The Statue Calls
Ft. Juri, Edelgard and Edward
Words: 3813 (+4 exp) (+2 rapport)
After the seekers had gotten to the Scarlet Swamp they got a little chance for some rest. Most of them. For a pair of them, whispers only they could hear prevented any relaxation from being had.
Edward had heard them since his arrival, and had intentionally followed them with weary interest, wading through swamp water with hands firmly placed on hilts of weapons in anticipation of this being some kind of trap.
They lead him to the island upon which Miss Fortune had tried to wash herself, but by then both she and her companion had abandoned the spot that led him too, leaving only a pool of diluted blood as evidence of her attempt. Instead, he found only the source of the whispers, a talllion-headed statue holding a massive hourglass.
He paused for a moment, examining the artifact with a clinical eye, blood dripping from his wings and clothes, before movement to his right caused him to tense and shift it. He did not find an enemy there however, but instead the armored form of Edelgard causing him to relax, hands moving away from his weapons, and for him to instead rais one in greeting.
”Well met. I’m glad to see you made it out of that gauntlet as well”
Edelgard nodded, eyes focused on the statue before the pair. ”Indeed. It was a…most frustrating experience, if I am to be blunt with you. I hope that your ascent was less unpleasant, at least.” The small talk was helping to keep her mind off of the frustration of being frozen within the Sepulcher, but it could not break her gaze from the statue.
”Another of this tree’s mysteries, you think?” She suddenly spoke after a few moments. ”I noticed that we are the only two so…drawn…to this thing.”
”Hordes and an unkillable hunter, horrors both” Edward replied to the first question, before saying that ”and now this regal statue that would seem rather out of place if not... well…” as he gazed up at the piece of art before them before he glanced at her and asked to confirm ”I assume you hear the whispers too?”
Edelgard let out a huff of air, nodding imperceptibly. ”Were it not for the peculiarities of this place, I’d have thought myself mad. I assume the two of us being the latest additions to this group has something to do with it?” She mused, still staring at the statue. Why was it calling to them? What did it want?
”Hey Ed,” She said, ”If you two like this statue so much, why don’tcha marry it?” She dropped down from where she had been watching. Setting a hand on her hip she balanced on one foot, hooking the other behind. Truth be told she had been hearing whispers, too, but, like, who didn’t? But more than one person hearing voices from the same source was something to investigate.
Edward suppressed a sigh as he turned to face the quarrelsome streetfighter, and then tried to avoid being derailed from the topic at hand, saying ”I suppose that throws a wrench in that theory, unless you joined only somewhat recently as well? Before us, naturally, but how long before?”
”I dunno when you guys joined, you’re all so forgettable. But I was a little over a week ago.” She said.
Edelgard did not suppress her sigh when Juri approached, not looking forward to her intrusion. Thankfully, however, this time her ‘barb’ was more of a juvenile teasing than anything meant to actually rankle a person. ”Regardless, we ought to do something. Does it want us to call out to it? Touch it? I suppose we do not have overly long to wait to test our theories.” And with that, she strode confidently up to the statue and placed her hand upon it.
For a few moments, her vision flashed white and red, before returning to reality. She gasped as the xylem slowly flowed from her arm onto the statue, pooling into a large bubble that floated between her and it. Leaving her hand there, Edelgard watched as her armor was cleansed of the bloodlike substance, which floated into the statue and disappeared. ”How odd…” She muttered, stepping back.
”Even if that is all it does, then this meeting will have been worth it. These wings have already proven a nightmare to keep clean” Edward said as he stepped forwards to touch the same statue, and he too was cleansed of the tree’s stolen vitality. Then he stepped back, blinking as if he’d been blinded by a flash. He waved a hand before his eyes and then looked into the distance, before saying that ”Odd certainly describes it. I think my vision just got sharper?”
”Haaah?” Juri put her fists on her hips and leaned forward, taking a big couple steps before she plopped her hand on the statue. The blood was absorbed from her as well. But in her mind’s eye, she was taken back to her first kill when she was still a freshly orphaned teenager prowling the rainy streets of the criminal underworld in Seoul. Then the one after that, and after that, and after that. Everything she did for SIN and Shadaloo. That long day when she scoured the entire research division of everyone who knew about Seth and the Feng Shui Engine. Every life she’d ever taken. But she didn’t get the impression the statue was judging her. Just acknowledging it, and taking it, and turning it into strength she had yet to remember. The others would see each life represented by a small orb of blood that left Juri’s hand and travelled into the statue, the victim dimly reflected in the orb itself. There was probably a little more than fifty orbs in total.
