Wandering all over Glacia

[heromaniac]

Glacia had already celebrated her first Remembrance Day and was almost to her second, but it was just going on a year for Momoko and Dinah since the final atrocities and they wanted to pay their respects and check up on a few things.

And it was a good thing that time ran different in Glacia, or they'd never have the time to drag people all over

Comments

[heromaniac]

Arundal

The queen had been replaced shortly after news of the events here had been revealed. Parts of the town were razed and some families... well, they no longer had to worry about their status in town. Or anywhere.

[furnaceface]

Glacia's South hadn't been part of Jonothon's own tour of the country, back during the war. He'd heard of the things that had been found, and he'd ached to run off to do something about each and every one. But he'd had his own battles to fight, and he'd trusted Momoko and Dinah and their lot to do right by the people who needed them most.

He'd missed so much of the war's aftermath, too. This was his first time setting foot in Arundal, and he suspected it would be his first time standing witness to the aftermath of so many other horrors along the way. He was quiet as he walked down the street, surveying the damage left behind.

Hobart's reach had poisoned every corner of Glacia. But between the North and South, the poison had manifested in very different ways.

[blondecanary]

Dinah's expression was hard to decipher. Relief; grief. But other things mixed in there, because of the memories.

And there was a plaque at the central fountain, where they'd teleported to after rescuing the girls.

For Denys of Karla's Commandos
May the Darkness welcome its true son

"They'd said they were going to do that." Her voice was tight. "Sam said that. After, when we were saying good-bye." She swallowed hard.

[furnaceface]

Jonothon nodded faintly, and then tentatively held his arms open to her. Sometimes, you just had to offer people a hug.

//I'm glad they did, then,// he replied, gently. //Something for people to acknowledge and remember by. How're you holding up?//

[heromaniac]

Enberch

The fire that had torn through the middle of town wasn't evident anywhere now-- except for the fountains and cisterns, more prominent than before. The residence of the queen had been repaired, of course, as well as the rest of the damaged town. Business did go on, you know.

[heromaniac]

[blondecanary]

Dinah, meanwhile, was engaged in a game of jacks with four of the younger girls, very seriously arbitrating and very un-seriously giggling and bouncing the small ball.

"How are she and her Consort doing? Any more trouble from those jerks who were rioting at her house?"

[theytookourjobs]

Ulrich shrugged. "The rioters? No. The ones who were trying to kill her and promote their own queen, yeah. Apparently there was a coup being planned for a while. By the time I settled here, though, the Lady's court had them mostly rooted out. The end of the war helped a lot; discontent is only temporary for most people."

[heromaniac]

Dasarnas and Osilis

Towns and villages that had once been full of people going about their normal lives, suddenly and wholly emptied, every occupant sent mindlessly into a zombie frenzy to kill the Upstart Queen. From the youngest child to the oldest grandmother, the sick and the healthy, all of them were taken and none of them survived.

But while Dasarnas was still deserted, people had aready drifted into the houses and shops that made up Osilis. The difference between the two towns, not even a day's ride apart, was stark.

[blondecanary]

Dinah was remembering the song-- Mother, O Mother, why? running through her head as they walked into Dasarnas. It still burned at her that Hobart had gotten away with this.

Maybe there'd be time, on this trip or the next, to see about tracking him down? Seeing what he was up to? Looking for extra evidence again?

She stopped by the marker Momoko had left, and brushed her fingers over the lettering.

[heromaniac]

Horsetooth Pass

Kundersom had never had any physical damage to recover from, so you wouldn't know what had happened here until you went up to Horsetooth Pass. The smoke was gone. It ended up getting dispersed with a few days and the people finally returned. Things are harder there now, and some people have left again, because of the way the wood and cloth corrodes and the land is poor now.

But some people are still there. Because it's their land

A long low rock stands at the opening to the Pass, hiding among the white and gold flowers that can and will grow here. In that rock is carved a message:
In remembrance of those lost to the storm. We remember. With gratitude to the Village of Taiga, and the Court of Lady Karla.

[furnaceface]

It was possibly for the best that they had stopped at the foot of the pass before heading on to... to other places. Jonothon hadn't returned to Yllestad since the witchblood had burned. He hadn't had the chance to, first, and then he hadn't had the heart to, later. Kundersom, on the other hand, had been a tragedy of a different sort, something he had been aware of in a vague sense that had tied into his own desperate run through the snow and trees. It was surreal to be standing here now, on the outskirts of something that had been touched, however much it didn't show, by the same smoke that had cut a swath through the woods, and through his troops

[heromaniac]

"I don't remember their faces." Momoko stared down the Pass in the direction they had traveled that night. "The ones I had to leave behind to keep the rest alive. The ones I failed. I don't remember what they looked like. I always thought I would remember everyone I couldn't save. That they'd be burned into me like a scar."

How can I feel this much pain, this much shame and guilt... and not remember them?

[furnaceface]

//You never knew them,// Jono replied gently. //I only have faint echoes of the faces of those in Yllestad, the ones who'd fed us and praised us and set us on our way, their heroes, not hours before they died. I remember every one of my soldiers who fell, but they were friends, damn near family. But after a while, the faces of those you fail...//

He shrugged a little.

//After a while, you come to accept that it isn't your job to remember those faces. There will be families there to do that for you. It's your job to remember what happened, to do your best to make certain that there's no reason to add more faces to the list of those lost.//

[heromaniac]

Witchblood Walk at Yllestad

It was spring now, which felt oddly appropriate to Dinah, at least. The worst of what happened to Yllestad, what had almost happened to all of Glacia, wasn't obvious when you left behind the metal and stone ruins of the town and began down the Walk, but the beautiful ironwood benches inscribed with names of the dead were impossible to miss and made sure anyone who Walked this path Remembered.

[furnaceface]

Jonothon didn't need the ironwood benches to remember. He did take his time walking through the down before so much as looking toward the Walk, replaying the events of that night in his head. Right... there. That was where a few of Hobart's men had attacked, stepping in to cause enough mischief to draw Jono and his troops into town. Over there was a window they'd patched, though the smoke had eaten through the boards that they'd placed over the shattered pane. That house... they'd been fed there, by a family that had little to give but who insisted that it was the least they could do for Karla's troops

[blondecanary]

"Hey." Dinah stopped next to him, face solemn. Not knowing what to say: it's pretty here, it's nice they were remembered, anything else she thought of, all seemed even more trite than 'hey'.

[furnaceface]

//... Hey.//

Jono didn't look up. He really couldn't bring himself to. His fingers were pressed into the dirt and his eyes were shut.

This was his first time back.

He didn't want to be here. He didn't have it in him to leave.

He couldn't cry, and he thought he needed to, very much.