All Good Things... - Rae and Keros
May 24, 2024 14:19:11 GMT
Jaezred Vandree, Andy D, and 4 more like this
Post by Tom M on May 24, 2024 14:19:11 GMT
Co-written, and agonised over, with Harry
Set after the events of The Well of Knowledge
Once Crow has left, and Rae and Keros are walking home, Rae looks at Keros with some fear, and a furrowed brow.“You’d better not be getting any ideas. About the things we saw.”
Taken aback by this coming out of seemingly nowhere, Keros cocks his head at Rae, “What are you talking about?”
“The vision, you saw the same thing I did, didn’t you? I killed you and..” They stop for a moment and think. “I suppose you might not have felt it. Sorry. When I killed you in the vision.. The hunger left. It was really gone.”
Keros sighs realising that Rae saw the opposite of his vision, “I don’t think my death is the solution to that problem Rae.”
“Right. Good. Because the beads of nourishment worked fairly well. Considering how many I had and roughly how long it took, for me to get hungry again, just off my own internal clock and not however time works in there, I’d say I get an hour of rest from the hunger per bead? Seems useful. I don’t know how easily accessible they are, I’ll look into it.”
They carry on walking for a few moments before turning back to Keros. “Hang on, not the solution to that problem? Keros?”
“Just… no. Sorry. Forget I said anything.” He looks around for a street food stand that might serve as a distraction.
“This is what I mean, Keros. I’m not letting you do anything silly. We are both getting out of this. Please put that out of your mind as an option.”
“I know. I just enjoyed seeing the version of you today when you stopped thinking about the weave and revenge and everything… I miss when before arcane power was your solution to every problem it used to be kindness.”
Rae gives Keros an incredulous look, truly baffled by the statement. “Are you insinuating that my plan to save your existence from an extra dimensional threat is not kind? Everything I do for you is done with love and kindness, and I’m sorry I cannot simply ask the universe to talk about it and settle our differences. There is a chance that you could get erased from our reality and I'm putting everything I have into stopping that. I’d call that pretty damn kind.”
“I… That is not…” Keros gives a weary sigh, “I am sorry. Really I am. This whole thing is frustrating for me and I appreciate everything you have done and everything you have sacrificed. It just hurts me to watch you keep hurting yourself because of me.”
“That is what we do, Keros. I do not continually stop you from putting yourself in the front line of combat, or casting a spell with this that lets you quite literally take on my pain.” They raise their hand with the ring on it. “We share pain, Keros, in our own ways. But you just can’t let me do what I need to do, you insist on criticising and worrying. I have confidence in you, where’s yours in me?” They stand with a fierce, defensive expression, brows furrowed, staring up at him.
“Rae. I can take a healing potion to fix the damage done to me. Eight hours and I feel better. Can you say the same?” Keros looks into Rae’s eyes, matching their anger with sadness.
“When you fight, there is always a chance you could die. But you push through, because you know once the fight is over and we’re both alive, that you can recover. This is my battle, once you are safe, then I can recover. I just need time.” Rae does not back down, holding their ground.
“Fighting is different. You know what it looks like when my wounds mean that I am in serious danger and I need to be rescued.” Keros’ eyes drift to the diary, “If, or maybe when, that moment comes for you I will not see it until after it is already too late.”
Rae reflexively hides their diary behind their back. “I do not need saving. I am the one saving you. Let me do what I need to do.”
Seeing nothing but the same fierce dedication to his welfare in Rae’s eyes that he has for them, Keros sighs, “How about you let someone else take a look over what you have done so far? Just to be safe.”
“I will... talk to Penny about it. They seemed interested. As I said before, it’ll be good to talk to someone who speaks my language.”
Keros jumps at the small concession, “Okay so we invite them around, you two can go over the research, and maybe something to eat afterwards? We could invite Rosemary too.”
“..Why not one of the restaurants you mentioned before? Buffet? I need a lot of food right now.” They look up, already hungry after the beads of nourishment have been wearing off.
“Okay, how about a buffet now and we spit-roast a whole lamb or something for our two friends? They allow that in Fort Ettin right?”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to put them out and make them come all the way out to Fort Ettin, we should see them in the city before we go back.”
Keros glowers "So that they cannot see all of your work; defeating the entire point of this."
Rae sighs “I said I would talk to them about it. My research is private, personal, and a mess, hardly well organised enough for them to take a look.”
Keros grits his teeth in frustration and looks away for long enough to compose himself, "Rae I am asking you to do this small thing so that I do not have to live in constant worry about consequences for you from something I do not understand beyond the fact that I am to blame for it. You tell me over and over that this is for me and I do not want it! I am not as smart as you, but every instinct in my body tells me that this is going to end badly. There is something about that diary and it is doing something to you and I..." he pauses and steels his resolve, "I will not just sit by and watch it destroy you."
