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[He sleeps.

The plan had been simple, though Sorey hadn't known if it would work; act as Maotelus's vessel, cut off all his senses, and exist as a living pulse of purification. If he slept he wouldn't change, if he slept within Maotelus's domain he (hopefully) wouldn't die. It would mean he would be lost to the ravages of time, left behind by everything he knows, but this way he could eliminate at least a little bit more of the suffering the world had already endured. Maybe it's fueled in part by ego. Maybe he just can't leave things alone for someone else to clean up. Either way, Sorey closes his eyes and prepares to rest.

Only...he doesn't.

He doesn't dream, he doesn't experience some other world or existence; what he feels instead is a spread. His eyes aren't his and he can't choose what to focus on, and sometimes he hears things and sometimes he doesn't. For decades at a time all he hears is the slow growth of earth around the crater, vegetation creeping in and animals settling within it, rain trickling down to form a lake that empties over time during the more severe droughts. Sorey feels Glendwood change around him (and it becomes other names, Nothrand, Lilium, Morensa) and he realizes, an embarrassing few centuries later, that he's not awake but he's experiencing the world through Maotelus's blessing.

It's surprisingly soothing. Even when he watches civilizations build and crumble, Maotelus is there with him to talk him through the agony of observing war. It's hard, he says in his childlike voice, seated in Sorey's lap in the shared spaces of their souls, leaning his head back against his chest, it's hard just to watch, but sometimes people don't want to have peace. Freedom is the most important. You have to remember that.

Maotelus tells him stories about his old life, stories about what the world was like before Sorey was born. He laughs and affectionately calls Sorey naive, calls him young, even as he passes into his sixth century. We're unchanging to an extent, maybe, but I think you'll always be young no matter what.

Sorey told him he didn't want to hear that from someone whose voice hasn't even deepened and Maotelus pretended to sulk for almost four full years.

When Sorey becomes unable to feel the edges of the tainted world, he knows his time asleep as an observer is coming to an end. He's done all that he can; Maotelus knows he can't stay here forever, that no matter how powerful either of them are, Sorey can't do the impossible and purify the whole world just by remaining asleep. That everything is cyclical only when it's not, and that maybe Sorey can do more good in the world if he's awake for just a few decades more, to tell people what he saw, to pass on what he knows.

I love you, Sorey thinks even as sleep takes him further and further from Maotelus, I'll miss you.

Don't be silly, Maotelus chides. I'll always be right beside you.

- - -

Sorey wakes.

It takes some time, but he makes his way out of the crater. The air smells clean in a way he can just barely remember from Gramps's domain in Elysia and he breathes it in fully. His body is the same as it was when he went to sleep; clothes ripped and dirty, muscles sore. Seventeen and human, but he remembers everything, remembers centuries of watching, waiting, talking with Maotelus. He knows that at any given point one of his friends is watching over him, and knows that it's just a matter of time until he's found.

So he plucks a few apples from a tree, chooses a flat stone to sit down on, and waits. They'll find him before he finds them, now that he's just a regular human again, so he should make it easy and stop moving around.]

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That's just because you understand the reasons for it. [ Zaveid is old, so old, but he's not a killer at heart. Sorey must know what changed him, what made him steel himself and distance himself from the world - it was easier to not make friends than it was to make them and run the risk of having to put them down. ] You've grown up.

[Shrugs. A thousand years will do that to a guy.] Maybe a little. I feel like I understand a lot less than I thought I did before, though.

That's because the world's not as small as it used to be. It was just you and the Lord of Calamity, and that was all you had to think about until the end came. Now you can think about everything in the entire universe. [ Zaveid's lips twitch up into a grin. ] Makes you feel older, and smaller.

Is that how you feel? [Sorey's got a feeling it is, but Zaveid so rarely shares his honest perspective on things that he'd like to hear it in his words.]

Sometimes. [ Zaveid just shakes his head. ] I guess I'm really getting old now.

You're practically a fixture of this world itself, [Sorey jokes, though there's some honesty in his voice too. He couldn't imagine this world without Zaveid in it, now.] Like one of the four great cardinal winds.

Edited 2017-08-18 04:42 (UTC)

Aww, come on, I'm not that old... [ He scowls. ] They'd never let me be one of those. I'm too bad~

I don't think that's so. [Leans back on his hands to stare up at the sky.] If there's anybody who's left an impact on this world over all these centuries, it's got to be you. You've been here for all of it.

