Sea of Tranquility [Nayru/Veigue A] [Finished]

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Takes place after Tempest, in Veigue's home village

Soundtrack: youtu.be/5P791EP7cD4

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Memories of days long past filled her dreams. Of the of the placid stability of Arcadia, of the quiet majesty of the views, of the sight of dragons and humans alike mingling in harmony. A world in which watching a transformed dragon wandering down main street with a gaggle of hooting children on its back, rather than cause for alarm, was an everyday sight, and some even made a game of it. Races where everyone won.

Studies into the deeper nature of magic and the world, where random nobodies might run into Athos himself debating the origins or nature of spirits and the Nether with dragons who had lived through the creation of both, and yet still held a weaker of the concept than a mortal who had spent much of his life slaughtering dragons, and yet now was their greatest defender. Of a people who tolerated her rambunctious outbursts and shared glances of mutual understanding with a harried Erim, who always had a pleasant word for those she met.

Memories of the last time she had been truly happy.

It was the morning sun that eventually woke her, the warmth and light so unexpectedly familiar that for a few moments of delirious bliss, she half believed she was waking up in Nabata after a long and very strange dream spent traveling Elibe. Nayru lay there unmoving for she knew not how long, eyes lidded, breathing calm and steady, Even as her mind slowly started back up and she realized how unlikely it was, she allowed herself to wallow in the feeling for a time.

But reality and fiction could not stay entwined forever, and eventually, as her senses sharpened, Nayru realized it had been a dream and nothing more. It wasn't like her to be so groggy... sort of... the chorus of five more minutes, Erim unhelpfully paraded through her head defiantly until she quashed crushed it like a mailed gauntlet might wipe a fly from the face of the earth.

...Well, at least she wasn't dead, in prison, or being crucified. The room that greeted her when she started paying attention to her surroundings was entirely unfamiliar, not to mention surprisingly bare... it didn't seem that dusty, but neither did it really feel particularly lived-in. The events of yesterday - or at least she hoped it was yesterday - were a bit blurry and indistinct, but the dragon could remember the vague brush strokes if nothing else, and she was pretty sure that wherever she was, it probably wasn't that ruined fort in the plains. Also, it turned out moving was really hard, she couldn't really do much more than tilt her head to the side right now.

Also Veigue was there.

"...Sssssssup."

[Deleted]

In the back of his head, Veigue was completely lost in thought. He wasn't very aware of his surroundings, much unlike him as he still couldn't get used to sitting inside his home like this. Just, he had too many memories here, good and bad. As he had his eyes shut and reminiscing on the past, everything was flowing back into him as if he were still living in this village and going about his past life. An ignorant kid who just couldn't stop running back to his mother's bedside looking to escape from everything outside. But regardless, the inside of their home was always a nice and relaxing feeling. The elder and whoever else was still keeping the place up definitely wanted to keep honoring his father's memory, despite his origins. That got him to wonder what they thought about his mother though, as she was technically an outsider and not of sacaean blood. The villagers hardly, if ever saw her, so that got his mind going too.

All of the nostalgia was overwhelming him until he was tugged out of his focused state after realizing Nayru was waking up, opening his eyes slightly to see if he wasn't just imagining things. But when she greeted him in an unusual way, he returned a little smile of his own. "Hey. How are you feeling?" He didn't say or ask too much, considering she just woke up and all, still recovering.

Oddly enough though, the swordsman didn't know why it took him so long to realize yet another moment of memories rushing back as Nayru was sitting there. He was so used to seeing his mother lying in bed, deathly sick. But now ironically enough, someone else was there that he cared for deeply, recovering from her ordeal in that same spot. But at least he didn't have to worry about Nayru suffering the same fate as his mother, unless she had some sort of terminal illness he wasn't aware of. Then that'd be bad. At least this time, he could actually help out and prevent anymore further pain instead of just sitting by and accepting things as they were back then.

