bythewaves | IC Inbox [Eachdraidh]

(... and dwelling and feeling a bit sick about it but after redgate and now the drabkeep castle he has to ask.)

You are, of course, under no obligation to answer me, but for the safety and well-being of those whom I hold dear, and damn the courts for their false divisions of them.

[ He hates asking this. He hated asking it of Alyosha and that went terribly, but if the Drabkeep can offer neither safe haven nor knowledge of one, and Artemis is alone, and Nico is searching for the Black Shuck, and Alyosha was dead and then alive... ]

Your brother... did he, before his passing, or you bearing him, after it, have any encounters with the Black Shuck, or the Black Dog that guards death.

This world is strange and I... I am forced to suspect that Death is not necessarily permanent. [ Quieter, then. ] In my world, such is not unheard of, though rare does one come back alive the same.

[ Vague surprise, as he was not... expecting to hear from Kaldur again but... Maglor knows the pain of kin sundured on opposite sides. However there's the part about how Celegorm does not... actually want to tell people he's alive, so he has to be careful about his answer ]

I saw and heard nothing, and if there was a Black Dog present before, none of those who were with my brother have spoken of such to me. In fairness, the world might have fallen around me and like as not I would not have cared. [ Could not, as he had been heartless, but Will guarded him well and would have said something ]

But none have said to me that they saw anything like what you are describing. [ Celegorm included ]

[ Kaldur exhales, a quiet form of blessing. He regrets that this conversation ever occur, but Nico needs to know, and for Kaldur's own sake, he is quite done seeing attempted assassinations the only family he has when he can do nothing, and they have done nothing, to warrant such.

He is tired of watching his family die. Or disappear. In any world, much less this one. ]

Thank you. I am sorry, to force you to revisit such memories.

[ A pause, and another exhale ]

And, I confess, I am grateful, that you have not had to suffer watching one you love die and return, changed. The the magic of this world and my own are different, I have never heard of such a thing occurring differently.

Those brought back to life can be so easily twisted, whether it is a change visible on the skin, or elsewhere.

Again, Maglor, I thank you, and I am sorry for your grief.

You needed the information - I gave it freely.

[ Changed? Maglor wonders and smiles a little I suppose that he is a little calmer. A bit more the brother I remember from Valinor, and not the merciless butcher of Middle-earth but he says nothing - Celegorm does not wish it known, and so he will not tell. But his brother's light burns clear again, untangled from its snares, and Valar willing with Nerdanel here they may keep it so. He takes the warning to heart however - once he is assured his friends and kin here are safe, he will head back out and keep an eye on Celegorm ]

And I am sorry that your world would afflict you so. It is not... quite the same for us as for you - Death is unnatural to the Eldar. In our own world, those of us whose hroa - bodies - are slain - their fear go to the Halls of Waiting where they may, in time, be reborn. What this world may do I know not, but I hope that you will not know that grief again.

IC Inbox [Eachdraidh]

[voice] forevermuch later and later still, after waiting and thinking...

[voice] (oh Kaldur)

[voice] (its probably wise for the time being because Alyosha wasn't exactly sane and then Ra's...)

[voice] (sob)