“What are you going to do? Take it from me? You couldn’t. We both know that.” Rae’s look becomes cold, quiet. “You don’t have to watch me. I will see this through. And you will understand what I have achieved when I am finished.”
Keros hangs his head as Rae speaks. Their words cutting him to his core and a tear running down his cheek. He walks over to a nearby bench and wearily sits down with his face in his hands.
Rae hears a muffled “You are right.” Keros looks back up and continues, “You are right. I cannot take it from you. I cannot make you stop this. You have to make that choice yourself or it means nothing. I promised I would always do whatever it takes to protect you and… I will never break my word to you.”
“Rae, I need you to choose. It’s me or that book.”
Rae stares long and hard at Keros, they become short of breath suddenly, and their face turns angry, frustrated, with tears forming in their eyes that they try to keep at bay.
“I don’t understand why you would make me make that choice. I cannot save you without this book.”
“Yes you can! You are so much more than this!” Keros isn’t hiding that tears are streaming down his face, “Please Rae, I am begging you to stop. If everything I have ever done for you still means anything to you then I am asking you this one thing in return.”
“Just put down the book and even if it is not forever we can be happy for however long we have instead of this thing poisoning every aspect of both of our lives.”
“I cannot accept that. I cannot accept you disappearing while I know I have the power to fix that. You will thank me for this when my work is done.. I just wish you could see the vision that I see.”
Keros doesn’t answer for a long time. He just sits silently without making eye contact.
“It sounds like you just made your choice.”
Rae grits their teeth, clenches their fists, then lifts a single finger in front of them. A small tear in reality, crackling, brimming with power opens as they cast dimension door, and step through it.
Keros reaches out a hand and it lingers there for a few seconds, trembling in the air, after Rae has gone - staring at the point where they disappeared.
He lowers it slowly as he slumps off the bench and onto his knees where he just sits in the dirt, broken and defeated, openly but quietly weeping in the street.
As soon as Rae reappears, they do not lose a step. With tears streaming down their face, but a look of determination, they stride towards Fort Ettin to retrieve their research. The thought of returning to their research calms them somewhat, and their face relaxes into a smile, a smile that gives way to laughter. Small, secret laughter, masked by streaming tears.
Set after the events of The Well of Knowledge
Once Crow has left, and Rae and Keros are walking home, Rae looks at Keros with some fear, and a furrowed brow.“You’d better not be getting any ideas. About the things we saw.”
Taken aback by this coming out of seemingly nowhere, Keros cocks his head at Rae, “What are you talking about?”
“The vision, you saw the same thing I did, didn’t you? I killed you and..” They stop for a moment and think. “I suppose you might not have felt it. Sorry. When I killed you in the vision.. The hunger left. It was really gone.”
Keros sighs realising that Rae saw the opposite of his vision, “I don’t think my death is the solution to that problem Rae.”
“Right. Good. Because the beads of nourishment worked fairly well. Considering how many I had and roughly how long it took, for me to get hungry again, just off my own internal clock and not however time works in there, I’d say I get an hour of rest from the hunger per bead? Seems useful. I don’t know how easily accessible they are, I’ll look into it.”
They carry on walking for a few moments before turning back to Keros. “Hang on, not the solution to that problem? Keros?”
“Just… no. Sorry. Forget I said anything.” He looks around for a street food stand that might serve as a distraction.
“This is what I mean, Keros. I’m not letting you do anything silly. We are both getting out of this. Please put that out of your mind as an option.”
“I know. I just enjoyed seeing the version of you today when you stopped thinking about the weave and revenge and everything… I miss when before arcane power was your solution to every problem it used to be kindness.”
Rae gives Keros an incredulous look, truly baffled by the statement. “Are you insinuating that my plan to save your existence from an extra dimensional threat is not kind? Everything I do for you is done with love and kindness, and I’m sorry I cannot simply ask the universe to talk about it and settle our differences. There is a chance that you could get erased from our reality and I'm putting everything I have into stopping that. I’d call that pretty damn kind.”
“I… That is not…” Keros gives a weary sigh, “I am sorry. Really I am. This whole thing is frustrating for me and I appreciate everything you have done and everything you have sacrificed. It just hurts me to watch you keep hurting yourself because of me.”