Perhaps he was just getting too caught up in coming back here. He still dreaded the thought of being back in this village overall, but it wasn't as horrible as he thought it'd be. So long as he stayed inside for the most part, he could just turn a blind eye to everyone here and be about on his way, as if they never stopped here in the first place. He had to remind himself to pay a visit to his mother's grave once they left. At least the graveyard was outside the village, so he had every right to go there without permission from the elder. While unfortunate to come back, he wanted to make use of the opportunity to get as much good out of it as possible.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"...If this is what a hangover is like, maybe you should've left me out there," Nayru responded half-jokingly, albeit one she regretted the moment the words left her mouth. That was sort of the problem with not giving herself plenty of time to consider her words; she had a bad tendency for opening her mouth just wide enough to fit both feet inside and then diving into a dragon's mouth. She was impulsive was the point, if impulsive was a codeword for stupid, which it was actually in this case. There was a reason she had tried to act careful and wise and considerate in her white version, dammit.

So... conversation! "I, uh, I couldn't actually get drunk in that form," she explained, completely lost on where she was going with this. "Er, the... white haired me. Not the, uh, the other one." Duh. Master of explanations right there, Nayru. Because you seriously needed to explain to Veigue that a gigantic murder dragon might have trouble getting drunk. "You know I might actually be able to get drunk now. Dunno. Not sure if that's terrifying or awesome."

...This was seriously not going well. Even by her standards. She was still... her and stuff, but a her that hadn't been her in more than three centuries. Maybe Erim would have understood it, but Nayru had never exactly been to Dragon Studies 101, and even if she had, a cool three hundred years of pretending not to be one did tend to put you a bit out of your element when it came to dragon stuff. Heh, element. 'Cuz lightning dragon and... nevermind. If she had actually been able to move, Nayru would have sat up, but after some barely-visible and thoroughly pathetic attempts to move that failed utterly, she settled back into the pillow as if nothing had happened. Holy crap, she was nearly paralyzed. It was like a human child trying to move a tree. This whole magic circuits business was gonna take some time.

The thought that Erim would probably be absolutely fascinated by the entire process occurred to her and Nayru couldn't help but crack a smile to herself. But there were more pressing concerns, like the obvious questions hanging in the air that Veigue, bless his heart, was too polite to open up with though he was most assuredly wondering them. The smile died from her face like a candle in a hurricane.

"So-" Nayru hesitated, her voice questioning and uncertain well beyond what one might expect of a simple query. "-Where do we go from here?"

[Deleted]

Well...Veigue wasn't too sure on how to respond on that one, an eyebrow raising in slight confusion as Nayru didn't seem like her usual self. Maybe that whole ordeal must have taken more out of her than he expected. But...it wasn't everyday that you'd witness something like that, so Veigue had to keep reminding himself to expect the unexpected in all situations. All that mattered is that from the sound of things, Nayru seemed like she was going towards the start of recovery. With a small smile in response, the swordsman crossed his arms as he looked back to the waking Nayru. "...Let's skip the drinking for now." He wasn't sure what was more destructive, a Dragon Nayru or a Drunk Nayru. The latter would end up going on a punching-holes-in-people spree that Veigue was certain he wasn't going to try to stop.

...Hm. For some reason, that seemed very amusing in his head.

Veigue couldn't help but notice that Nayru was a bit hesitant afterward, and he was pretty certain as to why. He wasn't going to force her to say anything she'd rather keep to herself, as curious as he actually was. But at the very least, he had a good idea as to how to go about things from there. If she didn't feel comfortable about discussing anything that happened the other day in depth, he'd just leave it at that. He didn't need anymore proof that she was trustworthy, and he didn't see her any different than before she transformed that night. However, it pained him a little that he was still quite literally powerless to be of any proper assistance. But the swordsman knew that there was no point in dwelling in self-awareness of his weaknesses right now.

"Well, for starters, you'll be resting up here until you've recovered your strength. Just take the time you need to get back on your feet. We can worry about our next destination later. You'll be safe here in my father and mother's home." ...Though technically, Nayru and Hayle are already safe considering they aren't the exiled ones. The village wasn't too friendly to outsiders in general, but as long as visitors left them alone, they'd leave them alone. Feeling like he'd rather not think about that topic anymore, he turned his attention back to his friend. "...Yesterday was rough on all of us, so we all can afford a nice break."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"Your mother's... home?" Everything was still pretty foggy, less from amnesia so much as that she was having incredible difficulty placing events in any sort of actual timeline, and associations had broken down to a degree as well... it wasn't like she couldn't recognize Veigue, but remembering what she actually knew about him, as compared to the many other people she had come to learn something about throughout history, was inordinately difficult.

