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[hellufacade]

You have reached Solus Gavus, Theater Director. Leave a message, unless you're trying to skip out of rehearsal. Save the excuses and just show up, alright?

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[eightfoldlight]

[ She purses her lips as she listens to him and watches him. Emet-Selch really has a way of making even the most logical proposition sound horrible. It takes her an enormous amount of effort not to just blow him off out of hand. ]

Is this about the Porters, again?

[hellufacade]

Oh keep up, will you? Of course it is. Nothing is done for no reason. Even the most innocent and innocuous choice is colored by the circumstances that surround it.

[He dramatically places a few fingers against his brow as he tilts his head back. ]

Or have you really learned nothing?

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh falls silent, her eye remaining trained on him as she thinks. It isn't as though he's wrong. It would make it all easier if he was. Being an Ascian, and thus prone to making plans that tend to go terribly wrong for everyone except the Ascians themselves, she wants to discard him out of hand. But she can't. ]

[ Regardless of the situation happening on Earth, it is as she told Nashir: if there is any risk Emet-Selch can return home, ready and willing to resume his post without interruption to old plans, then there is only one answer. It feels as though there only ever will be one answer. But she and Nashir decided to try and save him, didn't they? Knowing even just one person has her back, she rallies. ]

[ Her options ever and always grow more convoluted. ]

You aren't wrong.

[hellufacade]

Of course I’m not! [He says with a squawk. ]

‘Tis clear as crystal that you are as lost as you ever were without your companions.

[He folds his arms and turns towards her. He sighs, deflating.]

Very well, Hero. If you require my counsel again...

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh frowns at him. ]

Slow down, Hades. I said you aren't wrong. And I considered what you said the other night, about me being the only one who can save everyone. That's probably true. Everything you have said is likely true, given how my life has trended thus far.

[ She shrugs and sits back on her butt on stage, resting her head on her arms and knees as though tired. ]

But at least the Scions have the decency not to treat me like a fancy shovel.

[hellufacade]

[He does a double take. ]

Is that how you think I’m treating you? Like some tool? Or is it someone else you speak of?

[Enquiring minds want to know! ]

[eightfoldlight]

You!

[ She looks at him incredulously. ]

Do you really not understand how you sound? As much as you talk at me and browbeat me, and then can't even properly address my concerns? Surely, you must.

[hellufacade]

[He huffs. ]

Concerns! She has concerns. Well. Out with it! The sooner we resolve this, the sooner this hellish ache in my skull will leave me.

[And brow beating is his love language. ]

[eightfoldlight]

[ She pushes herself forward into a squat again, pointing down toward him. ]

See, right there! That's the very thing. You've decided on what you want, and you're just out to convince me to come along with you.

[hellufacade]

I’ve asked you what you want and what your plans were. You had no answers! But someone has to, hmm?

[He leans his elbows on the stage. ]

Go on, tell me your designs.

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh pinches the bridge of her nose as she attempts to salvage this disgrace. ]

I haven't gathered enough information or met enough people to feel confident in any plan. Much less one foisted on me by one whose Plan B for his last big scheme was to kill me.

[hellufacade]

[He folds his arms and bristles.]

My “Plan B” wasn’t preferable, merely inevitable! Or so I thought. Don’t take it so personally. What happened, by the by, during that battle? It has haunted me ever since. Of course I have my theories. but....

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh exhales out her nose. This, at least, she had already decided to tell him. ]

Do you know a man named Ardbert?

[hellufacade]

[He squints at her and frowns. ]

Yes, of course. The Warrior of Light of the First. Dead for a century.

[He senses where this is going and is angry about it.]

Don’t tell me...

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh nods. She facetiously decides not to tell him exactly what happened since he said 'don't tell me,' but she can make it even more clear. ]

He traveled with me for most of my time on the First.

[hellufacade]

Oh did he! Reaping the benefits of our ardor while shunning my ceaseless toil?

[His frown twists into a snarl.]

So you absorbed him at that fateful moment?

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh steels herself and nods. ]

[hellufacade]

Hmph. Plus that wily little bastard of a ... male miqo’te... Does he know, by the way; that you don’t love him back? So sad, really....

[He uncrosses and recrosses his arms. ]

Had you done it sooner, you likely would have been able to contain the light and we would have avoided that battle. Don’t you remember what I said? I wanted to avoid that violence. How disappointing. Did you even know that you could have taken his soul into you earlier?

[eightfoldlight]

Leave him out of this. [ Yenh says it in that soft but firm way that implies forcing the Exarch further into it will not be well-tolerated. ]

Neither Ardbert nor I had any idea of what was going on. The only way we knew we were the same soul was... because of Hythlodaeus.

[hellufacade]

[Hades looks as if he’s been struck when the name passes her lips. His voice comes out in a stunned whisper as he feels a numbing chill settle in his head.]

...What? You spoke to...

[His voice gains body again and pitches high and quick. ] Explain, at once!

[eightfoldlight]

[ That response is chilling for Yenh, albeit more for being out of the norm for him. She's careful and almost delicate when she speaks. ]

Amaurot, at the Bureau. He was there. He was aware of being only a shade, yet possessed enough of his wits to talk about... [ She hadn't really thought this far ahead. ] A bit about the three of us, I suppose. By the end of our short conversation, he marked Ardbert's presence and told us who we were to one another.

[hellufacade]

He could see the shade... [He eyes grow teary as he glances away.] His sight was always keener than mine, I suppose.

[Hades’ hands wind into his hair, grabbing for a moment before falling to his sides, heavy. ]

I didn’t know he was there. I would have... liked to speak with him. [Even if he wasn’t strictly real. ] I... Be more specific. What did he say about me? About you? God, is he still there?

[eightfoldlight]

[ Of all the things Yenh had intended for this conversation, destroying Emet-Selch with the mention of one word was not one of them. ]

[ She scrambles closer to the edge. ]

He... spoke at great length of your struggles. Your love of your your people and for Zodiark. He merely alluded to who I once was, and to our ancient friendships, yet he hardly seemed surprised to find me there. [ Yenh begins to extend a hand toward him, then freezes midway as she asks herself once again whether she should be comforting him. The answer is a grudging yes, and she lays her hand on top of his head. ]

[hellufacade]

[ He seems shocked by the contact but he doesn’t shun it. His ears twitch. He looks up at her with bright, watering eyes.]

Oh, Hythlodaeus... my dearest... [He trails off, frowning. Damn. Damn, dammit. The flood gates had been cracked open and his flood of emotions long kept tamped and in check threatened to burst free. He steps closer and winds his arms around her as he places his head on her thigh, shielding his face from her as his shoulders shake. The recognition of his struggle hit hard coming from her, from him. Had he given himself space to mourn properly?

He felt stupid and pathetic and angry in this moment.]

[eightfoldlight]

[ So this is how it's gonna be, huh. Yenh swore to stop Emet-Selch one way or another, though it felt impossible that anything could change. Now a crack in the wall of inevitability has appeared. Not even he is impossible. ]

[ Sharing his experience of feeling stupid—albeit for very different reasons—both hands now caress in long gentle strokes through his hair and along his scalp. It is the same gesture she would pay to anyone grieving. ]

[ She doesn't bother saying a word. ]