Elidibus Week

Elidibus Week 2024 - Day 7: Preservation and Conflict

So then, how long had she known it? He remembers enough of their conflict to know the many times and the many ways he has acted against her, hurt those about her, all in the name of his duty. It was as much a part of his duty as any, even misguided as he had become, there had been no other path. It leaves a pang in his chest to know all he has done to one who had helped him so, even in spite of the knowledge there was no other choice he could have made. Had she known it from the first it was him? Or had she, like he himself, been permitted to briefly indulge in the existence of ‘Themis’?

He supposes that the answer is irrelevant. Whether she suspected or no, his identity was revealed all the same. Elidibus. He who would become one of her greatest enemies. How then had the steps that ensued changed for the knowledge? He recalls no resentment, even though she should have carried it. He can think of no change in her demeanour or shift in her sincerity. An irrelevant detail then, yet a curiosity now that will not relinquish him. 

What had she thought in that singular moment in the Caustic Purgatory when Lahabrea spoke it so easily? He tries to recall the moment, to bring her face to mind as he offers apologies for his deception. Even these memories are not wholly without obfuscation.     

How had she answered him?

Say my name. 

“Themis. You’re still here.” 

Day 7: Themis

On DAY 7 and THE FINAL DAY of Elidibus Week 2024, the theme is no other than "THEMIS" himself.

With Etheirys's salvation, he, too, can fade away, unburdened by regret.

He is everywhere and He is nowhere. He walks along the streets of Amaurot though none perceive His presence. It is a nostalgic feeling that swells within Him; He has been here before, has walked this path so many times that His steps find the way without any conscious thought. How many days had He spent here listening to those around him? Meeting with His brethren, taking for granted the warm rays of the sun and glittering blue skies above. 

No not He but–

Awareness of who He once was stirs somewhere deep within. Elidibus… yes, that was what they had called him, then. It was not He but Elidibus who had walked these streets, who knew these people. It is Elidibus’ heart that echoes within His own and stirs at the sight of each one they pass, even as these people no longer perceive him as such. He remembers their smiles, their laughter and so does He search for it again, an indulgence that has no purpose in the scheme of all He was tasked with, but that calls Him all the same. Whatever anomaly called Him here, whatever ripples shook the people here… He would find it, He would resolve it– He would see His duty to them fulfilled.  

There is no question as to the place, it has felt off since the first handful of steps. A wrongness that He strains his mind to solve. To recall detail is as trying to wake from slumber; to grasp at individual memories that were forsaken to become part of a whole. It is thick and heavy and distant. These moments, these thoughts, this heart… they comprise His very core, but they remain only one of many and to find it strains Him. Yet He must. For them. He feels it so powerfully there is no other option. 

Why was it familiar and yet not? Why was this place right and yet wrong in the same breath? 

He knows it. He values this place more than any other. He has given everything to preserve it and save those that remain. And yet… 

It is silent. 

The moment in which He notices it is the moment shadow casts over His eyes. There are many about, not nearly so many as once walked its streets, but enough to give life to this place they have salvaged from the clutch of the Final Days. Yet for all the bodies that linger about, there is no hum of conversation, no laughter to sing in the air or friendly debate to rustle the leaves. Everyone comes and goes beneath the same pall of tension that scorches the life from the very air. 

What has happened to them? 

Day 6: Conflict

Elidibus Week 2024 - Days 5 + 6: Preservation and Conflict

"CONFLICT" is the theme for DAY 6.

Even should he lose all that is dear to him. Even if it should cost him his life... He bears the burden and fight on until his last breath is spent.

Conflict

“What are you doing here, Unukalhai?” Elidibus expands the sphere of his influence, a shielding of aether to push away the swell of the darkness. This child should not be here; though Unukalhai had been brought through into the rift, surrendered his mortality as surely as any of the other souls here, he remained but a shard and there was no telling how the aether here might affect him.

“Is everywhere like this?” Unukalhai’s voice is quiet, and he tucks himself in close. Perhaps he is aware that he should not venture far from Elidibus’ protective aether.

“If you are hoping to find a part of the star unaffected by this calamity, then you will be disappointed.” There is no kindness in fostering false hope, and Unukalhai has already been made aware of the truth. 

“Not even a little bit?” His voice cracks with the pain of losing his home, a pain Elidibus still feels all too keenly. Centuries have yet to dull its edge, and even the slightest graze of it against his mind sets it bleeding all over again. The pain of such a loss… it resonates so powerfully with the souls that comprise Him it chokes the breath from Elidibus’ lungs. 

“Such is what happens when the balance is shattered,” he finally answers on the edge of his breath. Unukalhai’s grip upon his robes tightens. “There is no enduring it, nor escaping it. Any souls that remained after the flood would have eventually been corrupted by its influence.”

“But what about me?” 

“You endure because you no longer dwell in this place. Even the rift maintains its own balance that prevents such corruption. If you remain here too long, then you too will succumb to the same fate as these people.”

“Is there really no way to save them?” 

“I cannot say.” Perhaps there was, perhaps there was not. He has not exhausted every possibility, every avenue, but further action seems unwise. Elidibus has already lost too much in his ignorance of Hydaelyn’s curse upon the star and with Zodiark still dormant, his own ability to act was severely limited. 

For all his efforts, he could only save a single child. 

Day 5: Preservation

Embrace