It wasn't really until everything had gone so horribly wrong that she had really appreciated her capacity for recalling past events and facts, but now that she had - hopefully temporarily - lost it, she was reduced to trawling through the veritable continent of memories in attempts to make sense of them. Was this how humans had to search their memories? It was so... slow. And inefficient. Nayru was pretty sure that she wasn't gonna be stuck like this forever, if only because she'd rather off herself than live like this for too long, but until things straightened up she was going to have to deal with it. Veigue's parents...

On the day my mother died

my relationship with my father wasn't very...healthy.

He even went as far as to say I caused mother's death

Lena was forced to step in and deal the finishing blow to save my life.

The words ran through her mind, in a voice barely recognizable as Veigue's. His parents were dead,, weren't they? He had claimed so anyways, and didn't have any real reason to lie about that... ah! The groggy dragon finally understood what he had said. The tense - she had been confused if he had meant that his mother was home... yeah he probably didn't need to know what had actually confused her; better if he thought she was just tired.

"...Sorry. This body will take... time to... repair." Admitting such absolute vulnerability to a human was difficult, even if it was Veigue. If he wanted to just off her for the crime of being a dragon right now, there was little she could do to stop him - her human shell was incapable of moving and Nayru didn't think she could transform even if she wanted to right now. It wasn't the first time she had been at someone else's mercy, but it wasn't an easy thing for someone as independent as she had been forced to become. Or had she always been? Certainly she'd acted the part as a child, but how much of that had been simple childish defiance and how much an innate part of herself, Nayru was uncertain.

Her response to his comments was silence, trying to figure out what she should say - what she could say. After all that had happened... how he was treating her felt wrong. Not in a bad way, if anything she deserved it, and that was the crux of the whole issue. It came out unfiltered, impulsively. "Why are you acting so... normal? I've been... misleading you ever since we met..." She knew the smart thing to do would be to accept it as-is and not try his patience or his tolerance, but Nayru honestly couldn't understand how he could be so casual about this whole thing. For a human to discover dragons were real, much less alive, seemed like it would be a world-changing revelation... and she had made a mockery of their friendship by withholding that information. The last few words came out quieter, her voice hesitant, almost tremulous. "...I thought you would be angry."

[Deleted]

Veigue's expression went serious, but didn't turn away from her or anything. Perhaps he was a little too casual about the situation, but Veigue knew that getting completely out of character wasn't going to solve or change things. He still didn't know what to tell her though, and without coming off as unemotional or not concerned. And if he acted the way Nayru expected him to regarding the situation, Veigue couldn't really consider himself as the friend he wanted to be. Trust...was something he had to re-learn along the way, and after meeting Nayru, he finally regained that feeling and knew how to express it better. Whatever was going on with her and if he eventually knew all about it, it still wasn't going to change a thing about how he felt towards her.

That's how the swordsman himself felt, anyway. He just had to do what he could to be as supportive as possible. So he just did what he could do best...being the honest to a fault person he was. "...When my mother died, she was where you are now. She'd always tell me uplifting and mythical stories while she was sitting there, bedridden for the rest of her life. But before she passed, she told me to follow the instincts of my heart...same words my sister also spoke to me." He was sure that he wasn't making too much sense right now, but hopefully his point was going to get crossed as he continued on. "With a...questionable father figure, I relied on mother for all types of knowledge and wisdom. And one of the first things she taught me was to be loyal and trustworthy to those you'd consider loved ones. No matter the circumstances."

He only shifted his gaze towards the pillow for a moment, just sort of imagining his mother still lying her head there, but he's already faced reality that she was gone a long time ago. "Trusting your friends no matter what...and believing in your sixth sense. Two very important things she taught me that I'll always consider fact for the rest of my life. My sixth sense has told me from the very first day we met that you've carried a great burden on your shoulders for far too long. But I also suspected you hid what you had to in order to protect us. Where's the harm in that?"

