#caprisuns

FIRST. There are the obvious reasons. Resetting the Ley Lines would mean erasing everything recorded in it, leaving the people as empty husks without mind or memory. This has been Mavuika's main argument since the beginning, and while true, the Captain has been very plain in telling her that it is something that he's willing to sacrifice in place of actual life. Memories can be gained again, but life is lost forever. So, next.

SECOND. While the first argument didn't make him full 180, it did plant seeds in his mind. Especially since he's seen the Khaenri'ahn destruction first-hand. Mavuika's question to him made him think: what really is the difference between the land and the people? Do the land make its people, or do the people make the land? These are differences he hasn't bothered to think about since the destruction of his own nation--how could he, when he was so wrapped up in the grief of losing everything? How could he, when he didn't even have time to mourn what's he's lost? He was literally thrust straight into battle after the Cataclysm. Battle was what gave him a new land to protect. He's a soldier--the Sentinel Knight, through and through. That kind of heart doesn't question what he's protecting. So when Mavuika asks him, "What are you really trying to protect? The land? Or its people?", it really rings in his mind, because what if she's right? If he did go back in time and resurrected everyone he's lost from the dead, and they all came back as blank slates that don't remember him, how would he feel?

THIRD, AND MOST IMPORTANT. You should remember that all of this happened after Ororon had just been possessed, and it was revealed that he had an incomplete soul in him all along. And the soul that possessed him was none other than his right-hand man, Guthred. "So you still recognize me, Commander..." But he wouldn't have, if Guthred's memory had been removed from the Ley Lines. "Abandoning one's comrades is not the way of the warrior." But he would be, if he resets the Ley Lines. He would have abandoned their souls if he had let their memory be erased. He would be making empty vessels for lost souls like Guthred to inhabit. The warriors who had finally found peace in the Night Kingdom... if he resets the Ley Lines, he would be taking away the very thing he had been seeking in the first place.

Gods, had he forgotten why he's been doing all of this? He, the Sentinel Knight, the man who had been using his curse to collect souls inside of his heart for hundreds of years, for the wretched, long-suffering hope that they might one day find rest... He was going to abandon souls? Destroy where they had been resting? And ensure a future where none of the living souls in Natlan would ever find peace?

Hell no.

There is no one in the world who knew better than he did what it meant to carry someone else's soul in their heart. The burden it weighs. The pain it brings. And somehow, he still made the wrong choice.

Except, he's not the only one who knew.

"We love this world because it contains everything we hold dear... everything that has happened here has moved us, shaped us, and turned us into who we are today." That's what Mavuika said, in trying to convince him. He must have remembered what she sacrificed to save her people when the Ode of Resurrection failed. He's seen that attic, full of all of her memories and keepsakes.

So it dawns on him: that's what a soul is.

It took 500 years, and finally he understands. The thing that he's been protecting all this time... it's made up of memories. What is a soul if not a tapestry of memories? Of thoughts and feelings and experiences? The body is important, as your body shapes the way your soul experiences the world, but the body is just a body. Even if everything about it remained the same, if the soul is gone, everything is gone. Forget memory loss or cognitive issues--Natlan would have no future to speak of if the land is populated with empty husks. They would be forgotten by Irminsul and the Heavens themselves. In a few years, they'd cease to exist.

Mavuika knew that, even 500 years ago. That's what she's been protecting from the start. In her own way, she had been collecting souls, too: by exploring the world, finding things to cherish, learning new skills, reading about new ideas, listening and talking and loving her people, sharing their experiences, gathering heaps of memories he knew would break her heart to part with...

All to fuel the Sacred Flame. All to burn up and use as fodder to keep her nation away from the Abyss's hands. She had sacrificed her very soul to save her people.

Just like he did when he chose to shelter lost souls into his heart.