pyrocatharsis | candle post

[bro 8|a]

Burn?

I am hoping I will no longer need to.

. . . doesn't sound like it's been any good. I'll hope that too.

It's unlikely that I'll be able to stop.

People just keep attacking, huh?

It's not surprising, here.

It wouldn't be at my home either.

[nod]

It seems that way for a lot of people there.

[nods]

I'm sure you'll be able to find a place.

Mmm. We'll probably be leaving this inn in the morning. Kaoru is getting restless again.

Kaoru?

A boy, about Victory's age. I had stopped him from killing himself a few years ago. He...chose. To come with me, despite having made a life with Recca and his friends.

So you're not traveling around on your own?

[nod]

That's correct. I had planned to, originally, but Kaoru made a rather impulsive decision.

It sounds like it was one he believed in.

It's ridiculous. He'll never be able to see Recca again.

Never?

Why do you sound so surprised?

Never's a really long time.

Five hundred years is a very long time. We're human. It's not possible to live that long.

Why's it going to be that long?

Ah, did I not mention? It's a little...complicated. But basically, we've gone 500 years to the past. As in, the current present for me is five hundred years before the time I'd returned to when I left Aather.