He couldn't help but just ramble at that point, but part of him felt like his mother's soul was entering him the moment he began speaking. He couldn't express it with words, but it was a very warm feeling that tugged at his torn heart. One where he could use it to guide his words and actually feel good about everything he was saying. "If you weren't around, I'd either be dead or still trapped in the darkness, where Zarius and I would have walked similar paths. Knowing that you did all this for me, why would I shun or forsake you for not telling me everything? Everyone has secrets, or a past they'd rather not share, even to their close ones. Besides, we're a lot more alike than you can imagine. So I can't be angry with you. It's simply just not right when you were just trying to protect people. Whether or not you believe it, your motives were pure. The only thing I should be angry about is how powerless I am to actually help."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Nayru listened in silence to Veigue's speech, with no attempts at interrupting him or responding in between sentences - not so much out of respect as sheer lack of comprehension. It wasn't the words that confused her, but the meaning, the implications; considering that she had just turned into a dragon and tried to kill him - not on purpose, granted, but that didn't change the facts - and nearly gotten him killed multiple times now by losing control, that she had... misled him since the tart, and the entire dragon-human thing, she couldn't really understand what he was saying.

To actually be able to trust someone like that, completely and unreservedly... it made her feel like the worst scum on Elibe, to the point even bandits would recoil in disgust. It wasn't exactly that she had sort of taken him for granted, but... no, it was, to a degree. She had trusted him in battle, but not enough at her side to be honest with him, and she hadn't realized quite how sincere his own faith in her was.

"...I've spent my life running, leaving destruction in my wake every time I... lose control." The term sounded asinine, and she wasn't sure why. Lose control. Gave up control? In the end, it was her weakness that had allowed so many deaths. "Each time, families, houses... entire villages destroyed." It didn't take a great deal of difficult math to realize the sheer scale of her negative impact on Elibe over time - if it had not been separated by decades between each event, or there had been more survivors, she might well possibly have alerted humanity to the return of dragons and gotten herself killed in return long ago. She wanted to continue, but her words ground to a halt as Nayru shied away from the full admission - even now, she was too much a coward to accept full responsibility for her actions. Veigue would be morally right to put her down now, though.

"I've put your life in danger multiple times as well, even before yesterday. Each time I almost lost control of my power, you would have been the first victim... of many."

She couldn't actually say anything about trust, it turned out, skirting the subject, the admission, as if it were a hot oven and she a child once burned, twice shy. This wasn't really a conversation she was equipped to have; it was the first time she had ever actually admitted she was aught but human to a mortal, and the situation wasn't really helping. It showed in her voice; tired, weak, a little hesitant. She didn't even know what she wanted to hear from Veigue. Forgiveness? Reproach? Hatred?

[Deleted]

"...But why is that your fault? You didn't willingly take those lives. There's a lot of things that we all have no control over, whether something simple or devastating." Veigue frowned the moment he said that, but not out of anger towards her words. Guilt seemed to tear away at Nayru, as if she couldn't really see light in her situation at all now. Just like how he was stuck wandering alone in the darkness of the world, and would have...or quite possibly still is walking in those shadows now. But he knew that glimmers of hope and light existed that he could see, and he wanted his friend to seem them as well. "What I saw when you transformed was not a being of destruction, but someone struggling with a battle they've been fighting for who knows how long...a battle they didn't want. You didn't attack me because you wanted to...and I stayed behind and confronted you of my own accord in order to try and help you, a friend."

Veigue didn't know if what he saying was actually helpful, which so far he really wasn't doing anything. He was considering to himself to just keep his mouth closed to not make her feel worse. But he knew that if he left her like this, she'd just continue to be swallowed whole by the darkness. He closed his eyes for a moment, a thought crossing his mind as he turned completely around and his back facing her now. "...Let me show you something." Raising up both his jacket and undershirt, there was one large, deep scar on the center of his back, with two smaller ones elsewhere. "The big one tells a story on it's own..."

