sieg catchall

[sageguidance]

"catchall" it's for one thread he's dying tomorrow



edit: nvm jae is all mine now :)

Comments

[sageguidance]

... A friend of yours?

[ercnerd]

[Now there's a funny thought. Sieghart refocuses with a grin.]

No way. She's . . . should I say, my charge? I'm protecting her in my late brothers' stead.

[sageguidance]

I see... But she should also be safe, yes?

[ercnerd]

She should be. I wonder if this seal on our powers will lift before she sees me . . .

[sageguidance]

Hm? ... I take it that means it would alter your reunion somehow?

[ercnerd]

Well, yeah. If she tries to dissect me before I regain my immortality, I really might die.

[sageguidance]

[ ... ]

I beg your pardon?

[ercnerd]

It's how things are between us. She's always pestering me for my blood and talking about how she wants to dissect me to learn more about my immortality.

[sageguidance]

[ ... hm ]

Was it not gained from... [ he trails off, making vague hand gestures. ] Come to think of it, I know not what that place was, aside from a temple—or so I presume.

[ercnerd]

I've been to countless temples in my lifetime. That's not where I acquired immortality, though. I was given a lifesaving transfusion from my brothers when they found me, bleeding out.

[sageguidance]

And it was through that where you gained immortality?

[ercnerd]

[Sieghart nods.]

Kounat's immortal legion of Highlanders. They possessed a higher concentration of divine blood than ordinary citizens. By inheriting their deity bloodline, I also became one of them.

[sageguidance]

So they thought to save you from the throes of death... by removing any chance to die. Is that correct?

[ercnerd]

Something like that.

All they wanted was to save me. There are plenty of ways to unravel immortality, though, so relying on it overmuch is foolish.

[sageguidance]

Is that so? I've not met an immortal being afore, but I would not have thought it could be undone.

[ercnerd]

If it were that immutable, I wouldn't be the last Highlander.

[That memory of the fire and his brothers' bodies wouldn't exist. They'd be alive. He wouldn't be the way he is now, either.]

There are also immortals who trade in their longevity for reincarnation that only mortals are allowed to undergo.

[sageguidance]

[ Right... He remembers those memories. Alphinaud pauses briefly before saying: ]

Immortality to some would be naught more than a curse, I imagine.

[ercnerd]

Is that your way of trying to ask about my secret?

[sageguidance]

I don't know if I necessarily need to ask... I think it fairly obvious why you would feel that way.

[ercnerd]

You do? Why do you think that is, then?

[sageguidance]

Erm, well...

I suppose I've only read the like in stories—where one person's life extends far beyond that of those around them, time and time again, and it becomes a source of great anguish.

[ercnerd]

Hmm . . . But there's still the joy of experiencing the worlds, don't you think?

[sageguidance]

I would agree, yet I can only speak from the perspective of a man who has only lived nineteen summers long, not hundreds.

[ercnerd]

You'd be surprised. Even among mortals, elves can live over a thousand years. A few centuries don't mean as much to them as they do to humans.

[sageguidance]

Is—is that so?

My kind do tend to live longer lifespans than those you would refer to as "human", but really, it isn't by terribly much. I certainly will never see two centuries pass me by.