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[thecrossingmods]

[The Crossing is coming again.

There is no advance warning from The Ferryman this time. There is nothing to draw your attention towards the message that appears on your device, whatever it may be, except perhaps the expectation that it should be appearing soon.

Whether you think to check for it or you simply stumble upon it, the words are there just as before:]

A toll to be levied for safe passage
from the desert to ǝɹǝɥʍǝsʅǝ

envision a place of comfort and safety
a haven from the wants and ills of life
be it for a moment or for a lifetime

offer it to The Ferryman
and let go

Comments

[witnessvelama]

[Ah. Something settles into place in Celehar's mind, about the picture being painted. A man fearful and angry of outsiders, attempting to argue from a position of power against those he mistrusts, collecting fear and anger on the inside and lashing out at any and all around him, then put into the hands of his rivals - not only that, a weapon of his rivals. Maybe even his enemies, if paranoia had fully taken him, in his exhaustion.

He turns to catch Need's eye, watching for her reaction to his next question. It's not an interrogation really, but there is an importance to the way things are said as much as the contents of the words.]

You thought he might resent you for it?

[hasapoint]

[He's become intent suddenly. Need considers, unable to see past the skin to what he's looking for.]

It was possible. Certainly many people are put off by me and I can't work against resistance, so if he hadn't accepted my help we would all have been the worse off.

But he was also in the company of people who'd half-raised him and knew me, or knew of me, and said it would be all right. That helped - "Treyvan and Hydona think we can stand with these outsiders" and "Need trusts Treyvan and Hydona so their 'featherless son' can't be all bad", that sort of thing.

[witnessvelama]

[Well, that is interesting. Can't work against resistance is a particular phrasing - it, added to her concern with the working of name magic, paints a picture of skills that much more require the active participation of both parties.

And yet that too seems to hobble her concern that had brought her to bring up the subject in the first place - they will not be the subject of her working, in that memory.]

Truthfully, Othalo, I do not imagine the memory would be any more painful than that we faced before. In a more bittersweet way, perhaps... but you need not worry for them. [The children, obviously.]

[hasapoint]

[well. she can't Heal or change the body of someone who's not willing, anyway.]

Call me a pessimist, but I don't trust that it will be easier. It might be. Maybe the unpleasantness of all of this will vary. If there's a pitfall, it will have to be an escapable one, I hope.

[She doesn't trust, period. There's also the possibility that this situation is wrong and not, as both of them profess, the only actual option and something to pursue with grace. Need can't actually dismiss that. The lack of any of the spirits she might expect here...]

But that's my problem to untangle. Have you decided on one yourself?

[witnessvelama]

It is not meant to be a trial we cannot overcome.

[Overestimating himself, again. But he does truly believe it - believe in the Ferryman, and it echoes in his words. As much as he nearly failed the first Crossing, was nearly lost to the dark water, if there's any blame to be laid there, he clearly thinks it must be laid at his own feet, for his own lack of - strength? Moral character? Sheer terrible sentimentality?

Just as well the topic is happier memories. He does not voice this, but simply nods.]

Amalo is a city of a dozen pilgrimages, and they are meant to find peace and resolve.

[hasapoint]

Hm. Not without each others' help, maybe.

[Maybe that's why she's here. As a shoulder to lean on. Others would do it better, she knows. Feel less irritation towards these poor children, isn't as caught in the push and pull of being able to provide guidance and knowing not to just override peoples' decisions.]

Pilgrimages! [Need's startled into a smile. She knows the word, but hasn't heard it in a while. They were more common before the Cataclysm. Even the enclave of the Sisterhood she'd been part of while alive had been a site of pilgrimage, she's vaguely inclined to believe.] Are there shrines?

[witnessvelama]

Else why bring such strangers together? I agree.

[He's of a similar mind, that he's been brought here for a reason - is grateful, he thinks, that death is not so lonely a prospect as he might have feared, if he'd come to think of facing it in long, quiet moments.]

Some, yes. All have tokens for the pilgrim to take. Not elaborate things - small stones, or a weaving, or a embossed coin. There is one that is a half-carved stair. Another, a maze among the corn crops grown by the Orshaneise, another at the bottom of a well. [He grimaces.] One atop the Hill of Werewolves. Perhaps it would have been more pleasant in the day, but I endured it as a trial.