With his face turned completely away from her, Veigue was quite glad that she didn't see his dark, gloomy expression as his lips were forced to move on their own. "...I've been struck in that same exact spot in the center several times, and it wasn't just coincidence every time. The first to give it to me was my father...then years later, in our duel, he hit me there again, spreading the scar. A run-in with a starving mercenary and onward to Zarius...for some reason they kept hitting me there and making it spread to it's ugly state now. The wound is a symbol of hatred...and reflects on the moments of my life I had no control over. And yet, I lingered in the darkness honestly believing that everything was my fault...and to a degree, most of them still are. But...I learned something after meeting you."

Letting his shirt and jacket fall back down, he stared blankly at the wall as he was lost in thought after that pause. He had more on his front side, but...Nayru didn't need to see his body all scratched up. The scars he hid underneath, all they did was just tell stories of his failures. "...At times like these, there's nothing we can do but move forward and try to atone as best as we can. When guilt won't go away, the road to redemption is always open. Even if the road is long to where it seems impossible to reach it's end, you just have to put that much effort into it. There may be nothing I could say to change how you feel about your past, but giving into the guilt will only make things worse."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

She didn't understand how it couldn't be her fault. Not in some self-defacing blind way, but the more pragmatically she looked at it, the less question there was of whose fault her actions were. The logic was simple; if she wasn't alive, she would not be able to commit those crimes against humanity. Whether or not she -wanted- to do it never entered the equation; the simple fact was that her weakness was to blame. But Nayru had the general vibe that Veigue would not be super enthusiastic if she suggested the obvious answer, and she couldn't really ask him to put her down now... that would just be cruel even for her.

Having never seen Veigue shirtless, Nayru's eyes widened a bit at the network of scars covering his back. For how little he actually let on about his past... he had some pretty dark stories to tell whenever he did open up. If she hadn't seen half of it herself by now she'd still be wondering if he was lying, but there was little chance of that... even ignoring the simple fact that she trusted his honesty by this point regardless. Sure made her glad she didn't have a family backstory like that. Wasn't often she got to honestly say she was glad she had no idea if she even had parents. Erim had been an absolutely fantastic surrogate mother, more than she could ever had deserved.

Her friend's last words had an alluring quality all their own, concepts she had shied away from in the past, but always been intrigued by. Was it not natural to be tempted by that which you could never have? Knowing as she had that the cycle would continue endlessly, her burden would have grown ever heavier, her task ever more Sisyphean.

Now...

"You're... wrong about one thing, Veigue... each of those deaths is my responsibility. My fault. I had not the courage to... solve the problem permanently, so the blame falls entirely on me. The events of yesterday may have... mitigated my future harm, but the past is immutable." Her words weren't really argumentative so much as a simple statement of fact; she appreciated that Veigue was trying to help, but not even for his sake could she accept such honeyed lies. It would make a complete mockery of the countless lives she had taken... a number even now she had not the courage to impress on Veigue. It was a bit late for that now, she chided herself, but the numbers was likely in the thousands now, if her rough estimates were accurate, more than any bandit or bloodthirsty butcher.

If she'd been able to move around much, she would have gestured, but lacking that ability Nayru settled for lying there with her head angled to continue looking at Veigue.

"-But while redemption may be beyond me... I can't very well forget that promise we share... sworn through swords." On the surface, most of the stuff she had told him would theoretically apply to her, but the difference in magnitude of their crimes was beyond compare.

She had to at least let him know that much, even if it was painful.

"...But... I want you to understand the magnitude of my crimes, Veigue. It wasn't just... a few mostly-harmless transformations and a few barns burned down. I am responsible for the deaths of hundreds... thousands of people, entire towns and villages, over the last few centuries." Once she started, it was like she couldn't stop, the words kept gushing out. "Lost in madness, imprisoned by the chains of my own weakness, I am directly responsible for more innocent deaths than any human alive." Indirectly speaking there were probably a few mad dictators who could top that, but there was a difference between killing with a a few written words, and doing it yourself. "...If you can still honestly say you will have me, I will stand at your side... until the last breath of this world."