“That is what we do, Keros. I do not continually stop you from putting yourself in the front line of combat, or casting a spell with this that lets you quite literally take on my pain.” They raise their hand with the ring on it. “We share pain, Keros, in our own ways. But you just can’t let me do what I need to do, you insist on criticising and worrying. I have confidence in you, where’s yours in me?” They stand with a fierce, defensive expression, brows furrowed, staring up at him.
“Rae. I can take a healing potion to fix the damage done to me. Eight hours and I feel better. Can you say the same?” Keros looks into Rae’s eyes, matching their anger with sadness.
“When you fight, there is always a chance you could die. But you push through, because you know once the fight is over and we’re both alive, that you can recover. This is my battle, once you are safe, then I can recover. I just need time.” Rae does not back down, holding their ground.
“Fighting is different. You know what it looks like when my wounds mean that I am in serious danger and I need to be rescued.” Keros’ eyes drift to the diary, “If, or maybe when, that moment comes for you I will not see it until after it is already too late.”
Rae reflexively hides their diary behind their back. “I do not need saving. I am the one saving you. Let me do what I need to do.”
Seeing nothing but the same fierce dedication to his welfare in Rae’s eyes that he has for them, Keros sighs, “How about you let someone else take a look over what you have done so far? Just to be safe.”
“I will... talk to Penny about it. They seemed interested. As I said before, it’ll be good to talk to someone who speaks my language.”
Keros jumps at the small concession, “Okay so we invite them around, you two can go over the research, and maybe something to eat afterwards? We could invite Rosemary too.”
“..Why not one of the restaurants you mentioned before? Buffet? I need a lot of food right now.” They look up, already hungry after the beads of nourishment have been wearing off.
“Okay, how about a buffet now and we spit-roast a whole lamb or something for our two friends? They allow that in Fort Ettin right?”
“Well, I wouldn’t want to put them out and make them come all the way out to Fort Ettin, we should see them in the city before we go back.”
Keros glowers "So that they cannot see all of your work; defeating the entire point of this."
Rae sighs “I said I would talk to them about it. My research is private, personal, and a mess, hardly well organised enough for them to take a look.”
Keros grits his teeth in frustration and looks away for long enough to compose himself, "Rae I am asking you to do this small thing so that I do not have to live in constant worry about consequences for you from something I do not understand beyond the fact that I am to blame for it. You tell me over and over that this is for me and I do not want it! I am not as smart as you, but every instinct in my body tells me that this is going to end badly. There is something about that diary and it is doing something to you and I..." he pauses and steels his resolve, "I will not just sit by and watch it destroy you."
“What are you going to do? Take it from me? You couldn’t. We both know that.” Rae’s look becomes cold, quiet. “You don’t have to watch me. I will see this through. And you will understand what I have achieved when I am finished.”
Keros hangs his head as Rae speaks. Their words cutting him to his core and a tear running down his cheek. He walks over to a nearby bench and wearily sits down with his face in his hands.
Rae hears a muffled “You are right.” Keros looks back up and continues, “You are right. I cannot take it from you. I cannot make you stop this. You have to make that choice yourself or it means nothing. I promised I would always do whatever it takes to protect you and… I will never break my word to you.”
“Rae, I need you to choose. It’s me or that book.”
Rae stares long and hard at Keros, they become short of breath suddenly, and their face turns angry, frustrated, with tears forming in their eyes that they try to keep at bay.
“I don’t understand why you would make me make that choice. I cannot save you without this book.”
“Yes you can! You are so much more than this!” Keros isn’t hiding that tears are streaming down his face, “Please Rae, I am begging you to stop. If everything I have ever done for you still means anything to you then I am asking you this one thing in return.”
“Just put down the book and even if it is not forever we can be happy for however long we have instead of this thing poisoning every aspect of both of our lives.”
“I cannot accept that. I cannot accept you disappearing while I know I have the power to fix that. You will thank me for this when my work is done.. I just wish you could see the vision that I see.”
Keros doesn’t answer for a long time. He just sits silently without making eye contact.
“It sounds like you just made your choice.”
Rae grits their teeth, clenches their fists, then lifts a single finger in front of them. A small tear in reality, crackling, brimming with power opens as they cast dimension door, and step through it.
Keros reaches out a hand and it lingers there for a few seconds, trembling in the air, after Rae has gone - staring at the point where they disappeared.
He lowers it slowly as he slumps off the bench and onto his knees where he just sits in the dirt, broken and defeated, openly but quietly weeping in the street.
As soon as Rae reappears, they do not lose a step. With tears streaming down their face, but a look of determination, they stride towards Fort Ettin to retrieve their research. The thought of returning to their research calms them somewhat, and their face relaxes into a smile, a smile that gives way to laughter. Small, secret laughter, masked by streaming tears.