{-Casrane-}
She actually hated a lot about this. A part of her was ready to acknowledge that, ultimately, she was the one that set things on this path. But Duuzlo had assured her before, and even while they walked Llewel talked to her to prove he didn’t share her thoughts. So she decided, instead of worrying about whether or not she was responsible for this… she was just going to do what she could to fix it.
Which was what all of those objects that she gathered from the shopkeepers were for, actually. She knew for a long time that it was going to come down to this. It was a completely different feeling, though—from thinking she was prepared to staring right at the Heart of Anseshara.
“Do you have everything we’ll need?” Llewel prompted. “I… still don’t get why they’re so important, but Duuzlo made it sound like we shouldn’t be without them.”
Casrane nodded, carefully showing them each of the items in her bag. “They’re our ties from one spot to the other. I guess you can call them like… the rest of the roots. I don’t think what they are themselves is very important, it’s just the feeling that is tied to them… if that makes much sense at all.”
“I’m a little curious about what they are,” Myr admitted. She carefully reached to pick one of them out and, though Casrane considered it, no one stopped her. “You didn’t really show them to us before and Duuzlo didn’t say much about what they were…”
There wasn’t any point in saying anything; Myr could see exactly what they were as soon as she pulled one of them out. They were pictures, mostly, with one small trinket. It must not have been the one she picked up, because she seemed more confused about what she saw, but Casrane knew there was a picture of her somewhere in there.
“There’s this thing the original group does,” Casrane explained. “Dad told me about it once. They make versions of the things they hold dear and hide them in the games they made. A lot of them took pictures of their family, then from the games’ release order showed how that family grew or changed over time.” She pulled out two specific ones, ones she barely had to glance at to know who they featured. “See, this one is of me and my parents. And this one is of Tinath, her sister, and Mr. and Mrs. Rogers.”
Myr tilted her head. “You all look a lot different than I would’ve expected.”
“Yeah, it’s not like they claim this to be any amount of realistic,” Casrane mumbled with a small chuckle.
Llewel got them back on topic, though, by asking, “So we’ll just need to bring these with us? Nothing more?”
“Just bringing them should be enough,” she confirmed. “As long as they’re with us, we’ll be able to do what we need to. Or, I guess I should say… what we need to do will work completely because they’re with us.”
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There was a moment of silence as they looked towards the Heart of Anseshara.
“We’re… sure this is going to solve things, right?” Myr asked it in a mumble, perhaps too afraid to say it any louder. “I know we have to try, but… I want to be sure it’s going to amount to something, instead of just being a wasted sacrifice. I don’t want them to realize what happened and think there wasn’t really any point to it…”
“I honestly don’t think we’re going to know for sure,” Llewel remarked. “Even Duuzlo admitted that there’s a chance this isn’t going to change anything. We’ve just got to do our part and hope that it works. It’s not like there’s much more we can do…”
Casrane bit back what she really wanted to say—this is going to work. She wanted to be able to say it, she really did. But she didn’t want to lie to them, either. Not anymore. That was one of the things she resolved with herself, right here and now.
She did, though, mostly-subconsciously looked through the bag again and, confident everything was back in it, closed it.
“I guess there’s not a lot more that we can do, other than get going,” she said slowly. “We’re not going to know what it’s going to be like or what else will happen until we do it. And it’s probably not going to get any easier just by standing here…”
“You’re probably right,” Llewel mumbled. “In the end, we probably should’ve known better, shouldn’t we? Things were tense, then they were comforting and possibly even good, then here we are. Seems like a fitting enough final few weeks.”
“Nothing’s final,” Myr reminded him. “At least, we don’t know if it is or not until it happens, and I’d very much like to keep telling myself that.”
Slowly, Llewel nodded. “Yeah, I guess you have a point there. There’s only one way to find out what’s going to happen. And it’s… not going to get done the longer we just sit here. We should keep going.”
“We’re in this together,” Casrane reminded them. “All we have to do is take it one step at a time.”
They both nodded and, when she started to lead them to the path to the Heart of Anseshara, they followed.
She had to admit, they’ve come a long way from when she first met them. The Lord and Lady, the descendants of Emmyth who were supposed to destroy the threat of the runes… except, they were so much more than that. So much more than what they were supposed to be, to the point it was almost possible to forget that was what their original role was.
They were their own individuals, finding themselves in the two years they didn’t know who they were. She knew that, ultimately, that was part of the reason they were here—that, if she’d just made them follow along like they were supposed to, they wouldn’t need to do this. They wouldn’t be in danger, or have to make the same kinds of risks she’d long since made peace with. But she tried not to focus on that part, instead considering all of the things they never would’ve experienced without it.
And Casrane hoped, for their sake, that this really wouldn’t be the end of their story. They deserved more than for it to end because of her mistakes.