[Deleted]

Turning back around to face her now, Veigue kept a neutral expression as if to erase the look on his face that was conveniently hidden a few seconds ago. But as she explained herself, Veigue kept silent the entire time. She kept beating herself up over it, but he couldn't exactly blame her for feeling that way. He may have killed many people throughout his journeys, but was never responsible for thousands. So he couldn't really understand the true depth of the guilt simply because he never experienced it before, and he wasn't going to pretend to have been in her shoes either. Regardless, he still doubt that anything he could say would change her mind otherwise about feeling at fault. He was incapable of giving a reason since there was no correct answer for him to give her. At least, that's how it seemed.

...It still felt wrong, though. He had no knowledge of dragons other than stories from his mother, and there was no way he could understand any kind of difficulty of harnessing the power they and Nayru are likely born with. But as he wrapped his head around all of what she said, he was at least correct about one thing: His opinion and the way he felt towards her still did not change. The fact of the matter was that he wasn't going to let her past dictate his own personal feelings about his friend. He'd be a horrible friend if he started to hate her for the things she's unintentionally done. And even if her actions were considered sinful, all it meant was that he wanted to help her overcome things if she's willing to taking that step to walk forward into the future. He wasn't able to judge anyone based off how he's lived thus far, either.

However, he couldn't help but feel his attempts were overall futile as nothing he said seemed to be working to make her feel better, even though Nayru likely wasn't intentionally refusing his words of assistance. It just hurt a bit that he wasn't able to do much but just sit there and let her guilt of her past continue to eat away at her. He may be a man of few words, but when they were necessary, he'd speak accordingly...this time he unfortunately had none. It may have been for the best, as the last thing he wanted to do was add insult to injury. But he had to say something, otherwise staying silent the entire time would do just the same as saying something potentially insulting.

But before saying anything, the swordsman rose from his current seat as he walked closer to the bedside and took a seat on the edge. Acting out on his gut, he gently covered his hand over Nayru's as he maintained a serious expression. "...If you truly feel you have to bear that responsibility, then I have no right to say otherwise. However, that doesn't mean you're supposed to give into guilt and sink deeper in despair. No matter how much redemption eludes you, you chase after it. Those who can't redeem themselves are those who truly desired to hurt others and didn't feel sorry about it. And no matter how much you disagree, I'm going to help you walk forward...even if I lack the answers you seek. That's...what a friend does. No matter what you did, I'm not abandoning you."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Nayru closed her eyes, trying to make sense of the situation... or the emotion bubbling up inside her. It had been so long since she had been allowed to cry that she couldn't remember how to do it now, but if she could have, she probably would. The warmth of the sun, of Veigue's hand, mingled in a soft glow that she simply silently reveled in for a few moments, not shirking away from his touch. She was reminded of Elly in a way, how the girl had wormed her way through her guard and into her heart, and by this point Veigue had done it as well, perhaps even more convincingly. If Elly was still here... hm.

"...Well then," Nayru began after a moment of further thought, "I suppose introductions are in order." It was sort of ironic, given that obviously they had already happened long ago, but so too was her intent clear; re-introductions, the truth. "I am Nayru Al-Saiduq." The pronunciation of her last name was clearly not one that originated from the common tongue, but High Draconic, and attached to it her first name sounded a bit different too - if Veigue knew much of Nabatan dialects he might recognize similarities, not exactly surprising given the cross-contamination of languages, bits and pieces borrowed by humanity of the original.

"A thunder elemental dragon, hailing from Arcadia." The legendary city of dragons... about which she had heard very little during her travels. It was for the best, most likely; if humanity truly believed it was real, they would have rooted it out and put those within to the sword. But there were myths. "...Though none of that is exactly accurate. My mentor... and adoptive mother, Erim, found me wandering in the endless reaches of Nabata, apparently mad, and brought me to Arcadia, giving me my name, as well as her surname... and her home."

Even her first name was no more the reality than the rest, but Erim had given it to her, and unlike possible damage coming from using her idol's surname, it was entirely her own. Whatever the original had been, if she had ever possessed one, no longer mattered. "I know nothing of my true origins, but I consider Arcadia home and the names my own as if they were real." ...It actually sounded kinda lame now that she said it. It was like a story about princess with amnesia, except she didn't have amnesia and she wasn't a princess, so it was really just a lonely-ass grubby little brown girl throwing a tantrum in the middle of the desert, not even Athos knew why, and getting adopted by someone with more kindness than sense.

