Ohmwrecker [Nayru/Locke]

[Locke]

As Nayru slowly scraped her fingers along the tree's proud trunk, the thought slowly floated up into the manakete's mind that he was most likely older than the tree. He outlasted any human alive, and yet they just didn't - couldn't - wouldn't understand.

Then the voice of reason came back to him, and he looked, brow slightly furrowed, as Nayru began to speak once more. There was a lot in that voice. It was loaded, with sadness, with reminisces of the past, with lost hopes. But there was the bit of light she had, that proverbial silver lining that seemed to always show up when you looked from exactly the right light.

Blind trust? Nay, that would never be an issue for him. He was loath to trust any of these humans. But hope? Hope he had in abundance. Hope sprung forth from him, no matter how well he diverted or concealed it, hopes as numerous and broad as the sands of Nabata.

But a leader was needed. That was true. Nayru had a very true point. But there was something that he saw that she clearly did not - something that could be crucial. He held his tongue, though, and followed the end of the argument. All she said was sound advice, given undoubtedly as the result of experience upon experience. "The scars of the Scouring are old, no longer fresh."

True. But for the humans, all had been healed by virtue of their overwhelming conquest. Their generations moved on, the fog of time obscured, and all descended into legend.

Not so for those who, although they had not personally lived it, lived every day reminded of its repercussions. Not so for those who could not understand why it had happened in the first place. Not so for many. But...

"Nayru. Why don't you step up and lead? From your words, from your demeanor... You have those attributes you mentioned. You have the power - you very well could be the leader you speak of. You could be the one to bring reconciliation."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

She looked away from Locke as he made his proposal, unable to meet his gaze even knowing that he meant nothing but the best. It should have been flattering, in on some level it still was, but so too was it a reminder of how spectacularly she had failed herself and Elibe alike, of how all those big fancy conversations she'd had with Aerious on that very subject had come down in ashes around her when she came face to face with her own weakness. She had been so optimistic, truly thought she understood the work required to do it... but had failed so utterly to realize her own hypocrisy until forced to.

Still, the hope was alive - Nayru just knew now that she wasn't exactly fit to be the flawless Messiah figure of her race that she had once dreamed of.

Nayru leaned up against the tree, trying to marshal her thoughts into something that sounded a lot less whiny than, well, her actual thoughts. She had too many blessings to be whining to other people about how much her life sucked, but it was important, to her at least, that Locke understand why he was wrong. The road to hell was paved with good intentions, as the saying went. Thanks be to whatever deity was sitting there and laughing at her that Locke was easy to talk to, and that she'd already had a lot of practice with Veigue, or the dragon had a feeling she would have choked on her words.

"...I've struggled with... controlling my power for my entire life, Locke." Trying to summon the courage to actually continue with her admission, she forced herself to look him in the eyes without flinching away from her fear. "Every time I lost control of my emotions, of my power, people died. I have too much blood on my hands... hundreds, perhaps thousands of innocent lives lost to my berserk rage. Even my last transformation, willingly accepted in the hopes of protecting those companions, almost led to their deaths. While I finally have control of my power to some degree, I still don't understand its origins... or its limits."

She half-smiled, though there was little humor to be found, more helpless admission of the cosmic mockery. Truly, if there was anything she had wished for over her life, it would have been simple normality - the freedom to simply... be. But that had been forever denied to her, and now she had a blood debt to Elibe she could never pay off. "I'm not exactly a normal dragon... just a weapon to be pointed in the right direction and set loose."

[Locke]

Struggled with controlling her power? She who had such grace and elegance in combat? From the small sample he'd seen, Nayru seemed quite versed at using and controlling her own natural energy. But she felt otherwise - felt that she was هائج, was one of the members of the ancient group that possessed much power, far beyond that of other dragons, but who sacrificed control of themselves for their heightened energy.

Still - the way she was talking, the way she called herself simply a weapon - did she honestly believe that the path to reconciliation, to understanding, to true peace... was a path of violence? Had the Scouring not proved what effects blind violence could have?

"The scars of the Scouring are old, no longer fresh."

Nayru's words echoed in his mind, and Locke looked at her, shaking his head and looking at her as he began to speak, to entreat, to question.

"But you think that your inability to control your energy makes you unfit to lead? Is it necessary to be flawless to enact change?

