Oh. [ Caelus blinks, sighs, adjusts his legs. ] The Preservation did that. I saw them after I was stabbed.
[ He says this very neutrally, like it's only normal for that sort of thing to happen sometimes.
He wants to touch his chest in remembrance, but Luocha's hand is in the way, so the Trailblazer settles for closing his eyes to contemplate everything instead. The lance, the snow, the desperate stand. What he promised the will of the Guardians. Maybe Alisa Rand was in the end only another mournful little girl in a series of mournful little girls driven to insanity by the thought of a dying world. Endurance is like that, Caelus thinks abstractly; it will drive you to madness. But even so. Never waver.
The gaze of the Amber Lord seared itself into his flesh. Maybe he has only deluded himself into thinking that it felt like approval. ]
...I thought I understood... what they would have wanted.
[ This last remark seems meant more for himself than for Luocha — but, after a moment, he wakes himself from his own reverie, golden eyes blinking at the "miracle doctor" with sudden catlike alertness. ]
So — if I say that I'd like a clean slate, what will your new offer cost me?
[ For all that the Trailblazer has bumbled into this, guileless and impulsive and seemingly thinking nothing at all, he has in fact not forgotten that Luocha is supposed to be a merchant. At some point, he figures, he will probably have to pay a price. ]
no subject
[ He says this very neutrally, like it's only normal for that sort of thing to happen sometimes.
He wants to touch his chest in remembrance, but Luocha's hand is in the way, so the Trailblazer settles for closing his eyes to contemplate everything instead. The lance, the snow, the desperate stand. What he promised the will of the Guardians. Maybe Alisa Rand was in the end only another mournful little girl in a series of mournful little girls driven to insanity by the thought of a dying world. Endurance is like that, Caelus thinks abstractly; it will drive you to madness. But even so. Never waver.
The gaze of the Amber Lord seared itself into his flesh. Maybe he has only deluded himself into thinking that it felt like approval. ]
...I thought I understood... what they would have wanted.
[ This last remark seems meant more for himself than for Luocha — but, after a moment, he wakes himself from his own reverie, golden eyes blinking at the "miracle doctor" with sudden catlike alertness. ]
So — if I say that I'd like a clean slate, what will your new offer cost me?
[ For all that the Trailblazer has bumbled into this, guileless and impulsive and seemingly thinking nothing at all, he has in fact not forgotten that Luocha is supposed to be a merchant. At some point, he figures, he will probably have to pay a price. ]