Traditionalism

You are Nathan Bookchild.

You are not at the snake hunt. You were never going to be at the snake hunt. You left a note for Amy, explaining that you left to arrange something ("Don't tell Bri, you'll ruin the surprise,") and used your emergency book from the Atheneum to get up there about twenty minutes after Brianna left with River.

From there, you gimped with all of your considerable will towards the Lichyard. This is going to need careful timing so you're not caught. There's a few close calls in avoiding the Caretaker's staff, along with the careful, oh-so-careful sliding around of a shockingly sober Brigette. Note to self: world is ending.

Wow. Maybe Bri really is a bad influence on you, that was cynical as fuck.

You stop to catch your breath at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the Lichyard. Things have gotten easier for you, with all the training and exercise since your death, but you still have to watch yourself a lot more than you used to. Your lungs just don't want to /work/ properly.

Your shadow taps its foot against the stairs, impatiently. You give it a curious look; not too long ago, you would have kept it shackled. Now, more and more lately, you let it loose, not hiding who or what you are.

Natalia keeps hers restrained, but that might not be on purpose. Your mother is - she's wound up. She doesn't know how to handle herself.

Something you can help with while Bri's recovering, maybe. But for now, the stairs await.

The climb, as always, is a wretched hell. By the time you make it to the shrine of the la Croix, you're regretting every event from your birth that led you here. Just. Fuck. Fuck everything, your lungs feel like someone's been sawing at them with fucking ice.

The novice at the door recognizes you. "Mister Bookchild!" she says, brightly. "What brings you here?"

"I need to speak with the dead of the la Croix here," you tell her. "Will they...will they come, for me?"

"No sir," the novice tells you, with a sympathetic smile. "But they will come for one of the blood. Is your business important?"

"Extremely," you tell her, and you mean it.

"Then I will speak for you. Come with me, Mister Bookchild."

You limp after the novice, steeling yourself for what is to come. From what Brianna has said, from everything you've learned about the la Croix, it will not be simple. But it /will/ be worth it. You take a deep breath (gods /why/) as you're lead into the graveyard, and the novice raises her voice.

"Nathan Bookchild, lover of Brianna la Croix, seeks an audience with the family," she says, formally.

"And why should the living boy bother old, dead bones with his business?" the old woman's voice echoes, from her grave. The gathering of phantoms rises from their resting places; bright-eyed Sammy, the Rose Cultist pierced with his many spears, the old, hanged woman, and all of those that you have seen before. Brianna talked to them then, but you must speak to them now.

"The Rose Cult is not the appropriate branch of the family for me to talk to," you tell them. "And the Blind Marsh la Croix are dead, and buried elsewhere. You are Brianna's closest family."

"Speak, Nathan," the Rose Cultist encourages, gently.

This is it. Do or die.

"I intend on asking for Brianna's hand in marriage," you say in a clear voice. "I have come to ask for your blessing on our union."

You have everyone's attention.

"Do you know what it is you ask?" the hanged woman says, curiously.

"One marries into the family, not out of it," the Rose Cultist notes. "Are you willing to take up that mantle? Are your children willing to take up that mantle?"

"Don't forget Amy!" Sammy adds.

"Amy is not here to ask our blessing," the old woman tells the young girl's ghost. "The Hero is. The half-harpy can cross this bridge when she comes to it."

> What do you tell them?

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