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Squire Halle of Lysithea

The walk up to the castle had been long for Halle's aching limbs, but in the aftermath of the fight, oddly rapid. Like his mind had blanked out until it stumbled against the suddenly still back that was his body. Jarring. He let himself look around at the others before entering and then quickly turned his eyes to the castle. He'd seen that look in the eyes of older folks around Bailey, when they'd tell old stories that took enough of a dark turn to the point they couldn't tell them any further.

So Halle looked at the castle, with its Great Hall and its tattered tapestries, comparing them to what he'd seen in his own Wonder's lodge, and tried not to think about what it might mean to have magical PTSD.

Settling in at the table near Knight Hy-Brasil, he offered, "I'm fine. Just...does this sort of thing happen often? At Wonders?"

Knight Nectaris

Here, in the castle, Nectaris really got a good look at the Squire. Mostly, she was thinking about how young he looked compared to the rest of them. It was a weird thing to think considering the way that the memory loss had hit her, and she'd still felt like she was fourteen half the time until a couple of months ago, when it finally started to feel like she was maybe catching up with herself. It was a weird thought, but it was obvious, too. He was just a kid. He made her think of her little bio brother.

He was a kid, and he'd just seen all that. He was gonna see more awful stuff, too.

"Not just wonders," said Nectaris, 'cause all of the extreme feelings were making her usual brutal honesty worse and not better. "It happens in the city a lot, too. Pretty much everywhere."

She was wet, and shaking, but not from the cold. She stared into the distance, eyes still empty. It felt like her thoughts were her own again, but she was very, very far from okay. She hadn't strayed far from the woman who had kept her from throwing herself into the water.

"But, there's nice stuff, too," she said, even if her heart wasn't in it, because she didn't want anyone else to think that life was suffering or whatever. "There's fairies at Chrismas, sometimes."

The words felt hollow.

Hy-Brasil

"This war we're in isn't a kind one." She said in agreement with Stari and Erytheia. "There's all kinds of fights we face."

The collective mood was definitely a low. Hy couldn't blame any of them though. The Sidhe were brutal. "i am sorry you all went through that." She apologized, her hands clasped in front of her, a thumb rubbing along the top of the opposite hand. "The Sidhe have been a problem on my wonder for a long time. I've been dealing with them and their effects for years now. I know what you went through out there. Well...sort of." Everyone's mind was its own individual battle field.

"On the good side, with them purified from the island, any affects they had should wear off." The was the silver lining here. Any strong negative thoughts and emotions should diminish fairly quickly. At least, that's what the Knight could assume if she based it off of Cashel's information. Funny how that old man. was conveniently missing right now.

She sighed. "Well, considering introductions earlier were short and clipped, how about we start there again? Some of you seem..." Young? New? "Inexperienced to all of this. And some of you I've certainly never had the pleasure of meeting before now. So, in an effort to actually remember all of your names.." She held up a hand. "I'll admit I am not great at remembering names. Faces, yes." She cracked a smile, trying to lighten the mood a bit. "So, I am Hy-Brasil, a Knight of Earth. Outside of that title, I am Gweneth and spend a good portion of my time at a gym practicing how to fight."

“Worlds, wonders, even the city. Yes.”

Erytheia answered and could feel the tension in his words. No where was safe. Not the worlds we protect. Not Earth. Not even our homes.

“But there are good things, too. It just… it’s hard sometimes to remember that when bad things happen.”

Celadon’s words made him remember there was good. She was new. Halle was likewise young. Was it the years that made him so cynical? No. It wasn’t that. He had been good at catastrophizing when he was a page. And he had thought he had gotten better. That he wasn’t who he was before. That transcendence had somehow fixed that part of his personality that always worried.

“It is good that the effects will wear off. I’m afraid they really have thrown me for a loop. I’m sorry. I should introduce myself, too. I’m Erytheia, knight of Cosmos.”





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