"That was... roughly five centuries ago. Three and a half centuries ago, I left Arcadia, changing my form and learning quickly how different the outside world was... and how much I had apparently relied on Erim to keep my power under control. I thought I could control it, but time and time again I have since been proven wrong. I believe the events of yesterday may provide a temporary solution, however, for which I am eternally in your debt."

[Deleted]

Veigue wasn't sure at first what Nayru meant by introductions since he knew her quite well at this point, but it all made more sense when she began to tell her story. He was still quite puzzled with her last name though, not really knowing of a name such as that or how it was pronounced. If only his education wasn't so flawed, perhaps he would have recognized it. Other sacaeans may have heard that sort of name before though. However, that wasn't too important compared to the rest of the information about herself. He kept quiet the entire time, but he had a look of slight surprise on his features. Though that was for multiple reasons that he had to break down in his head. But the irony of Nayru sitting there in the spot telling her story being where his mother told him all kinds of stories took him off guard...but in a warm, good way.

He needed no further proof that dragons existed due to obvious reasons, his mother telling him much about them. Arcadia was apparently a legend, but...now he can see that wasn't some myth after all. However, the sad thing was that he didn't know close to nothing about the place other than it being a place of perfect harmony, and his mother speaking so happily about it always gave him a great warmth in his heart that there was such a peaceful place and wanted to believe it existed. He knew that it was only a brief mention of the place, but hearing it from Nayru's own mouth just sent a sudden rush of nostalgia back at him that he actually didn't mind feeling at the moment.

But as he heard the rest of the story, he couldn't help but be curious about her reasoning for leaving her home, which from the sound of things, she quite enjoyed her time and memories there with her adoptive parent. And hearing her speaking of time passing by centuries for her was somewhat mind-boggling. However, Veigue knew he had no place in speaking up on that. There were just some things you weren't supposed to ask or talk about. Given her past, he still knew that there was nothing he could say to make any changes with that. However, he did know one thing. He just had to sit there and be as supportive as he could despite how little he could assist. He just hoped what he was doing now was doing so.

"I see..." He trailed off before saying anything else, but looked back to her immediately to not create any awkward silence. "Arcadia, and dragons, were part of the stories my mother told me. And they were pleasant stories at that. I can see that your life hasn't exactly been the most peaceful overall, especially with knowing Elibe's history." When he thought about it, both humans and dragons had it rough. Especially for those caught in between on both sides. The world was always full of problems, but he knew not to dwell on the particular subject for too long, focusing back to the matter at hand. "I'll just keep helping you like I've already been, until the day I'm no longer able to draw breath. We can make good memories like you had with Erim if we continue to walk on the path we've already set for ourselves...and I'm positive you'll find your answers along the way."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"...It was pleasant," she admitted quietly, as much to herself as to Veigue. It was ironic how she had never realized what she had until she lost it. "A world of peace, where the scars of the Scouring had been allowed to actually heal instead of just festering for a thousand years. Where dragons and humans alike could live inside a bubble of peace, inured to the broken world outside. It made for a difficult transition to the outside world."

She smiled up at Veigue, still looking tired but awake - and she was quite grateful for his presence. Which meant she had to try to lighten the mood. "Hey, at least I didn't have to deal with bad parenting and nearly getting killed by my own dad as a kid, right?" There was a strange vibe in the air for a moment, as if the universe itself had collapsed in an aneurysm of mad laughter at a joke she didn't get, but Nayru continued on blissfully unaware. "Really though, it's not like I did much of anything dragon...ey before we met. Outside of occasionally punching out bandits and accidentally becoming the unofficial Magnus family guardian, and a hobby of ruins spelunking, I've spent most of my life learning to cook, bake, dance, and farm."

...

That actually sounded even lamer than she had thought possible. Seriously, eternal life, supreme power, and she spent her time pulling plows and learning bellydancing. If there was a dragon god, he must have sent his palm through his own skull in a facepalm so great the cosmos had rearranged itself in his wake. Huh. She was gonna have to re-think how she said that when she explained things to Hayle, assuming he was still around. Maybe pretend to be a dragon rodeo rider or something. "...You've already helped me create many good memories... even the ones that involved one of us almost getting killed, which happens a lot it seems. But a little good company on the road to hell makes the trip much more pleasant."

