Video

[huntedby]

[Vanessa's face appears. It is clear from any that are familiar with her from times before, that she looks slightly older, a bit more tense. The careful mask is in place as usual, of course, but is pinched in certain places, cracked a bit. She's been through a great deal at home, before arriving back here.

But she is stronger for it. That is all that matters.

She will never be cowed by anyone ever again.

Still, she smiles softly looking all affable. It does't reach her eyes completely. Just along the edge of the picture, Neith can be seen, her large spider. Oh yes...her spiders are still here.]

Well well. Seems the more things change, they stay the same. We go back in time, and yet there is still the hart hunt. Constants, variables. Different facets of the same things. Truly, I suppose we can't be surprised, given the outcome of it all now, can we?

But if any of you were wondering, Arachne's Eye is still here. I'm not far from the La Llorona Ring, a day's ride or so. The town and the trade is still available, so if you are looking for a place to reside, we would be more than welcome to have you. My guards and soldiers came with me, so I can offer you safety, as well. For as usual, we have no idea what might happen.

While this is the past...the future is still unwritten. We have all the chance to shape it, now, do we not?

And those new of you to the Drabworld, that I have not yet spoken with, I am Vanessa Ives.

As someone who has been here a long time, a bit of advice: heed what you say on these devices. You may trust your fellow shardbearers, but allegiance does not always go both ways. And that goes in all things.

[A beat, then, she tilts her head, and a brighter smile hits her lips.]

On another note, Balem is no longer here. So it seems I am now a widow. A terrible shame, but, well.

We suffer on as we must.

Comments

[fuckchild]

Remind me not to get on your bad side, scorpion queen.

[huntedby]

You are very wise to think that.

[She smirks.]

And how are you?

[fuckchild]

[He shrugs. Fantastic answer.]

What about you? You're the one with the dead husband.

[huntedby]

[Vanessa quirks an eyebrow at his answer. That isn't an answer at all Dante, and you know it.

But the--]

Dead?

[...see Balem never told her...]

[fuckchild]

[... Normally he wouldn't feel foot in mouth syndrome, in fact he doesn't feel it at all, but now he's just confused.]

Isn't that why you're a widow? You know, widows mean dead husband or dead wife. Or are you divorced? Look, I don't know how this goes, but widow usually means dead someone.

[huntedby]

[Vanessa lets out a breath. Oh thank God, a misunderstanding--]

I simply used the term for...humor, I suppose. Or easy understanding. We are certainly not divorced, as he isn't here. But as he went home, he may as well be dead and gone here.

Perhaps a poor jest on my part, then.

For all I hated the marriage, I held no ill will towards Balem.

[fuckchild]

... So he left you.

[The paragon of sympathy, this one.]

Then why bother? If you didn't love him, there's no point to it.

[He should've learned, given his encounter with Mundus and Lilith, with how Mundus had no capacity to love, but...]

[huntedby]

[And she flinches.

The words hit too close to home. Entirely too close to home, with Ethan leaving her. Abandoning her.

Coward.]

No point to what, exactly?

[fuckchild]

Being married.

[He notices the flinch, the way the word hits her in the same way those words would hit him.

Dante doesn't point it out to her. He knows what it's like to be left.]

Unless it was all bullshit from the start.

[huntedby]

It was. But I had no choice, Dante.

It was be married, or lose the Spire--lose everything I had created here in the Drabworld.

...it doesn't matter now, of course, with Balem gone, and the world changed.

But at the time...I made the sacrifices I had to, to keep my power.

It was my punishment, for Amunet.

[fuckchild]

Bullshit. Everyone's got a choice. That thing in you is punishment enough if you wanna see it that way. Don't go adding some stupid shit and call it your penance.