No.

The scars of the Scouring are old, Nayru. No longer fresh. You need not transform, need not do anything more than reason as you have to me. Let your voice ring out, so that human and dragon alike may hear and listen. Those of us and those of the humans who understand will be the first to take up the banner you wave, and change will begin. It will undoubtedly be a slow and painful process. But someone must give the stone that little push to start it rolling... And then everything will build its own momentum. I say this because I believe in your power of judgement. I believe in your ability to think, to reason, to understand. You have compassion for the humans. You have a sense of belonging... And if you share how you feel with others, if you let your ideas be known as clearly and persuasively as you have with me... Change will come. I can feel it."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"It's not - exactly..." If she hadn't already been leaning against the tree she would have done so now, but outside of moving away from it just to lean back against it that wasn't happening, so Nayru settled for just inclining her head backwards and closing her eyes, pretending that if she couldn't see the problem, she didn't have to deal with it. Of course it was a childish and stupid mindset - she wasn't blind to that - but for not the first time, Nayru wished she could indulge in it, or Sky forbid, that it'd work.

But it wouldn't, and she couldn't just wish it all away. "That IS the problem. I can control it, now, but more than I ever thought possible keeps pouring out as if to test me further, and there's still-" She paused, trying to think of how to even word her issue, as well as whether or not to tell Locke. So long spent in the dark made it difficult to truly trust others, especially so quickly after they had met... but she had no idea what it meant, and had even less idea how to figure it out. Ah well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? And besides, what was he going to do, call the Dragon Police on her?

"...There is a... block, perhaps a seal of some sort, on my power. Only now can I recognize it for what it is - something artificial rather than of my own doing. Do you know of any sort of magic that could directly interfere with a dragon's very core?" She smiled, tiredly, not so much one of true joy as the exhausted honesty of someone slowly coming to terms with a truth they didn't like. "And I can't do exactly what you ask, Locke. I HAVE to fight. I've spent my entire life trying to be everything else, and only recently did I finally realize that I was running from that truth the whole time. My cursed blood won't let me do anything else. I can finally control that bloodlust to a degree, turn it into a useful direction, but much like the abnormal nature of my power, it is simply something fundamental to my existence."

Opening her eyes while still staring upwards, she continued, not really even sure what the hell she was going on about, but it did feel good to get it off her chest. "I've met a lot of people lately, some of them apparently important, and taken to monster hunting with my partner. I can't do what you ask of me Locke - bear that responsibility as I am now - but I'm trying to work towards that bit by bit. But I need answers first, about who I am, what I am, before I can really focus on saving the world."

[Locke]

"You are... Sealed?"

This was quite confusing, even for a seeker of knowledge. He had studied and learned from many dragons and many old books... But never had he found a mention of some sort of seal that could control and contain the power of a dragon. As Nayru said... Magic that could hamper the very essence of a dragon was powerful stuff indeed. No joking matter at all. There was something in Nayru's past, that she either did not know or would not divulge, that had lead to such a state. It was an interesting quandary.

But having to fight? Being locked into a life of vicious combat, being forced to fight by 'cursed' blood? He'd never heard of such a thing. Her power... So vast that it was sealed away... So dynamic that it caused bloodlust and a need for violence... What was this dragon? Something of great potential, for sure, but the direction of that potential would be the deciding factor. She could in fact be the destruction of the known world. An envoy of the end, if you will. He had met an envoy - of the end or the beginning.

"You... frighten me.

Pardon me, that was incorrect.

Your future frightens me. For I see the possibilities, the paths, that lay stretched out before you. Where will you go? What will you do with this great power of yours? No, Nayru, none can predict the future, but it is easy to see the two futures you offer. Salvation and damnation. Something tells me that you are a powerful key, which will unlock something. I wish I could understand more, how these conflicting and contradictory personalities and needs can flow and mix and sustain themselves without imploding and destroying you. But suffice it to say that you are quite correct - if it is as you say... Then you indeed need answers. But which questions to ask first? And of whom?"

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

Yeah... she probably shouldn't have expected too much in the wise of answers. Nayru felt the distinct urge to punch the tree, to punch someone or something, but restrained herself. It wasn't Locke's fault that he didn't magically know everything about everything, and the tree hadn't killed her parents... as far as she knew, anyways. It was just... frustrating to not have answers, to not even know where to look, and yet the questions simply continued to build. When it was merely berserking she had to worry about it was but one question, but now Nayru was coming to realize there was vastly more to her power than she had ever realized.

