a ray of light shone in my darkness

[bearshermark]

WHO: Eleven + various! YOU, if u want
WHEN: Late May
WHERE: The farm
WHAT: Catch-all for misc threads
WARNINGS: Violence, dark topics?

[ooc: prompts in comments. if you've got an idea for a thread outside of El's open thread that you think would work better here, go for it. If you'd like to work something out, pm or plurk!]

Comments

[bearshermark]

"Yes," Eleven answered, voice tinged with surprise. He hadn't thought Hendrik would know of her. "They poured everything into their songs to save me. I'd only woken a day or two before I found the Bastion."

His eyes dropped his lap. "It must have been difficult, with everyone depending on you."

[unswervingcompanion]

He'd heard of her only through stories Jasper had read to him. But he personally hadn't ever met her or heard of her any other way. And the Luminary couldn't see it, but the knight blinked almost owlishly at the fanciful images in his head of she and her people singing.

Music saved the Luminary? Well there was Cetacea so that couldn't be too much of a stretch. In the boy's company he'd seen so very many strange and wondrous things and none that he could ever think to begin to coherently explain. And yet he'd experienced them.

At the last though, Hendrik shook his head and looked at the sky, his tone soft. "I still have much to atone for."

[bearshermark]

Eleven hummed a mild note, idly fiddling with the clasp on his bag.

"Well, that makes two of us."

[unswervingcompanion]

The purple head shook and the armor shifted as Hendrik continued his watch. "I do not see how that is possible."

Guilt and remorse ate at him constantly, knowing he could've done so much more, helped so much more and not hunted the Luminary as he'd been instructed to do. How he could've believed the king that a baby was the downfall..well they had been so very wrong. And he didn't let himself think that if he'd dealt the killing blow that night in Dundrasil up on the cliff before Princess Jade launched herself to hold onto the precious boy..so very much would've been lost if his blade had hit its intended mark.

[bearshermark]

Eleven smiled to himself; Hendrik thought too highly of him.

"..A lot of people lost their lives when Yggdrasil fell. It should never have happened, but I was too weak and unprepared.."

[unswervingcompanion]

"You could not have saved the world at that time." Hendrik countered softly. "None of us were ready, nor could we have been properly prepared."

The loss of Veronica still hurt him and the knight's head went down slightly, recalling what he had seen in the forest near Arboria.

[bearshermark]

Eleven's jaw set, eyes downcast. He knew that, but still it pained him. He breathed a long sigh and shook his head.

"So," he said again, stretching a leg out, "That makes two of us."

[unswervingcompanion]

It occurred to him that they shouldn't really be having this talk but mentally the knight shrugged it off. "And what will you do when we return home?

His gaze looked up at the stars, searching for answers among them perhaps.

"We cannot stay here forever."

[bearshermark]

"I don't want to stay here forever."

The very idea of that shivered through him unpleasantly. Even covered in darkness as Erdrea was, he far preferred it to the heavy grip of undeath over this world with not even the idea of Yggdrasil to offer solace.

"No," he said, picking dirt off the drape of his coat, "We need to go back and do everything we can- whatever that might be- to make things right."

[unswervingcompanion]

Well hearing that the boy didn't want to stay here forever was a relief. And it felt as if some heavy weight had just tumbled off of Hendrik's broad shoulders.

His eyes remained forward and he sighed, trying to let the relaxation sweep through him because he had wondered many nights what the other was thinking about this place versus Erdrea. So he closed his eyes momentarily and spoke softly.

"There will be much more work to do."

[bearshermark]

"Yes," he agreed with a bit of a hapless shrug. Talk of what they would do when they returned to Erdrea felt so far-flung.

"But we have a lot of work to do here before we even get that far." It would take months more at the very least, he was sure.

[unswervingcompanion]

Hendrik knew he had to keep his attention on the here and now, it had just been such a relief to hear the other speak of home even if for a moment. "Yes and we will do as much as we can to help here before we return."

In the meantime of course he would keep to his oath and make sure the Luminary didn't get into too much trouble and keep him safe.