dramatispersonae | Guy Cecil's Heart

Very well...I'll wait inside for him.

[and into the manor, though taking one last look back at the children]

Glancing back, for a very brief moment, everything is ablaze.

Then it's back to normal.

[stops, hesitating...then goes inside.]

When you open the door, you open it to a half-built ruin. It's rubble. The tiling is still in place, and some walls stand, eerily perfect and unmarred despite the shapes being similar to fire damage - their edges are glowing with that same off, shimmering quality. Otherwise it's completely open to the sky, and you can easily see around you now thanks to this place being so reduced - houses nearby, streets, - all ruins. Every part of the town you're in.

Opposite you is the single structure standing, an empty fireplace and hearth. There's something on the ground in front of it.

[hissing low as he looks around...then heads toward the fireplace to take a look at what's on the ground]

It looks like Mary's pendant. Do you touch it?

[...yes.]

The area is instantly ablaze, and the full blast of this memory (Guy's actual memory of the event, that is) hits you - Mary shoving him into the fireplace, then bolting to him when she sees he'd left. She shoves him underneath her body and mutters to him while she bleeds out, and other bodies pf maids pile on top of her quickly. You can't move and blood is dripping on your face and fire is everywhere, and you're too scared to make a sound. The soldiers leave but there's still too much weight, and it feels like you'll never, ever get out --

When the memory ends and you come back to yourself, the time of day in the rubble has changed from night to morning.

[just...just falls to his knees, staying like that for several long moments]

[...then tosses the pendant into the fireplace]

It clatters in there. It's an empty fireplace.

The ruins around you are smouldering now and the floor is bloody.

[moves to yank that pendant out of the fireplace, then stops]

[then stands]

...Where was I during all of this, Gailardia? Do you know where I was?

Silence.

Gailardia! Answer me!

There's a weak sob from the bushes.

[...]

[going over to the bushes]

It's that same little Gailardia, but soaked in blood and unmoving, having difficulty breathing. Considering he couldn't have gotten there on his own, he's been stashed there by somebody. There are shouts of swordplay close by.

[immediately moving to scoop that little Gailardia up and holding him close]

At that, he starts to cry some - considering he was non-responsive before, it's an improvement.

"A-aaah..."

[gently stroking his back and shooshing him quietly]

[is there a way out of this place?]

There's the way you came, and down the hill through the burnt forest.

[detouring to grab the pendant and inventorying it, then going back the way I came, and taking tiny Guy with me]

The courtyard is a bit shoked, but you're in a hurry, so you easily cut through back to the workshop.

[more important matters to attend to]

[once I'm in the workshop, slowing down and going back to Selenia, breathlessly singing a tune to help calm tiny Guy]

...

Guy Cecil's Heart

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