The part that really worried her, though, was that even as she finally learned to control it, it simply grew as fast - faster - than she could improve her own skills. Where was the end? WAS there an end? At least beforehand the problem had been simple, discrete - don't transform and everything will be fine. But now, it leaked out of her no matter what she did, and it was only -because- she trained so hard that she was able to keep up. Was this going to happen forever? Would there be a point at which her skills, and eventually even her body, could no longer keep pace? Nayru didn't know the answer, but she was pretty sure that turning into a walking countdown to apocalypse was a crappy way to go.

What Locke said made sense. It didn't help her solve her problems, which frustrated her a bit, but it was true nonetheless. She had thought about that very question a great deal, and monster hunting had been the best answer she could come up with. But was that just a temporary solution? Was killing a few monsters here and there for a few years /really/ all that she could do for Elibe? What about when, well, if, the monsters stopped coming?

"I suppose that is the question," she agreed after her thoughts went nowhere. What to ask was the question itself. "I have a few ideas of where to start, but there are some... things I need to do first." She wasn't TRYING to be evasive per se, really it was just that she needed to learn how to control this power before she could face Erim again, but it wasn't really something she planned to share. "And some other things to help a friend with. Sometimes it's nice to just help other people with their problems rather than worry about mine all the time. More than once I've thought it would be nice if my worst problem was just worrying how well the crops would turn out this season."

[Locke]

"If only life were that simple. If only, Nayru... But life isn't that simple. It is nice to help others with their problems, but you can't simply hold this within and expect it to go away. You must take action. You must go back to Arcadia. Surely someone there will be able to help you. Surely there are some answers there, hidden. But you must, Nayru, you must!"

Locke was visibly agitated now, pacing as his eyes flickered back and forth. Without even noticing, he had reached into his bag and withdrawn a chunk of marble and a chisel, and was absentmindedly chipping away at it while he strode around the clearing, shaking his head as he muttered on.

"I can't tell you how to live your life, Nayru, and from what I have gleaned about the power I know you possess, you could squash me like a bug, but I will not give this up. You cannot hide from it! You cannot run from it! What you have inside of you is nothing simple, nothing unimportant. You are the key to something, and you need to act accordingly. Rise up, Nayru! Rise up and claim your destiny!"

Locke seemed to know in his mind that he was babbling like an idiot, but he couldn't stop his torrent of words. There was something that told him that he had to convince Nayru to become what she had to become. Something...

Wait. He'd read something, somewhere, that resonated with this. He couldn't recall the details, but he knew it had to do with ancient seals and ancient power. But that volume could be anywhere in the Arcadian library...

Looking down at his hands, Locke noticed for the first time the stone and chisel, and he looked at the figurine he was sculpting, his eyes expertly finding the flaw and his hand descending, the chisel cracking off a piece with practiced ease. Holding it up to Nayru and the light, the sculptor manakete took out a thin metal cord and slipped it through a channel in the stone, making a sort of charm necklace or bracelet or belt accessory or what have you. The dragon could figure out what she wanted to do with it herself - Locke just knew that the stone had shaped itself for her.

"Here, Nayru... May it remind and inspire you along your journey."

The Earth Manakete offered up the charm and its cord to Nayru. The marble took the shape of a burning sun, with the cutout in the image of a raptor, wings bent in flight as it passed in front of the life-giving disc. Perhaps it would be of use to her, perhaps she would discard it and never think of it again. Locke did not know.

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

"I won't let my friends die." Nayru's response was almost immediate, her demeanor and tone alike both more than a little muleish as she crossed her arms. On a purely intellectual level, she knew she was misinterpeting his words, his meaning, that Locke hadn't actually suggested she just tell Veigue to f**k off and die and deal with Jacquio himself while she went off to go ascend to godhood or whatever, but the very thought of leaving Vegiue alone to deal with his problems, especially as they only seemed to worsen, sat poorly with her.

And while it might not be quite as obvious on the outside, and while again Locke certainly hadn't intended it, his words had nonetheless cut to the core of the issue she had been struggling with for some time now; the realization that she DID have to find answers, but didn't want to involve Veigue in the process. It was a conundrum she hadn't been able to solve yet, one that was eating away at her inside, and, she finally understood a little belatedly, probably the reason she had snapped back at Locke.

