[voicetest] it's this guy

[unsunderworld]

[To the surprise of absolutely no one.

Shadowbringers spoilers abound beyond this point.]

Comments

[astralera]

He has certainly twisted her arm with his answer. By saying nothing, Era is admitting that everything will not be okay, and if she reassures him it would be a lie, which she cannot abide by.

"Listen carefully, my dear little Hades." Her voice is soft and quiet; soothing and melodic. "Everything will not be okay. Things will be different, and perhaps disappointing, but..."

She curls her tail back and forth, back and forth. Thoughtful. Anxious. She has never been good with children.

"This world is ending, and from its death fourteen more shall be birthed. But you will be brave, and you will survive. Your kin will live on in different form, with no memory of this time and no capacity to create life as you do now."

Era turns to him fully now, eyes an ethereal blue made all the more so in the lights of the city.

"I say this not to frighten you, but to offer you hope. That regardless of this world crumbling around you, you will survive, and life will continue to flourish. A different definition of life than what you know now, but no less beautiful for it."

[unsunderworld]

The child is quiet, as she speaks. But when she's finished... He nods to himself, as though assured of something.

"You're the same, aren't you?" he asks. And there's that sense of knowing, as though the world were tilting on its axis around a single conclusion. "The reason my friend isn't here is because you are."

A bit harsh, but honest.

[astralera]

She cannot help the way she flinches at his statement. It is the truth, which is what makes it so brutal.

"Her soul was sundered into fourteen," Era confirms. "I am comprised of nine of them, but we are not the same, she and I. I will never be her, only myself."

[unsunderworld]

The way his shoulders slump in disappointment is but a precursor to his later self's overdramatic motions. But at the same time, there's something hopeful in his voice.

"But you still kept your promise," he says. "To meet me here."

[astralera]

"I—" Era sees the way the boy all but wilts, and there is a foreign urge within her breast to scoop him into her arms: to soothe and reassure, despite the disparity between them.

It is not something the Warrior of Light (Darkness) is prone to doing, and she wars with herself briefly before coming to a compromise. She holds out her hand for him to take should he deign to; an offer of comfort within her own.

The smile Era gives him is tired, but no less earnest for it.

"I suppose that she did."

If this Ancient being of her soul was anything like Era herself, broken promises are an unforgivable thing, and must be avoided at all costs within reason.

She finds she likes the thought of similarities between them. Between the soul that she was and the soul that she is. Era will forever be her own person, but inherited traits... That is something like family if she isn't mistaken.

"Your friend desperately wanted to keep her promise."