locked to zenith

[bakedapple]

[ Link's mental space feels like being outside, so depending on where you are, you might not realize that someone has started Communion with you. Since joining the Zenith, the landscape of Link's mind has gone from idyllic, sunny forests to icy, overcast mountains. A frigid wind blows against your face, carrying the scent of firewood and meat roasting over an open flame. The diminutive Hylian is not sitting by the fire, but standing at the edge of a rocky ledge, his back turned. ]

There's going to be another Oracle soon. I can feel it. The rest of you can feel it too, right? That... pulling feeling.

[ He sighs. ]

If we lose this one, it's over. The Meridian isn't going to go easy on us. I know them... I know how badly they want to win. To them, the stakes couldn't be higher.

So let's talk. About what we're going to be up against, and... well, planning ahead isn't really something we can do, but at least we can warn each other of the dangers that individual Meri pose.

And I... I want to say something, too.

[ He sits down where he stands, his feet hanging off the cliff. There's a sense that he knows this isn't going to go over well, but it's important enough to him to say it anyway. ]

Killing the other guy before they kill you is what war is. That's normal. But Kenos is different. Death doesn't work the way it should here. We don't die permanently. You can neutralize someone threatening you by just dissipating them. There's nothing to gain by destroying their soul after you're no longer in danger.

So, I don't think any of us should shatter anyone ever again.

If you claim someone's Shard, you should protect it. If you feel that you can't do that, give it to someone else.

...I'm not stupid. I know a lot of you aren't gonna agree to this. And the Meris probably won't either. I'm sure they want revenge for what happened to Quetzalcoatl, and those of you who lost the Shards Yima gave you probably aren't feeling very merciful right now either...

But if we don't come to some kinda agreement now, that's going to become normal. Things are gonna get really bad. I don't want that. So... can we talk about it, at least?

Comments

[youngprodigy]

[The distaste is evident even before he speaks again.]

Gods aren't even real where I am from. They're naught more than arcane entities brought forth by faith, and a dear friend of mine was the one called forth to slay every single one of them.

The point is that Zenith is the side that murdered a Shardbearer. If that is something you have no issue with, we'll not see eye-to-eye on anything.

[corvidant]

[ Cid, you're getting one big shrug here. Like, not really, but it sure is the Vibe. ]

Pray tell, then. How is it any different for your dear friend to be called upon to slay gods, than the rest of us murdering a Shardbearer? Where does your moral compass draw the line between the value one of life and another?

[youngprodigy]

Because primals drain the land of aether. That's bad— no aether, no life. It if went far enough, the entire world would be a dead husk. They're not people, they're magicks that exist only to destroy.

So no, it's not the same. I won't bother talking you out of violence, but I refuse to have any part in it.

[corvidant]

If they exist, they live, at least in some manner or another. Even "Oblivion" is only trying to perpetuate itself; survive, in other words.

[ Naturally, he isn't about to take it sitting down, either; if Oblivion comes for him, he'll strike back. Because this is war. And wars are won via bloodshed, people die when they're killed, etc etc. ]

At any rate, I wouldn't ask you to take lives, if it's not something you're prepared to do. In all honesty, I would prefer if none of our allies would be forced into action, as though robbed of agency. But a war is a war, and some of us are willing to face the fact that no side will win without bloodshed.

[youngprodigy]

[There's a mental equivalent of a raised brow at the comparison, but he doesn't argue further.]

I've seen the pointlessness of warfare before. I was present at Carteneau. [Which he says, before it occurs to him a moment later no one else is from his world, and won't know what that means.] Thousands of people died in that battle, and that was before a primal was released from the lesser moon and unleashed a Calamity that killed even more people.

I come from a nation that took to subjugating dozens of countries. There was a time I even designed the weapons used in those campaigns. It's because of all of that I refuse to have anything to do with bloodshed.

[He pauses, more to gather his thoughts than for dramatic effect.]

...since coming to Kenos, I have become a healer.

[It's an offer, a promise. Should something happen during the Oracle.]