Elias and Alexandrea's reunion

[02:49] ??? says, "Ah. Wonderful. I think you and I can get along just fine."
[02:49] ??? says, "Mmmh..."
[02:49] ??? says, "Well... I found her."
[02:49] Elias Tanne asks, " ...Erm, welcome to the Church of Mercy. Ca-- me?"
[02:49] ??? says, "Yes, you Elias."
[02:50] ??? asks, "Hey uh... Does it count if they find me instead of me finding her big guy?"
[02:50] Unison says, "What are you speaking of? I'm afraid we don't catch your drift."
[02:51] ??? says, "Ah never mind... We can go down towards Gehenna lands if you want after I finish my business with this woman."
[02:52] Unison says, "Wonderful. We are in dire need of nourishment."
[02:52] ??? says, "There's actually a few people there I wouldn't mind helping you have a snack on..."
[02:53] Elias flips up her eyepatch, revealing a mechanical eye set into a mythril plate. "Alex? Kraus' wisdom, what are you doing so far down south? And with..."

She sighs, apparently remembering her new policy of being nice to demons. "Well, you've got me now. I'd stay and catch up, if you'd have me."

She narrows her good eye at the pair. "It's policy not to prejudge, but I'll have to ask that you not partake in unwilling cannibalism if you want to keep this situation civil."
(Elias Tanne)
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[02:53] ??? says, "Ain't really... Cannibalism if it's a demon. They're not humans."
[02:53] Unison says, "She is correct. Cannibalism refers to when HUMANS feed on other humans, not demons."
[02:53] Elias Tanne says, " Cannibalism is defined as consuming the flesh of a sapient, Alex."
[02:54] Elias Tanne says, " The intent of my statement was rather clear, and I'll not argue over semantics about it."
[02:54] ??? fwips back the hood. "Not important right now. I want you to come home with me Elias."
(???)
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[02:54] Elias Tanne asks, " Home. New Valmasia home? Deseti home? Old Valmasia home?"
[02:54] The Unison would continue to flutter around Alex, eagerly awaiting for the signal for them to leave and acquire food for The Unison.
(Unison)
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[02:55] ??? says, "New Valmasia... are not in my current list of interests. No, my home. Away from the wars and the mess."
[02:56] Elias Tanne says, " "Away from the wars and the mess" is why I'm building this place. I've made an obligation to her people, few may we be."
[03:02] Her gaze is cold and distant. "Things went badly with your returned love, didn't they? Is that why you've come knocking? I... want to believe this is for good cause, Alex, but you've given me much cause to doubt, you understand. Not least of which is coming here with a... with someone you intend to feed human beings."

She doesn't soften an ounce, though sorrow sets into her."And just out of the gate, 'Elias come home with me'? I've not seen you in four years, five years, six years-- long enough that it's blurred, and not even a 'how do you do'?"

She shakes, biting the inside of her mouth in an attempt to stay calm. "Alex, please, just... have a conversation with me. No jibes, no semantic arguments. Tell me what you want, why you want it, and how I can help, and I'll return the favor, aye?"

Her reaction does seem a little disproportionate, but such is the way of women confronted with old flames.
(Elias Tanne)
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[03:04] Alex takes the womans hands in her own. She looks her square in the eyes, her face showing little emotion and her eyes cold.

"Elias... Egh… Unison, you can get a head start if you'd like... I'll be along shortly, or perhaps we can just go about that another time I feel like this is going to take a little while... I don't want to keep you."
(???)
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[03:05] The Unison would begin to flutter about, making its way over towards one of the statues of the nearby building, resting on it as they watched the two women duke it out.

"We will wait. We have more then enough time. Besides like we said initially there is safety in numbers."
(Unison)
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[03:10] Alex still grips the woman's hands tightly.

"Please Elias. Just... I want you to see the light of Azrael."
(???)
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[03:10] Elias Tanne asks, " ...Is that what this is about, Alex? In whole?"
[03:10] ??? says, "You know it's about more than that, but it's important step moving forward..."
[03:17] She pulls her hands from Alex's grasp. "I don't know that it's about more than that, Alex! I haven't seen you in years! I don't know where we stand, I don't know what sort of a person you've become since you left. All I know is that you renounced your conversion and that a few years ago you were still someone I could speak with."

