Spirit Sight II 5/23

[21:03] Leni says, "...It's different. Hearing people talk about it and...and seeing it."
[21:03] Armondt says, "Makes ya wanna run away, don't it."
[21:08] Saya Solstice says, "...."
[21:11] Leni nods. It's definitely different. She reaches out and plants her hand firmly against the ground. Much as she did with her feet before, little tendrils of roots grow from her palm and dig into the ground. The nature magi searches, feels, reaches out.

And almost immediately she regrets it.

There's still so much blood in the soil. Some of it singed, shattered, broken, pieces torn asunder. The local flora has not at all been unaffected by the recent devastation.

She pulls her hand free and whimpers softly. It wasn't just that either. Something about this place now feels utterly wrong; where there'd been so much life and abundance, its absence is a stark contrast. And Leni remembers Tieru, and what he'd said.

Every last merchant, soldier, man, woman and child.

The weight of that now fully settles over her like a leaden blanket.
(Leni)
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[21:12] Saya Solstice says, "...... "
[21:17] Armondt stands in silence, letting Leni simply observe the wake of Osrona's destruction on a deeper level. Certainly a level deeper than he was actually capable of probing. He is, however, able to see where she channels her mana, and when it goes into the soil and she immediately reacts, it doesn't sit particularly great with him.

"It's... a lot. It's a lot, and I ain't exactly expectin' somethin' this bad to ever just wash over easy." The land would heal, and maybe the multitudes of souls that perished here would eventually be forgotten. But they were here in the now, and they were enough to sense the mark this left behind.

As Leni struggles with the pall draped over the city, Armondt looks in the direction of the set-upon cathedral. "Wonder what the spirits of folk here would say. What they felt." If so, was this town, seemingly quiet, just aflutter with activityfrom the dead... being that so many have joined their ranks of late?
(Armondt)
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[21:18] She would approach trudging through the blood and mud with a shovel she bore a grey cloak yes but it seemed she was there for a different pourpose to give those men women and children that were slain.....a proper resting as her head lowered...



""so exhausted ...I hope I can give them peace and a proper burial...the king should have surrendered and none of this would have happened ...you two stop messing around ..please have respect this is no longer a city but ….a burial ground now.."
(Saya Solstice)
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[21:24] Leni cradles her hand, though it's uninjured and outwardly unaffected. The land, ultimately, would be fine, but was there any real reason the damage had to be so severe, so merciless, in the first place?

Nature was indifferent in many ways, but in just as many ways it was not inherently malevolent. Not like this act seemed.

The nature magi's never been terribly wise, but Armondt's musing aloud jostles a thought in her head loose, a notion that's perhaps not wholly smart or safe. She reaches into her pocket and takes out a deep red piece of chalk. Why on earth she still has it is anyone's guess, but likely something to do with the fact that it's such a curiosity.

To Saya she shakes her head. The nature magi is not doing anything currently inherently respectful. It can hardly be said they're 'messing' around.

"I dunno, Arm...Maybe I can...I dunno."
(Leni)
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[21:26] Saya Solstice says, "How about you two find shovels and help me bury what ever remains`...give them peace.....I cant evern remember how many infants and children i have laied to rest..."
[21:30] Armondt fairly winces at the sight of that red piece of chalk. There weren't great connotations locked beneath that hunk of drawing material, but... who was he to step in on what she was prepared to do? He looks over to the oncoming Saya, and shakes his head. "Trust me, ma'am, messin' around here is the last thing we'd wanna do. Just... tryin' to offer a due for the dead. Might be that this loss was senseless, and it might be the King's inability to surrender caused all this, but we're on the same page as far as honorin' 'em is concerned."

He shakes his head, and looks on to the scape of bones that still yet litter the streets. While cleanup efforts have managed to pick a fair amount of the deceased, there was always going to be a stone unturned here or there. A clump of soil untouched where remains still lie.

"...But if ya want me to set about helpin' bury some of the remains that they ain't found as yet, I can help." While his eyes set out to spot any excavatory tools in his immediate surroundings, a shroud of energizing cosmic mana begins to surround him, and establishes a firm tether with Leni. If she was about to work with what he suspected she was, she'd need that tether.
(Armondt)
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[21:33] Saya Solstice says, "Thank you im so exausted ..may have dug atleast twohundred today..."
[21:36] The chalk no doubt had no great purpose intended for it, given where she found it in that dark, musty room in the academy. That doesn't mean she can't use it for something fruitful here, maybe.

That leaden blanket grows heavier as the two nearby discuss the multitude of bodies, particularly those of the young and innocent, all victims of...

Victims of what? What, ultimately, laid them low? Steel and spell were instruments, but what impulse drove those things to commit these acts? They weren't forces that acted of their own accord.

It's probably wise that he establishes that tether, making of for her clear lack of foresight. Leni grabs the chalk firmly in her fist and the edge of her vision starts to fade. Her mana fluctuates, the edge of her vision grows fuzzy, and there's a familiar, sharp gripping sensation around her heart.

