that what they sounded like?]

They deride me.

[And she hates it. Why can she not hate it?]

There is nothing wrong with those things if you are a villain.

[She doesn't say it like "villain" is an insult, because... she had been one, too. She had made herself into a villain to her own kind in order to survive and reach for dignity and a chance at personhood. But wasn't-

Wasn't she trying to redeem herself? How the hell is she supposed to do that if-]

Leave it, Akua. Set has already tried to lecture me enough this day.

[They just don't understand. (She doesn't want to understand, to have to understand.)

And she doesn't want to talk about it anymore on godsdamned communion.]

[wolof]

[ The softest of withdrawals, a gentle pulling back, like the heat of that sand beneath her hooves recedes slightly, and Hayame is left with a rapidly chilling desert in communion. ]

Very well.

[ She doesn't, because it should be simple — pragmatic. Hayame wanted to win, why shouldn't she? Why wouldn't she accept all of what others would offer? Any advantage?

Were their worlds not worth every sacrifice?

Though. Perhaps she had not been forced to do so yet. She wondered if she would. ]

Let us speak no more of it, then.

[warmare]

[Akua withdraws... and so does Hayame, the cold, snowy winds beginning to howl again as the heat of the other woman's presence recedes.]

... Not tonight, Akua.

[... She's so tired of not being allowed to be the rigid, unbending steel.]

[wolof]

I will speak to you again, when you have need of me again.

[ A cooling desert, the warmth of the sun fading, to be swallowed by the howling, cold winds of the north. Like an invasion of chill and darkness, as Calamity retreats. ]