064
[So… scouring the castle and the grounds and the town and… everywhere hasn’t gotten him any closer to finding where Chiyo’s gone. He’s had his journal open most of the day, but most of what’s going on has faded into a low buzz in his ear compared to the memory of her screaming. He finds himself in the library eventually, knows they need people looking for any information even if he doesn’t remember who exactly said so]
[He's lost track of the number of books he’s checked, just pulling anything that seems like it might be relevant. But then, flipping through a book on ghosts and tradition and people, something red catches his eye. He opens to the page, reads the circled passage… over and over, setting a finger against the words and following them one by one just to be sure]
[The voice that comes over the journal is slow and not a little shaky. He won’t read the whole thing, just the most important bits...]
Blood trees… store the blood of the taken children until it is sufficient enough to be consumed… There have been occasions where communities have managed to retrieve their children. H… [A pause, wondering how many Good Guys are going to object to this]
Human sacrifice is often the only method… These creatures cannot be reasoned with or destroyed, and they will seldom leave their trees once they have rooted them.
[There’s another, longer pause. Then he sighs weakly and murmurs: ] We could save them now…
[Because really, what is self-preservation when your pseudodaughter just disappeared...]
[He's lost track of the number of books he’s checked, just pulling anything that seems like it might be relevant. But then, flipping through a book on ghosts and tradition and people, something red catches his eye. He opens to the page, reads the circled passage… over and over, setting a finger against the words and following them one by one just to be sure]
[The voice that comes over the journal is slow and not a little shaky. He won’t read the whole thing, just the most important bits...]
Blood trees… store the blood of the taken children until it is sufficient enough to be consumed… There have been occasions where communities have managed to retrieve their children. H… [A pause, wondering how many Good Guys are going to object to this]
Human sacrifice is often the only method… These creatures cannot be reasoned with or destroyed, and they will seldom leave their trees once they have rooted them.
[There’s another, longer pause. Then he sighs weakly and murmurs: ] We could save them now…
[Because really, what is self-preservation when your pseudodaughter just disappeared...]