As a consequence, the world around her starts to blur and warp strangely.
(Leni)
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[21:41] Armondt was more than willing to aid and abet in the act of digging graves. Mass graves. Mass graves dedicated to the deceased who, by and large, may have had too much love for their home to escape. Or, worse yet, attempted to escape terribly in vain. Having that futile hope that perhaps they would be left alone for their innocence.

It might be that they were laid low, but at the very least Armondt could help commune them unto the stars. The cosmic tether on Leni holds strong while the courier-come-gravedigger plucks a somewhat rusty-looking spade from the grass. His eyes scan across the courtyard overlooking the cathedral, and find... plenty of bones.

Plenty of bones that he didn't have a choice but to pick through, gather, and dig.

Armondt engages more deeply with his mana as he approaches one of the aforementioned corpses, and using his foot for additional leverage, buries the spade into the ground. The soil is upturned and summarily excavated, bit by bit, making a hole.

He turns slowly to look to Leni. "...Ya feel anythin'?" Doubtless he could certainly feel Leni's signature begin to wane...
(Armondt)
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[21:49] *she would glance over to leni and the other as she wiped sweat from her brow she appeared to have been crying allthe while her heart filled with sadness and grief she offered a small prayer for thosethat they gathered her hands battered and beaten full of blisters from digging

"May your remains and spirits be guided by the stars my friends.."

she muttered while aiding him digging she seemed to be weeping but holding it togeather it was unjust … the death the grief she held in her body and cloak drenched and stained in blood as she dug


"Thank you.. I was doing it on my own for the longest hoping the osranans came home to assist friend foe it doesn't matter anymore.. I pray for the sadness to end ..I am nothing more than a doctor the many I helped … honestly as a greycloak I can say we all feel sadness most feel the same due to this genocide.."
(Saya Solstice)
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[21:51] "...Sorta," she pipes up, holding that peculiar stick of red chalk in a fearless, white-knuckled grip. Leni's resolved to do this, to see this through, for what's likely a handful of reasons.

What she can feel most chiefly is those intangible barbs, what's left of some manner of cruel curse or injury, dig further into her heart. It labors to beat, but beat it does. Her breathing, as a consequence, becomes a bit more ragged.

Given the fact that the chalk quite literally saps her life bit by bit, it should be no small wonder.

But her eyes start to rove around without seeming aim over the courtyard of destruction. It's there she swears that she can see hazy outlines and specks milling around, superimposed over the various wreckage of craters and misfired spells that litter the landscape.

Leni's starting to not look so good though.
(Leni)
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[21:58] Armondt stands before a particular skeleton - a small thing that Leni might be able to see in the periphery, perhaps with a small shade accompanying it. He looks down at the wiry little bit of remains; most undoubtedly belonging to a small child who just couldn't get away in time. Perhaps one who tried, but not successfully.

The courier places his hand over his chest, and issues his hope towards the heavens. Maybe there would be a star somewhere up there that would accept them. The little ritual is light at best; Armondt still knows nothing of religion, and that faint hope he issues is the best he can do. Once that's done, he reaches down and picks up the skeleton.

Their body felt just like a backpack.

Armondt kneels forward, places the child's bones in the hole he's made, and gently lays them within, before burying it under a mound of soil. As he does so, however, he feels the waning tether on Leni. She's starting to feel not so good, as far as he can tell.

"...Don't overdo it." He stops, and casts a hand out in her direction. A pulse quickens from his shroud of mana, and sends cosmically-aspected energies her way, trying to pump her up with life-affirming mana.
(Armondt)
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[22:10] With the chalk in one hand, the other remains firmly planted against the ground. It braces her and keeps her aloft. His warning must fall on deaf ears. Her skin grows pale and sweat streaks at her temples like she's in the grips of a fever.

In spite of it, and the gift of mana, that's exactly what she's currently doing. Her pulse slows, each thud a little more strained and painful than the last. Granted, if she just got rid of the chalk, she'd be fine. But if she did that, then she wouldn't see what she did.

Her head turns to see Armondt carrying the skeleton of that fallen child. Sure enough, a clear specter follows the body. As she draws closer to that threshold she can see more details of the subject.

It's grisly, it's gut-turning, and wrenches her already taxed heart. The other spirits nearby, the ones of nature, are mostly seen as nebulous pinpoints of light. The child instead resembles his appearance at the moment ofdeath, before his flesh sloughed off.

She watches the spirit scream and wail, its mouth opening, but no sound comes out that she can hear. It- no, he- looks to his body, and all around. Searching, seeking for something it surely won't find.

That does it. That's all she can stand. Leni lets go of the chalk and, as life floods back and the strain rises from her, the vision dissipates. The nature magi still appears utterly haggard in its passing.
(Leni)