Pactsworn and Oathbound - Rae 18/01/2024

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Rae went and found a place to stay for themselves and Keros when it became apparent they needed to leave the situation with Keros’ father and that we wouldn’t be going home the same day. They sit up in the room, leafing through the Diary, the subject of their study, and waiting. When Keros enters they drag their eyes from the book to look at him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah I,” he pauses and shuts the door behind him. “No. Not really no. It has been… an emotional day.”

Rae darts over to wrap their arms around his massive frame as best they can and press their head to his chest. “You’ve done a lot today. I’m proud of you for coming this far.” They look up. “What happened after I left?”

Keros stumbles back a step before lifting Rae off the ground for a cathartic hug, “We can get to that in a minute. Can we talk about what happened before then first? You said some… beautiful things. I really appreciate you standing up for me.”

“I also appreciate you not casting Steel Wind Strike.” he adds.

Rae smiles, blushing a little. “I have always found great results from speaking my mind.” Their smile turns serious fairly soon. “You were not yourself. You needed help. I’m never going to not help you when you need it.”

Keros puts Rae down gently, “I know, but I did abandon him. Of all people you know more than most what that feels like.”

Rae furrows their brow in confusion. “Keros, that man deserved abandonment. He deserves much worse than that honestly. Abandonment is a mercy he should’ve accepted and tried to learn a lesson from. But he didn’t.”

Keros sighs, “I guess for all my talk about hating him all these years deep down I was holding on to hope for some kind of reconciliation, but that‘s gone now. The venom in his mind has finally reached his body. He did not look a well man.”

“No one could blame you for that. It’s the very least he owes you after so long. I know it’s difficult for you to accept but it’s time to let him go. He clearly has nothing to offer you. And you’re better without him.”

“Yeah, I think I am. Thank you for being such a big part of that.” Keros smiles, but then his tone shifts slightly, “I promised Raine I would tell you what happened next or she said she would and I think it better you hear it from me. You should probably sit down.”

Rae nods quietly and sits down on the bed, looking up at Keros expectantly.

“Okay so, another one of the words appeared. Solution. They explained that with Devotion gone, and they shouldn’t be able to be gone, the universe and the “Great Plan” is out of balance. Apparently picking up this shield somehow alerted them all to my existence and I have enough of Devotion, my ancestor, in me to serve as their replacement and… fix things.”

Rae narrows their eyes and starts connecting dots in their head. “Replacement? You’ll work with them? What does that mean? Going with them?” Rae starts making notes and scrawling thoughts. “And they’re clearly a larger cosmic sort of force we weren’t expecting the scale of. Universe, Great Plan. I don’t like those words.”

Keros gives Rae a sad smile, marvelling at how smart they are, “It means I go with them and they erase who I am as a person and I never come back, but that I serve some great higher purpose. Or Purpose. Raine thinks Purpose may be a person.”

Rae hardly looks up from their scrawlings, noting down current names they have of the Thousand Words and making theories of their purpose. “And you of course told them to go to hell and we need to figure out a different way to get them off our backs. If Purpose is one of them then maybe getting rid of them will send them into chaos and they’ll have bigger things to worry about than us.”

Keros puts a hand on their book to stop the scrawling, “Rae I absolutely want to explore alternative ways to fix this, but right now I need you to focus on what I am telling you and why I am telling you it:
I did say no. I told them that I already abandoned the family I was born too and I won’t… abandon the one I found here. But then they told me their other ‘solution’: the alternative is that they erase me from existence entirely along with any memory that exists in others and how they were going to achieve that last part was not made clear.”

Rae stops their writing and looks up at Keros sharply, their face becomes a painted portrait of worry, the gears turning in their head are practically visible through their forehead. “We.. We’re really in a tough one here. They’re very powerful. If they have anything to do with the-“
Rae’s face contorts with pain at the migraine from attempting to remember stolen memories. “..They really are capable of insane magic. But we can still figure this out. I can figure this out. I’m certain my research into the Weave and it’s link to our minds and consciousness could be an answer. Some way to counteract their removing of memories. I’m onto something big I know it, there will be something I can do I just need to find it, I need more time I..” Rae’s worry dances across their face as they try to mask it with searching for solutions.

Keros takes Rae’s hands in his, “We have plenty of time. They said time isn’t a thing for them so I am not being pressured to make a decision fast. I just need you to know now, right now, that if that timer runs out and they demand an answer and our third way is either not ready or too risky I will be saying goodbye to you. What I need you to hear and I need you to remember is that if I have to go it will not be because I do not love you. Okay?”

Rae’s eyes instantly start welling with tears, frustration appears first, soon replaced by sadness. “..You’re so good. Why do you have to be so good?” They take a deep but shaky breath and wipe tears out of their eyes. “I can never tell you not to be a hero, Keros. It is what you do. And why I love you too. But I will not stop working until I find a way to protect you from this. That is what I do.”

“Hey, I lose either way. Why would I drag you, and everyone else I care about for that matter, down with me? I know you’d do the same thing.” He wipes away one of his own tears, “Okay enough of this. Back to you being the smart one who knows how everything works and destroys me at Hillsurfing.” Keros grins, “I am never going to understand this Weave stuff, but what I do know is that they can die or else they wouldn’t have lost Devotion. They can be fought and they can be killed. We just don’t know how to make it stick. Right?”

Rae raises an eyebrow, “That’s right. So are you proposing the version of this where we find out what can make it stick and proceed to use that to destroy nine-hundred and ninety nine of these beings?”

“I’m not the smart one okay?” Keros forces a chuckle, “Your thing with the Weave might be better.”