Her momentary ire dissipated, the female dragon uncrossed her arms a little guiltily, lifting her right hand to rest on her forehead for a moment as she tried to regather her composure. "I apologize." It wasn't right for her to take it out on him no matter what the circumstances are. She was just so... tired of living in fear and confusion. Time spent with Elly and Veigue and now Remus was so pleasant that it was all too easy to forget, these days, what responsibilities she still had yet to complete. Both to herself - and to them. "I can't shirk my existing responsibilities, but... you're right about one thing, anyways, I do need to find answers."

She lowered her hand, staring Locke down as if to challenge him to disagree. "But I don't put any stock in that destiny hogwash. People are free to make their own choices in life without some mythical fate or 'god' telling them how to live - I'm living proof of that. And besides, I'd be willing to wager that if you put your mind to it you could accomplish a lot of that yourself, given time. Part of living in Elibe is learning to deal with stresses and dangers that the old farts back in Arcadia haven't had to deal with in a thousand years - if you find your own adventures, sooner or later you'll learn to master your own powers, maybe better than I'll ever manage."

She didn't really know what Locke was capable of, though apparently he seemed to think it was a great deal less than her, but not that long ago she had been in the same position with Aerious, convinced she would never be able to approach him - and while she probably never would be able to match the peerless invulnerability he seemed to have mastered, she had grown in different ways... maybe enough to rival him. She wasn't really sure. Maybe if they met again she could tell.

Locke's gift was a little unexpected, though not entirely unwanted; she'd been focusing more on him than what he was doing so it took a moment to realize he must have been carving it while they were talking. One of these days she'd learn how to pay attention. Probably. "But, uh..." Nayru inspected the trinket, a little uncomfortable with having nothing to repay his kindness with. She still didn't understand exactly what he saw in her or why he was so insistent about it, but it sure as hell made her feel like a kid in Arcadia all over again, in equal parts impressed and cowed by how everyone always seemed to know so much more than her. Maybe she was just doomed to be a dumbass forever.

"...Thanks." A single word; no double entendres or triple meanings there, but simple, blunt gratitude from a girl who had never quite mastered the art of gracefully accepting gifts. For the time being, though, she was nowhere near the flawless gracefulness of Erim. She turned the icon over in her hands, feeling the smooth stone on her skin - grateful and yet still amused, centuries later, at the concept of being so durable and yet still being able to retain one's sense of touch unscathed. She wasn't much of an artist to be able to truly understand the sculpture as someone more skilled in the art might, but it didn't take anything particularly special to recognize skill when she saw it, and it was sure as hell a LOT better than anything she could do, at least without a great deal of practice, and probably not even then.

Nayru grinned as the thought occurred to her, then spoke in a little brighter tone. "Heh. You were kidding about being into sculpting, huh? One of these days I need to get myself a hobby that isn't killing things. Maybe I'll take up knitting."

[Locke]

"Hm? No, I did not mean to suggest that. Mm, even from our limited knowledge of each other, I could read that easily from your composure. You are a steadfast pillar, it seems. Selfless, and never too far away from those you care about."

She cared so much about her human friends, was so staunch about defending them and protecting them... It was unusual for Locke to see, and more than a little confusing. Their lives were like that of an insect to their kind, and so often much shorter than they could be, that it seemed almost pointless to build such strong bonds only to have death cleave them, to watch as all you built was sundered and left to rot in the ground to fertilize the next generation of wildflowers and elm trees.

But he supposed that was what made her life so meaningful and so full. Knowing, mutually understanding, even, that your time was limited and that the hours and days and weeks you spent together might be all you had... Forming those friendships that transcended species boundaries... That must be what brought the weight and the fulfillment to Nayru's life.

"I apologize. I can't shirk my existing responsibilities, but... you're right about one thing, anyways, I do need to find answers. But I don't put any stock in that destiny hogwash. People are free to make their own choices in life without some mythical fate or 'god' telling them how to live - I'm living proof of that. And besides, I'd be willing to wager that if you put your mind to it you could accomplish a lot of that yourself, given time. Part of living in Elibe is learning to deal with stresses and dangers that the old farts back in Arcadia haven't had to deal with in a thousand years - if you find your own adventures, sooner or later you'll learn to master your own powers, maybe better than I'll ever manage."