She gestures at the church and the tower behind her. "I built these, Alex. I cut the wood and quarried the stone and drew the plans and laid the bricks myself. I take my faith rather damn seriously. You yourself know how it is when someone approaches you and tells you the ways of your ancestors, the faith your family died for, is wrong."

She grabs her own face and squeezes in frustration. "Please, please Alex, just tell me what you want from me. Do you want me to convert because you feel that's right in the eyes of Azrael? Do you want me to convert because you need my allegiance for some plan of yours?

"Do you still fancy me, and don't want my faith getting in the way? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, Alex. Just... be plain with me. I've become a rather up-front woman and I don't know how to read between the lines."
(Elias Tanne)
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[03:22] Alex's face turns to a frown... Not an angry frown, but a more solemn one. She searches under her cloak, and pulls forth a piece of paper which she holds out towards the holy woman.

"I just... want to save you Elias... I'm your knight... It's my job. And I don't... I just... Feels are like, feelings are like trees and they they uhm… They're hard to describe? No trees are easy to describe now I'm just sounding stupid... Uh buh.."

She huffs and looks away, still holding out the paper while not looking at Elias if Elias had yet to take it.
(???)
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[03:22] Traded item with ???: To My Fair Knight
[03:27] "You told me you didn't read..."

Tears dust Elias' lashes, and she puts one arm around Alex. "I'm sorry, Alex. I just... you're a rather rough ride of a person, you know."

Elias skims the note again, pulled into the mind of a younger self, a more foolish self, a self half a lifetime divorced. She folds it and puts it in her pocket. "...I do still care for you. Rather, erm, strongly, even if I don't... understand, what happened to you in that Ezmara cell. I want to understand you more."

There's a hint of that younger woman in her face now, the way one corner of her mouth crawls up to make a sheepish smile.
(Elias Tanne)
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[03:33] Alex returns her gaze to the woman. Her facial features becoming a bit more soft, and less stoic. The hard shell of the Earth magi quickly turning to mud.

"I don't know how to... express myself in ways that aren't... hitting something... but you are someone I'd never ever want to hit if that uh, makes... sense.

My rough ride did not end with Gehenna, I swear most of my life has been spent in jail cells and most of it not being of my fault... But that still goes to show the ignorance that Krausites preach... Here even, here's fine huh? Yeah? Azrael could uh... spread mercy here... you just need to give him a chance..."

Seems even with the touching moments, the Oscuri would be pressing hard on the Azrealism still.
(???)
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[03:49] Elias, with a good deal of trepidation, runs her fingers through Alex's hair.

"You know that's... not me. You know those people aren't my people. Krausites they may call themselves, and I may be reluctant to call them unbelievers, but there's... well, there's a rather clear schism between myself and my flock and self-styled Krausites who don't know a hadith from a gospel."

She seems to see back in time a little, see a man with long, golden hair, and more confidence than he's earned.

"There are good Azraelites. I've met enough to know this. I... Don't like to admit it, but I know there's value in it."

She looks at her own hands, fingers laced through with soft brown hair. "Ah, to be saved from the pains in this world. To take loved ones back from what took them to the stars. To... see a new world, make of new clay, where such things as war don't happen. I see the truth in it, Alex, but..."

A sigh, run through with pain. "My father died for his faith. My people lived like vermin in the mountains for what we believe. I've spent my entire adult life devoted to this church. I... I know, I must seem hypocritical, but I can't turn my back on it, Alex."
(Elias Tanne)
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[03:51] ??? says, "Let me... Let me show you the visions Elias... Let you know his sacrafice... what true mercy is."
[04:12] Well, that's certainly exactly what Oscuri in frightening children's stories say shortly before they kill and eat the unsuspecting Krausite child. That fear shows in her eye, but she bows her head and maintains her composure.

