and what had remained was waning quickly.

yet, there was no escaping the worm in the fruit. was it this newly formed friendship, or has this always been hashirama's nature, tobirama couldn't tell. but his brother had become too impatient, too wilful, impossible to control. (or perhaps tobirama only envied this newfound resolve. there were days when he wished he could see everything as hashirama did. days when he wanted to believe that war was not inescapable. that his father's words were truly the relics of the past.)

SERENDIPITY: ACT ONE.

ONE WOULD THINK WYLL RAVENGARD USED TO THESE KINDS OF EVENTS , having grown up the son of the duke. but quite honestly , & perhaps quite TERRIBLY , he'd never grown used to the PERFORMANCE of it all , the part of the LOYAL SON , the HERO he was expected to play. & the blade of frontiers is more than AMICABLE to the company of a goblet of WINE & a FRIEND moreso than the crowd.

at least among GALE'S company , wyll could be HIMSELF.

❛ well said , my friend , & all too true. ❜

the blade of frontiers gives a MIRTHLESS laugh , a single BEAT as the wine swirls in his own cup , sipping THOUGHTFULLY . wyll can sense the DEFENSIVENESS the wizard bites back too clearly ; he feels himself more than not. to say a BETTER STORY implied REGRET , not that the blade didn't have his fair share of that.

❛ would that i could rewrite certain aspects of my tale , having the knowledge & experience to know the outcome. ❜

another SIP taken from his glass , & wyll gives a WARM smile.

between the tadpole situation & her latent paranoia at sleeping in the open, she's still been sleeping light. even when the druid drifts off slightly into the woods outside of camp, anything can wake her up. but she isn't sure what it is that wakes her up this time, though it's not a mystery for long. for there stands this tiefling she's only recently met, covered in blood & standing a small distance from the source of the carnage. annette's eyes widen, flitting over percy & the surroundings with panic. i didn't mean to, she says. the druid curls into herself almost defensively. "what ... what -- what happened ... ? h-how did you ... ?"