"There is destiny, Nayru. While you speak true - no deity or force compels you to act or live any certain way - there is a higher calling in our lives, each and every one of us. And you cannot escape that. It might not be anything profound, but I do believe that each of us has something we must do while we live in order to truly fulfill our purpose.

Aye, I don't doubt that I will accomplish many things - but what they are or whether they will matter has yet to be seen. Mastery of all my energy, of all my power... Being able to express it even in this disguise... Yes, that is on the list. Hah! How long will that take? Perhaps a few centuries. Indeed, time it will take. And time you will need to discover what you are called to do, deep within."

"...Thanks."

Locke nodded, inclining his head in response to Nayru's gratitude. He knew it was probably more than a little awkward for him to simply hand her a carving, but it seemed the right thing to do. He felt that somewhere, in some part of them that hummed in the shared frequency of draconic being, they had briefly connected, briefly understood that even though they had just met, even though they knew less than nothing about each other, past, present, and future, they had nothing but mutual respect and good intentions for each other. That was how Locke felt as he stepped back, gently rubbing the stone dust from his fingers and looking up, head slightly cocked, as nayru spoke.

"Heh. You weren't kidding about being into sculpting, huh? One of these days I need to get myself a hobby that isn't killing things. Maybe I'll take up knitting."

"Hah!"

The bark of laughter was short and pure, not forced or restrained. For a moment, Locke's eyes glowed with genuine mirth, and he smiled back, enjoying the joke.

"I have no doubt you'll find a hobby, but you seem a little too active for knitting. I cannot picture you, Nayru, with the power I saw flowing beneath this thin human skin, sitting like an elderly human woman and working needle and thread. I could more easily picture you as a lumberjack or a roper of wild cattle. But if knitting calls you, I would be more than grateful to receive a beautiful hat, knitted with care by the most power-filled and driven being I know walking the face of this continent."

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

A higher calling...?

Nayru swallowed, not quite meeting Locke's eyes as she tried to understand what he was saying. It wasn't that it was incredibly complex, but the line of thinking was so... different from how she had come to think of herself for so long - a plague on Elibe - that she was having trouble really comprehending it. Was it even possible that everything she had done until now was just a necessary evil, the setup for her to do something else? Or was her past the definition of her existence - what she was supposed to do, and now she was just running from it?

She didn't care much for talk of fate and inevitability, but she was trying to see Locke's position from his eyes, even if it was a bit beyond her. Truly she had no idea if he was just being an optimistic fool, if she was being a pessimistic fool, or if the truth lay somewhere in between, and she didn't much care for any of the possibilities. That didn't mean Locke was necessarily wrong, simply that this was something she was going to have to give more thought to than a few moments of uncomfortable silence. And she did need to meet up with Veigue before it got dark so they could continue their trek to Bern, so she couldn't afford to stand here discussing the subject forever.

Of course, little to none of this was truly new to her - one did not live for so long in darkness and fail to try to find some meaning in their life. But ever after the events in that fortress in Sacae, she had been struggling to make sense of what she had been - was becoming - and only found fewer and fewer answers as she went along. Maybe Locke was wrong, maybe he was right, maybe she would find out tomorrow or not for another five hundred years, but for now she had no answer to give him, and the hesitation showed in her demeanor.

All she could do for now was - live. For the people who could not, and try to do something to atone for her past. Fancy talk about destiny and fate would have to come along the way.

"Well, we'll see on the knitting thing." It was a little hesitant, awkward, her uncomfortableness with how determined Locke seemed to be to see her as some powerful and important being weighing down her regained personality's tendency to make light of things, but she accompanied it with a soft smile nonetheless. "Unless you're in desperate need of socks right now, I suppose." Another sort of lame joke but trying to deflect situations with humor was too ingrained in her to be easily avoided. "-But for now, I should be going to meet up with a friend for a bit of work. It was a pleasure meeting you, Locke, and I hope we meet again sometime soon. You've given me a great deal to think about, even if I have no answers for you now. Safe travels... and I hope you find people worth putting your trust in soon."

[Nayru exit topic, feel free to respond one last time or end it here if you want]