VIDEO | SEELIE + HERMIONE-NET (backdated to the 25th)

[aslandish]

[ The video opens to the woodlands surrounding Caer Glaem. Aslan rests not to far away from a shrine to the White Hart, which is visible in the distance.

His expression is grave, indeed, but his address is made with poise. ]

To those of you to whom I have never spoken, greetings. My name is Aslan, and I arrived in the drabwurld approximately a year and a half ago by this world's reckoning.

I speak to you now, to those who may be unaware, of events that may be coming in the near future.

Earlier this month, I dreamed a dream like unto the visions that came to a number of individuals at the turn of last year. In my dream, I saw great beasts made of metal ravaging the lands with fire. They destroyed everything in their path, and the light of their eyes glowed like unto the very Shards we bear.

I cannot say when, but I believe this vision will come to pass.

I give this warning so that you might not fear, but prepare.

The End comes, and we must be ready to meet it.

[ He lets his words sink in a moment, then- ]

Be well, all of you.

[ With that, he ends the feed. ]

---

[ ooc: Please check out Aslan's permissions post if you would like him to know your character, and make a note in your tag so I know to look! c: ]

Comments

[skjalf]

Not at all. ( She speaks quietly now, swallowing once against a tide of emotion before daring to behold him again. ) I—what? ( Oh, no. Nononono. This cannot be God. All the blood runs from her face, leaving her wide-eyed, starkly pale and on the verge of tears. )

I have prayed to you. My brothers and sisters and people have prayed to you—nay, all the people of the world, for centuries. They met but silence.

( She glances away sharply, and whispers: ) My people. So many losses suffered in my own country alone. You say that you know this, and yet find it necessary? With the utmost respect, Lord, I am neither of those people. No extraordinary deed of mine save for a fortune in whom I was born to makes me a princess. But my duty is first and foremost to my people, or what good am I to them? If I stand by and let them, let my sisters, and future souls, innocents all perish for this—will anyone one day look upon such inaction and say it was good or right?

If you heard our prayers, of our suffering for centuries, I cannot fathom— ( How he might turn a deaf ear to such suffering. But she speaks not those words, and regards him in stunned silence, instead. Is he God, then, or Jesus Christ? ) Hold a moment, I beg you.

Yes, the cycle is grotesque. It is wrong. It is wrong that a handful of us decide the fates of all. You, perhaps, are used to shouldering such a mighty burden as a mantle, and I commend you for it. But I am only human. I cannot, and will not sacrifice what is left of my family and all the innocents I will never meet present and future to perpetuate a cycle which never ends, is never resolved. Consider: what are we Unseelie here for, if our presence is not required in your perspective? I must wonder, if we are merely meant to be the lamb brought to slaughter.

And should that be true, that, too, is not right. The Unseelie balance nothing if we are never meant to have so much as a chance at victory. ( Oh, he's said it. The one thing which can bring her back to herself. She raises her chin, and a hint of her headstrong nature shines forth in her blue eyes. ) No. I do not believe a world free of death nor strife might ever exist. If you have seen into the depths of my heart, then you know how well-acquainted I am with death and suffering both. I can weather those things.

What I want is a world in which our choices might shape our own fates. Free Will, as you call it, should reign. There is no balance to be found in a never-ending cycle of blood like this. Even the Plague ebbed away when it was spent. My point of view is coloured by that, and my own troubles at home. Nearly the whole of my family is gone. I cannot lose my sisters; I have a duty to protect them, and am not removed from that duty simply because I am here and they are not.

( The doubt is there in her eyes, which are bright with unshed tears. ) The worlds may exist again, but my sisters will not. Their choices will never matter. They, and countless other children will never grow, know love, sadness and loss, grow to do extraordinary things. You ask such a mighty sacrifice. And I fear that were I to consent to that, there would be naught left of my heart thereafter to make my own life worth living.

Would that I might speak to you at length of these things. I know I cannot dissuade you from your course no more than you might me from mine, but I would not wish for there to be any enmity between us. There is no hatred in my heart for the Seelie.

[aslandish]

[ Aslan is quiet.

He lets her speak, lets her pour out her heart, her fears, and in the end, he has only a little to say.

His countenance is grave, and again, he is reminded of so many that have rejected his word and shut him out. It hurts him every time, his heart breaks every time, but that is and will always be a burden he alone must bear.

He has never forced himself upon anyone, and he will not start now.

His answer is soft. ]

I am He, and I am not He, Elizabeth.

We are manifestations of the same Idea, and there must always be someone who stands outside the cycle.

We always hear, but there are laws and precepts that govern even the actions of gods.

I cannot explain it to you, and it grieves me that in these last days, you are consumed with an overwhelming fear.

I wish you well, and I hope you will find peace in whatever way is available to you before this war is over.

[ He ends the feed. There is nothing more to say. ]