[Deleted]

Hearing Nayru speak very fondly of her home, he couldn't help but feel a little envious. He would have loved to see and live in such a place, especially after knowing it existed. With how nasty and cruel the rest of Elibe was, it was to feel welcomed anywhere in the world. It's why safe havens like Arcadia should be more common, for those who wanted to just escape the wild life of this twisted world. However, Veigue also knew that wallowing in peace within a broken world was something he couldn't do. He still wanted to hold his promise to Lena despite...still kind of already breaking it, and even more so for Nayru as they also have their promises he swore to keep. How to go about making things more pleasant for the world, he had no clue. Just another thing on his to-do list along their way.

"Heh...heh..." When Nayru made the little joke towards the relationship of he and his father, he...couldn't really respond with much other than just crack up a bit and leave it at that. He didn't want to get into that. But he also didn't want to turn this conversation all about him either. Though when he thought about it...Nayru was the one who told him about his grandfather. She seemed to tell that story quite vividly from what he remembered as if she was there herself. Obviously, stories are passed down, but knowing that she's lived far longer than him, and likely more than a few of his ancestors, that...did sort of make sense that she might have actually met him personally. However, he once again didn't want to derail the topic. Whenever the opportunity would rise another time, he could talk to her more about that subject. Maybe she knew a little more about him that was interesting.

However, this time Veigue couldn't help but look away for a few moments, feeling a little embarrassed to face her at the moment after what she said at the end. Did they really get into trouble that much? Granted, half of it was Jaquio wanting to hang him on a long stick and roast him alive like his dinner, but recalling a lot of those close calls they had was somewhat shameful to think about, and he didn't know whether to laugh or just clam up out of shame. "...Well, no matter what we face and how much more danger heads our way, memories of supporting each other are...just as good as times of peace." Well, saying that just made it more difficult to turn back, which he did for a moment as he looked at her sideways, still a little embarrassed. "I'll...try my best to make less of those death's door moments, but I'm glad that you've at least found a lost wolf such as myself and decided to help me out. The least I can do is return the favor by making sure we keep good memories even while bad ones still haunt."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

youtu.be/xEwgEw3k6UA

"Yanno..." Nayru paused, hesitated visibly for a moment as she tried to put the words together in her muddled mind. "I spent a long time thinking that all I wanted to do was live in peace. I never really thought about what peace was, or how I should get there." Father Sky, but she had wasted more years than most humans could dream of living for over half a dozen generations combined. "I turned away from trouble where I could, trying to stay incognito, even at the cost of others."

She chuckled a little, dryly, with little to no true humor in it. "I'd never really even fought - seriously - before we met. Just punched out people who couldn't even hurt me, for the most part." That wasn't ENTIRELY true, she had nearly been killed at least once now, but stuff happened, right? She looked sideways, then up at Veigue, continuing earnestly. "A lot of our experiences together may have been dangerous, but they were fights that we couldn't run from... that needed to be finished."

"And I learned something along the way; that there are times you have to stand and fight. Battles where just surviving isn't enough. Where you have to - fight for something other than yourself." Her words were still a little jumbled, her previous elegance and flawless diction drowned to a degree, but their remnants still stood like rocks among the tide as her voice slowly picked up tempo and volume. "That there are people worth protecting even if it means you have to give up something in return. That... even if I can't protect people like Elly from everything, I have to at least shield them so they can survive to make their own destinies."

Something else Aerious had been right about, in his own way - though his views on the subject had been subtly different than her own. "-And it turns out fighting is actually pretty fun, so that helps."

With the dramatic tension utterly ruined in one fell swoop, Nayru sank back into the pillow from where she had pulled herself a little off of it unwittingly, grinning like an idiot. "And that includes you, Veigue. Maybe we're both just a pair of monsters with darkness in our hearts, but... I've never felt as alive as when standing by your side in a fight. Even if all we can do is destroy, even if your father and the creature inside me were right all along, we can turn that power against evil - one evil against another. Monsters fighting monsters, if only to prove we're something more."