Juri pulled away her hand and looked at her palm, now clean of blood. ”What the hell?” She asked. But she couldn’t deny, she was brimming with restored power. ”Let’s just hope this lion statue isn’t a snitch.” She looked at the other two.
”You’re tellin’ me neither of you saw anything?” She asked.
Edward glance up at her from where he was checking over one of his floating tomes, one that looked like it could be used as a weapon thanks to the spike lining it, with a questioning look.
”Nothing specific” he replied, before the commander gave it a moment more thought and saying that ”there was something of a blur, as if something was attempting to be communicated, but no discernible details came through” and then asking ”why? Did you see something clearer?”
”I likewise only saw flashes of color. White and red. I have little idea as to what it meant.” Edelgard added, somewhat confused. What did Juri see that they did not?
Juri looked between them. ”I saw every chump I ever merked.” She said, and then cast her eyes upon her own hands. ”Guess the statue didn’t mind all the killin’, though. Hell, I feel stronger for it.”
She set a hand on her hip. ”Either you two goodie two shoes have never killed anyone, or…” She trailed off, letting the implication hang.
The look on Edelgard's face was a mixture of bemusement at being called a ‘goodie two shoes’ and horror at what her empty flashing vision had meant. ”Indeed.” She simply replied, turning away and steeling her gaze.
Edward’s meanwhile was a stern mask, the man effortlessly hiding whatever it was he felt at this revelation, yet not quite well enough to disguise the fact that that was what he was doing. ”I am exactly what I appear to be” the man in military dress holding a tome with which he conjured weapons of war explained simply, before snapping the book shut and moving to affix it back at his hip.
Juri let out an appreciative whistle. ”Mrs and Mr Geneva Suggestion over here! What’s your favorite type of township to raze?”
”Where were you raised?” Edelgard replied with a cold glare, before rolling her eyes and continuing without giving Juri a chance to respond. ”I did what was necessary to root out those who had forced innocent people to toil under an unjust system, hiding a shadow war beneath the noses of an entire continent, all to maintain the last dying throes of the power they once had. And I will do the same to Galeem.”
Juri’s grin widened, feeling like she touched a nerve. ”Oh, forgive my manners, your majesty. Don’t throw me to the lions! You’re right, I’m sure all those dead people are super grateful you came in to save them.”
”and do you consider the deaths at your own hands just, or did you needle them to death with endless provocation for your own amusement?” Edward stepped in to ask, more to diffuse Juri’s attention than to get her to lay off.
Juri swivelled, leaning forward. ”Nah, I killed ‘em cuz I wanted to. Though I’m sure if I asked them, they’d say they were only doing what was necessary.” Juri winked.
”and if you were in our boots, with armies, cities, a whole nation at our beck and call, would you do the same? Kill whoever you wanted too simply because you felt like it?” the man replied, hands folded behind the small of his back as he stared her down.
Juri shrugged, making a face. ”Meh, too much work. I’m not the world-conquering type. Plus, I prefer to kill people with my own hands. Just seems like the decent thing to do.” She added cheekily.
”I will not pretend that what I did was good. Only that it was necessary for people to live a life of their own choosing, rather than being suppressed by hidden societies carrying out a millenium-long war. And if you think I took no pleasure in ending the people who tortured me and turned me into a living weapon, you are as much a fool as you've made yourself out to be already.” Edelgard replied, her voice steady and emotionless.
”I do not need your approval of my actions to assuage my conscience, I assure you. Some of the others gathered here may fancy themselves heroes or champions, but I've a feeling you think yourself their better for your lack of restraint. Such narcissism ill suits a woman of your talents.” Letting out a short breath, Edelgard turned away, a distant look on her face. This woman reminded her of a less magnanimous Ferdinand, though she was just as self-aggrandizing.
Juri raised her hands placatingly, making an exaggerated face of surprise. ”Hey, you’ll get no arguments from me, princess! I’m sure you had a grand old time. That’s why I asked. Not often I get to chat with a fellow carnage enthusiast.”
She took a few steps forward, swooping around Edelgard’s side. ”And so ambitious. And you hate a secret society, too? We have so much in common! Why don’tcha like me, huh?!” Juri asked, pouting.
”I can hardly guess” Edward said with a straight face as he stepped around Edelgard’s other side to keep track of the young woman, and in so doing making circling her like some kind of street shark that much more awkward.
Juri was suddenly in Edward’s face, her eyes bulging. ”She’s a big girl, I think she can handle little ol’ me.” She whispered. ”Maybe you’re just trying to make up for something.” She said with an unimpressed shrug, backing off.
