#telaine

[ID: A five page comic, centered on Aryox as he has a dream of Melora's future as a goddess. Everything is drawn in bright colored outlines against a black background.

First page. Aryox (in light blue) opens his eyes slowly. Mist cuts across the top of the page behind the panels. The bottom half of the page is frameless, and shows Aryox standing at the base of steps leading up to a large temple, with mist swirling around it. Green vines wrap around the temple, with everything else being drawn in Aryox's blue.

Next page. Aryox walks up the steps of the temple, his hand briefly resting on one of its columns next to a green vine, then snaps his fingers and summons a light which he raises above his head, parting the mist. He stares into the distance, where within the mist a pale green light shines back. Grinning, he remarks "towards the light, then. Morbid." The next sequence shows Aryox walking through the temple, the edges of each panel just the columns of the temple itself. By the second, faint speech bubbles appear in the background. One is unreadable and yellow, and then in the third, as Aryox steps off-panel behind the column, a green text box faintly says "i'm sorry". Aryox stops and turns, saying "hello." Then a yellow (for Telaine) speech bubble appears isolated, reading "So THAT'S how little WE mean to YOU?" Aryox looks shocked, then looks away as his light extinguishes, looking hurt and guilty, and turns away. He marches forward as a green speech bubble (for Melora) echoes behind him: "how could you…"

The entire next page shows Aryox walking, then running through the mist, with speech bubbles and words echoing all around him. They start more spaced out, but by the end of the page crowd and overwhelm him. First, he walks with purpose. A text box in his blue shows that he's thinking "It's alright." The words he hears as he walks forward are: "(Melora) Aryox, don't do this, PLEASE." "(Telaine) I have nothing to say to you" "(Melora) I can't let you--" A closeup of his face is shown, just the bottom half, with his mouth set in a frown. His own voice, in the style of the other echoes, reads "I'm sorry Mel." Then, he starts walking quicker. Behind him is Telaine's speech bubble yelling "If you want my heart, you can do what [scribbled out] did and break it yourself". He walks through Lumi saying "She seems to have inherited Aryox's penchant for cold, calculating actions. They don't make for the best parents. At times, they don't make for the best friends." Melora says "Aryox". Next there are more of Aryox's thoughts: "if I betray them…", followed by a drawing of Telaine (in yellow) and Melora (in green) laughing together, "I have a reason." A speech bubble in gray offsets this, reading "[illegible], I pray to your indifference." Telaine says "Aryox al-- broke our-- pact and--" Finally, Aryox runs through a mass of speech bubbles. One panel overlayed on top of them is a closeup of his eye, staring forward. His thought cuts through them too-- "It's for their sake. For the future. Because I saw--" The speech bubbles are overlapping, and cutting each other off. They are: "(Aryox) --ell Telaine --'m sorry" "(Telaine) That is why I think [illegible]'s indifference is WRONG" "(gray/Mira) Saved --ed, but at the cost of betraying" "(Telaine) Aryo--" "(Callie, teal) I don't think even he was on his own side." "(Aryox) I know. I had to. If there had been any other way, I would've…" "(Melora) --about the world, I needy you, Aryox." "(Melora) I am not neutral. I protect the--" "(gray) May [illegible]'s indifference protect me." The last speech bubble is just behind Aryox as he runs-- Melora's voice begging "please."

The first half of the next page is entirely taken up by a drawing of a statue of Melora, in slightly faded green. She stands in a column of light, stepping forward, smiling softly with one hand extended towards the viewer. She's looking down, towards whoever is looking at her. Green vines wrap around her, and she carries a green branch in her other hand with yellow, blue, and green flowers on it. Below the statue, a tiny Aryox stands across from it, on top of the border of the next panel, as he says "Mel?" Aryox stares up at her in shock.

The last page shows Aryox staring up at Melora from the front, his ears drooping and text bubbles echoing behind him. They are mostly illegible but some words can be made out: "(Aryox) Mel" "(Telaine) Goddess" "(Melora) I need you, Aryox" "(gray) Melora's indifference" Melora is shown laughing, with the panel fracturing into ice below her and cracks running through the vision of her as Aryox things "no." He is then shown stepping forward raising a hand towards Melora, ice crumbling away from the border of the frame, with Melora's statue still standing across from him. Text echoes behind him: "(Aryox) I know. I'm sorry. If there had been any other--" "(Telaine) Melora's indifference is WRONG" "(gray) Melora, I pray ---ence" "(Telaine) THAT'S how-----tle WE--- YOU" "(Melora) Please." "(Aryox) If I betray them, I have a reason." The ice is cracking below them, too, as Aryox thinks "not you." Mist begins to swirl into the page, and very faintly in the background Aryox's name in light green begins to appear. Aryox reaches up towards Melora, then stares up at her with a frown, putting his hand on her cheek. It is small against her face, and mist cuts across the corner of the panel. It is cut off in the corner by Melora yelling "Aryox!", the tail of this speech bubble parting the mist on the page. The speech bubble leads to Melora in the only colored panel of the comic-- Melora and Telaine leaning over Aryox from his Pov, with his hand on Melora's cheek, bigger against it than the statue's. Melora frowns as she speaks, and Telaine smiles softly, her eyebrows furrowed.