"I didn't need a vision to see the wisdom in the stories of the saints, or the value in the Gospel of Mercy, or the wrongness of the Justice cult and the blood-worshippers. If you mean to convert me, I want to hear you do it in your voice. I want to hear the timbre of truth in it, Alex."
(Elias Tanne)
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[04:15] ??? says, "Nnghh... Why must you make me speak on my own? I can tell you over and over again... but it will never compare to seeing it with your own eyes. Azrael is the savior of humanity Elias, he freed us from the tyrany of the angel's rule."
[04:16] Elias Tanne says, " Because I care about you, Alex, far more than I care about Azrael or the Council of Angels or the gray-winged Emperor."
[04:18] ??? says, "Mmmh..."
[04:18] Elias Tanne says, " Because we say, for good reason, that Kraus is dead, and that this world is our inheritance, and I'm not about to be disavowed from such a position lightly. "
[04:20] ??? says, "If you inherit a ripped and tattered shirt... you still replace it with something better."
[04:26] "'May they be born into a better world', is the Krausite saying for the dead. We just disagree on the nature of the change. When we say thrice-blessed Kraus is dead, and that we have inherited the world of his name, we don't mean to venerate his sacrifice, profound though it be. We mean to say that the immortal, the powerful-- while they may guide us, they do not rule us. We do not bend to them. We are the ones invested in the capability for redemption. We are Kraus' most perfect work of artistry. We are the ones, for good or for ill, who should determine the course of the world. And so if you would have me praising Azrael, I want to hear why from a human, not from an angel."
(Elias Tanne)
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[04:29] ??? says, "I've told you before Elias, but you won't listen to me. I don't know what else I can do or say to you."
[04:29] Elias Tanne says, " Keep trying, if it means so much to you."
[04:30] Elias Tanne says, " I lived my life in Old Valmasia. I've heard all the standard lines. I've chosen this faith."
[04:30] Elias Tanne says, " If you'd change my mind..."
[04:30] Elias Tanne says, " Tell me something I don't know"

{Long diversion when a rando walked up omitted for brevity}

[04:48] Elias Tanne says, " Ah, I must be popular now."
[04:49] Elias Tanne says, " Maybe soon Ihros will come asking after my autograph."
[04:50] ??? says, "Ihros is dead."
[04:52] Elias Tanne asks, " ...Who did the deed?"
[04:53] ??? says, "I don't know, but it wasn't me if that's what you're thinking."
[04:53] Elias Tanne says, " No, I know you're not pledged to Gaiar."
[04:54] Elias Tanne says, " ...May he find peace in the stars, I suppose. Perhaps I can come back to Deseti without having my head mounted on a pike."
[04:55] In contrast to her rather flippant treatment of the situation, Elias seems tense, pawing at the ground with the toe of her boot and curling her hands into tight fists.
(Elias Tanne)
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[04:57] ??? asks, "What..?"
[04:59] Elias Tanne says, " Oh, he called me takfir and put out a bounty for my execution."
[05:00] ??? says, "Ah... happen to see the poster of me they have on their board there? Looks nothing like me..."
[05:01] Elias Tanne says, " ...Because I disagreed with all the murders he does, and the complete disregard for the interests of the people, et cetera."
[05:01] Elias Tanne says, " I did."
[05:06] Elias Tanne asks, " ...Alex?"
[05:07] ??? asks, "Huh... wha?"
[05:08] Elias Tanne says, " Your mind is somewhere else, I suppose."
[05:08] Elias Tanne asks, "...Where do you live now?"
[05:10] ??? says, "Oh there's this... little cave I stay in. No one ever really seems to go there so it's nice."
[05:10] Elias Tanne says, " ...Ah, such a luxurious estate you were inviting me to."
[05:11] Elias Tanne asks, " Would you like to stay the night here?"
[05:12] ??? says, "I suppose..."
[05:12] Elias Tanne says, " Ah, don't be so glum. "
[05:13] Elias Tanne asks, " We'll get you a good night's sleep, a hearty meal, and we'll talk more later, aye?"
[05:14] ??? says, "Yeah... yeah yeah... I am feeling rather tired."