#chained verse

The Sea sings, they say in Altissia.

The Sea screams, they say in Galahd.

Don’t be ridiculous, mainlanders scoff, unlearned in the ways of the Sea are they, that’s just the waves.

The King and his men stole the Queen from Her bed

The islanders laugh at their ignorance and pity any of the poor fools that try to brave deeper waters. Such idiocy has no place on the Sea – for the Sea is not kind and She gives no quarter and takes no prisoners. So far from land, there is no safety net to fall back on, no lighthouse to guide you home. Ignorance on the Sea is Death and She will not spare you if you are unprepared when She comes to call.

You must listen, the islanders say, Open your ears and hear Her. Listen beyond the waves and the roar of the water, listen.

It’s just the wind, the mainlanders shrug, waving away the words as if that will make them less true, The sea is no more alive than the land.

And bound Her in Her bones

Titan sleeps and has for ages, even before it was so decreed. That does not mean the stones cannot hear you speak. That does not mean the land does not breathe.

You must listen, they repeat, Can’t you hear the Sea crying for Her Brother as the waves break upon the sand?

Nothing more than rushing water, is the dismissive reply, You islanders are too superstitious a lot. Next you’ll say the sea is haunted!

The Seas be ours and by the powers where we will we’ll roam

Not by men, the islanders respond.

The mainlanders laugh, Ghost stories and nonsense!

Yo ho, all hands Hoist the colors high

If you will not listen, then do not wander, the islanders caution coolly, She will not pity you when She drags you into Her depths.

Water does not scare us, the mainlanders say, If we were not meant to cross it, we would not have ships. There is no reason to fear.

There isn’t, the islanders agree, But you must show respect. You must listen.

There is nothing to listen to, the mainlanders disagree.

And the islanders shake their heads as they sail off into deeper waters. No one is surprised when they are not heard from again.

Have pity, the islanders tell their children when they ask about the strangers who sailed away, For the Sea will have none.

Heave ho, thieves and beggars

The Sea speaks, the islanders tell their children, She sings and She screams. You must listen.

And they do. The children stand on the shore, water rushing up to cover their legs, feet sinking into the sand.  They listen. They listen and they hear, beneath the howling wind and the roar of the water, a voice rolling over the waves and crashing upon the shore, echoing, but never quiet managing to linger.

Never shall we die.

The Sea speaks.

@hamelin-born

(This is a good quote. I like this quote.)

Leviathan knows that for the Prophecy to play out, she needsto grant her Covenant to the Chosen King. And no matter what trespasses Bahamuthas committed, this is not something he can control. Only an Astral can granttheir own Covenant. So if Leviathan refuses, who can make her?

Leviathan has nothing against the Chosen King. The crimes ofhis ancestor are not his and she does not hold them against him. Nor does sheblame him for the path that Bahamut has placed him on. She pities him, theunknowing lamb being led to the slaughter, and she would perhaps be willing togrant him aid if he asked, but not her Covenant. Her Covenant belongs toanother and Bahamut’s meddling will not change that.

(Bahamut has paved a path already – clear and neat and easyto traverse. He expects everyone to walk it. It would be simpler, easier. Why wouldanyone refuse? Bahamut places her on this path fully expecting her to walk it.

What dark things did I inspire Elri? Is Ardyn in the uncomfortable position of playing restrain?                    

@starofthemourning

I mean. It’s no more dark than usual, I don’t think?

But I was thinking something along the lines of @hamelin-born‘s and @charlottedabookworm‘s recent Leviathan thing with Nyx. As in, she doesn’t really care so much about the people - she’s not going to destroy Altissia or anything like that. I’d say in any other circumstances, she’d just slip back into her waters and reacquaint herself with the Sea.

Thing is though, Luna is right there. Luna is right there and spouting Bahamut’s Prophecy at her. Leviathan is grateful to her because she freed her - even if she was only following the path that had been laid out before her - but that does not mean she will new chains to bind her.

“You have my thanks for freeing me, little Oracle,” Leviathan says, “But I refused the Draconian before and I will refuse him again. Always. He bound me in chains for millennia as he did to my Chosen. He took my Tide-son, my heart, and shackled him to a cruel fate and when I raged against him, he did the same to me.”

And Ardyn, Ardyn will be watching this, will be listening to his Tidemother refuse the Prophecy. Will hear her claim that she did not go into sleep quietly as Bahamut demanded and was punished for it. And, even years later and all the distance between them, he will know her well enough to she the rage simmering beneath her scales - tempered, just as his is, by time and necessity.

“The Sea does not bow to Slavers,” Leviathan tells the Oracle, “You would do well to remember.”

And then Niflheim descends and Leviathan laughs.

She laughs and unleashes her fury on them because they dare. Imprisoned she may have been, but her children are loyal and they brought her news of the world above. They told her of the Empire’s conquests, of their slaughter and subrogation. Of their arrogance and destruction. And even if they hadn’t, Thalassa remembers an army raised and broken down and bent into little more than tools, remembers experiments on children, remembers the death and pain that follows in the Empire’s wake. The Empire is a den of Slavers.

So she laughs, because they think to try such things on her, think to chain her at best and kill her at worst. But she is the Sea. And the Sea does not bow.

(”The Slavers have forgotten me,” Leviathan tells her storm-brother after, eyes dark and gleaming and endless, “Help me remind them.”

And Ramuh, Ramuh, who mourned his sea-sister’s fate but had been helpless to do anything, who sheltered her children among his own, who love love loves his sister, will help her. Because she asked. Because Leviathan always asks. She never demands, not the way Bahamut does. She asks and Ramuh answers because he loves her, because her rage is his own, because his children have suffered at the hands of Slavers and he has not forgiven it.

Niflheim soon finds it near impossible to cross the sea. Boats disappear beneath the waves, airships are tossed about by storm after storm until they fall to the waters below.