She turned to walk away, raising a hand in a flippant goodbye wave. ”Have fun reminiscing about the good old days, Eds! Don’t lemme get in yer way.”
Once Juri was well out of earshot, Edelgard sighed. ”That woman is insufferable. And I have more than enough to ‘make up’ for than she could begin to fathom.” Gritting her teeth, Edelgard whirled on Edward, before slowing to compose herself. ”Though, I must thank you for attempting to take her attention off me. She is simply a nuisance, and I wonder if she realizes it, or she believes herself clever for managing to get a rise out of us?”
”I spent far too much time trapped in a forest with her and an unkillable mass of bodies, and she was more of a threat to my sanity than it by quite some margin” Edward quipped in response, leaving out the two rogues who had has seen neither hide nor hair of due to their talents. He added that it was ”most certainly not a fate I want someone else to endure, particular when she had latched onto something so… personal” before leaving the floor open for her to vent about or withhold what it was she had made up for, at her own discretion.
Edelgard hummed, nodding. ”I can scarcely imagine how miserable that must have been, Commander. I suppose I should count myself lucky with regards to those I encountered on the scent of this demonic tree.”
Taking the hint, he made no effort to pick up that dropped subject, and pointed the conversation towards the future, saying ”I expect once she is distracted by the chance to commit violence again that’ll be the last we hear of her on the rest of the climb other than the odd bit of inflammatory yelling that the din of battle should mostly drown out” as he scanned the room with his sharpened sense of sight, spotting and then pointing out that ”and there does at least seem to be a path heading upwards. So perhaps we’ll be able to ascend in a more coordinated fashion this time?”
”That would be nice. I grow weary of these strange challenges we face, in limited numbers. I would much rather overwhelm our enemies with unstoppable numbers and power, rather than have to guess at what strange manner of fighting we will need to employ to win.” Nobody ever called her a tactician, that was for sure. ”You remind me of my retainer, Hubert. Only much less…dour in outlook. It might have been easier to get a demonic beast to smile than that man.”
Proving that point, that certainly got a smile from the man, who guessed that ”I take it he was the sort of man to foresee every possible bad outcome? That certainly has its values in a strategist, as long as there is some counter balance”
”He was. After the attack that destroyed Arianrhod, he drafted a letter to release to our enemies should I be felled in battle, giving the location that he determined the weapons had been launched from. It took some time, but he was a military and magical genius, if a bit stone-hearted. He had to be, to do what we did.” Sighing, Edelgard shook her head. ”I look forward to the day I can see him again. If only to have a truly loyal face around. Not that you haven’t been pleasant conversation thus far, but we’ve known each other only a day.”
”Of course” Edward replied matter of factly, along with a slight nod in additional agreement. ”Still, I have so far found your company entirely agreeable. A steady ship in a lake of… eccentricity” he said, choosing the word politely rather than carefully because they were ”competent, certainly, but from different worlds than you and I. More than just literally I mean. This is perhaps the most adhocly run force I have ever been a part of, save perhaps the one that was meant to save my world before Galeem so rudely interrupted our attempt. Some of them where already well past it before starting to style themselves as ‘Godir’ of that I’m sure”
Edelgard let out a small chuckle at Edward’s description of their compatriots. ”Indeed. I am used to people of a much more military bent, whereas this group is very cobbled together from whomever they could find. I understand the reasoning, but it has resulted in a very eclectic group nonetheless.”
”Indeed” Edward agreed, before suggesting ”I suppose we shall simply have to lead from example in the professionalism department”
Shaking her head, Edelgard gave another mirthless chuckle. ”I feel that might be a fool’s errand, Commander. Regardless, let us join the others, it appears that the time has come to mobilize.” Nodding at the group, which had begun to stir and move out, Edelgard likewise followed.
”I suppose, but what else is there to do but try?” Edward asked, only for Edelgard’s point to be hammered down by a tiny turtle yelling ”hurry it up slow pokes!” at them from the exit of the chamber, prompting him to gave a sigh that turned into a slight, genuinely amused, chuckle at the absurdity of it all and add ”If only for the sake of attempting to maintain our own dignity”
”Whatever dignity I had died in the mud, Commander. I have only spite left.” She sighed, rolling her eyes at Junior as she broke into a light jog. The shuffling and clinking of armor heralded her every step.
”Mine alone then” Edward said, only to himself, and then moved to follow, the more lightly armored man catching up and then keeping pace while his mind switched gears to strategizing army compositions.