Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

The portal starts to destabilize as the last few come through, closing after everyone's out.

Emerald looks cross.
"I was hoping nobody else knew..."

________________________________

"It's like when I burned down my home. Just... worse."

 

"About the fact you've been hiding things from us?" I ask, drawing Shadow Katana and holding it ready.

Artemis puts her hand on my arm, shaking her head. I lower Shadow Katana, though I keep hold of it.

 

"Yeah. Also, if you learned anything from your seige, it's not to engage me near books."

 

"I'm willing to take that risk," I say, "Or, you can just tell us now and nobody gets hurt."

 

"Oh. I guess?"
He looks at the ash.

 

"Relax, Aj. There's no reason to fight."
Voidfiller speaks up.

 

"Who're you?" I ask, suspicious.

 

Emerald opens a book with an image of you, then turns the pages to show the other group members one-by-one, stopping at Shadow Stephanie.
"One more page, and you will all spend the rest of your lives in the Void. Or, you can stop trying to pressure everyone you meet by brute force and you can start talking." She says, almost tauntingly. "So, what'll it be?" She asks, putting a claw on the page and lifting the corner.

It's simple ash, not all of it a fine powder yet.

 

"Now we just wait for the wind to blow it all away."
He looks up.
"Can't really go and clean everything up."

 

"Things will grow over it."

 

"Maybe it'll turn into a little paradise in the next few years. Who knows."

 

"Or, you know... just grow back into a forest."

 

"Hah, you'd really do that? Even though I hold an item that can cure you of your curse? I don't have it on me, and if you trapped me here, I'd never be able to get it, and you and your siblings would lose the option for their curse to be broken," I say, "Do you want to be responsible for that? I'd tell them all about it."

Stephanie looks at the book curiously, before summoning her own tome and flipping through the pages.

 

"We'll have to plant some trees then. I don't mind an open area like this, it could turn out beautifull."

 

Emerald closes it.
"Listen to yourself." She says, stepping back.
"You thrive off pressure, but that's all you know how to use. Let Artemis speak, and see if anything changes."

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"Well, there are trees dropping fruits, too."

 

"True and with a little help, the forest will 'heal'."

 

"And with centaur probably focusing on that for the next few years."

 

"They probably will."
He looks at Anne
"Maybe we should go and thank them for their help."

 

"Yeah. You know where they live?"

 

"I do. But first I really need to take a bath."
Pause.
"I'm starting to smell it myself."