I guess. [ Zaveid just shakes his head absently. ] I dunno. I guess I don't feel all that important.

Probably a good thing. [Sorey wraps his arms around his knees and peers over at Zaveid.] But Maotelus has seen the ripples of your actions over the years. And he admires you still, a great deal. That has to count for something.

Jeez. [ Zaveid scratches his neck, sheepish. He'd never thought he'd have much influence on the world at all - he was just there for his own selfish reasons most ot the time... ] That kid...

... [Smiles and looks away, out over the village.] Gramps did always say wind seraphim were oddballs.

Hey! [ He nudges Sorey gently. ] You hang out with the oddball.

I admire the oddball just as much as Maotelus does, [Sorey says idly, watching the villagers.] ...and I think maybe I picked up some of that oddness too, because I don't think we should stay here much longer.

At least someone does. [ He leans forward, though, before he turns his head back down to Sorey. ] ... Yeah? Where we going now?

Well...I was kind of hoping you'd tell me. I'd like to follow you around for a little while, this time.

Oh. Uh. [ ??? Um. ] I guess we could wander around all the ruins and stuff we found...

Is that something you wanna do? I never got the impression you liked ruins too.

I don't really mind. There's nothing I've really gotta do anymore.

[ Sorey's back, after all. ]

Hmm...well, can we go across the ocean then? I've never even been off this continent. Wanna come sailing with me?

Sure. [ Zaveid reaches up, ruffling his hair gently. ] I can get the wind in our favour.

[Sorey grins up at him, nudging his side with an elbow.] I was counting on it.

[And that's how they set out together: one human, one seraph, with no plan more concrete than to just 'cross the ocean.' Kyme and the others are sad to see Sorey go so soon, but he suspects they expected him to leave with Zaveid. 'Even after a thousand years, you've barely changed,' Kyme tells him, smoothing his hair back before giving him a hug. 'Always ready for the next adventure.'

They give him food, supplies, journals and charcoal and Sorey has to leave a little at home or be too loaded down to even move. At the end of it all Kyme gently sets Gramps's pipe into Sorey's hands, which he hugs to his chest before tucking it carefully into the side of his pack.

And after that...he's off.

It takes a little getting used to; even after watching the world the entire time he'd been asleep, it's nothing like experiencing it in person. Elysia seems like it's been trapped in time, stone huts the same as ever with wood stoves and fireplaces, but as they approach Ladylake Sorey sees how the world has changed. The city has at least tripled in population, villages and housing, fisheries and craftsmen spilling onto the banks of the lake outside of the castle city walls. Lights flicker on as night falls as if lit by seraphic artes and Sorey grins up at them as they pass beneath the flickering amber circles they cast onto the ground.]

Do you think we'll be able to find a ship to take us, Zaveid? [His family had given him all the modern money they had, some weird sort of paper gald people use these days (which is so strange), but he has no idea the scale of what anything costs anymore.]

[ Zaveid goes with him because he has nothing else he wants to do; he wants to spend his time with Sorey and he's glad to do it, standing at his side like a tall, buff bodyguard. He knows that he'd never really be comfortable here and he's content to go back to wandering around and welcoming the chance to bask in whatever the world has to offer. He enjoys the fact that he has the freedom to do what he wants.

Everything has changed, though, and Zaveid sticks close to Sorey, sometimes poking into his vessel and sometimes walking beside him, arms crossed behind his head as he hums. Everything is so much more, and watching Sorey learn it all is something incredible. He doesn't know what sort of world Sorey was expecting but he bets that this goes above all of his expectations. ]

Hm? Sure, I'll bet we'll get something.

[ It doesn't have to be a fancy ship, after all, and merchants are always happy for an extra bit of money. It's not as though they have to pay for Zaveid's passage, either, considering barely anyone can see him, especially if he ducks inside Sorey. ]

People are always after money, y'know. Just make sure they don't take advantage of you bein' alone.

I'm not alone though, [Sorey says, grinning as he nudges Zaveid with an elbow.] I've got a pretty impressive bodyguard with me, right?

Huh. [ Zaveid grins, unable to help himself - so he begins to flex. ] You think I'm impressive?