azume | with knowledge comes great responsibility

with knowledge comes great responsibility

[What an absolute ordeal all of that was.

Today was certainly one hell of a day, that's for sure; they've managed to take care of another Guardian and gain it's trust (or at the very least, something resembling it), they managed to find Candice and manage to...well, maybe not get her back in a state that's altogether wanted, but ensure they managed to get her at least into a place where she could possibly regain herself. It will likely be a process, as such things are, but they've done their best, and they should have no regrets.

The center is definitely going to be a welcome reprieve for all of their suffering, at the very least. The Kompot is certainly more than enough to likely get everyone warmed back up and in a stable condition, along with the copious amount of blankets the locals have provided. They've got the time to rest and get ready for their next adventure.

Rest well, ye merry band of travelers. You've earned it.]

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[...Camilla really didn't respond to the apology at first, honestly. She's...been a little hazy headed ever since this day really got going and she's wanted to keep some form of distance from a lot of things. She was a little angry at Zelda for getting so cross, yes, but even Camilla could admit that she wasn't necessarily wrong.

She knows she should talk to the girl eventually. And...well, considering that Camilla kind of comes up a bit later on, she can at least finally manage that much.]

Zelda...?

[She just tries to get her attention, first.]

[ Zelda, even now, doesn't believe she was wrong. She overstepped her bounds, lost her temper, but especially the initial outburst was justified... insofar as that mattered. It didn't matter at all, honestly. What mattered was the result of things, and the result was that she was not only useless there, but a detriment to it in the end.

Or so she believes anyway.

Still, to have the other speak up for her she is curled up with the Lickitung, letting it lick her hand mostly to entertain the thing. She lowers it, covered in some saliva to look up with ... well her eyes are less bloodshot, but they are dry. ]

Yes, I'm awake still.

I wanted to be sure. A girl really does need her beauty sleep, you know, when all is said and done.

[Camilla's gonna sit, honestly--not too close because she is not getting someone she's kind of coming to the conclusion she considers a little sister sick, but close enough to just...be there.

...And hello, Saber, please just stay distracted by Zelda, she don't want you getting sick either.]

...How are you feeling, sweetheart? Talk to me.

[She's...gonna stay calm, honestly.]

[ I mean Zelda sure will need it between her eyes and the fact her hair isn't... the best... because Saber totally slobbered it up at some point or another. Still, now she's talking with someone she taps the Lickitung's stomach to release her hand, which she'll then wipe off on the stomach of the thing. ]

Embarrassed... frustrated. Guilty as well, I suppose.

[...sweetie, you need a goddamn shower at that point, jesus christ. Why do you let Saber walk all over you like that.

Anyway!! Camilla's just going to focus a bit, breathing for a moment before speaking.]

...What you said was very risky, dear. It wasn't wrong to say such a thing, but...

[Mmm.]

...Don't risk yourself.

[ It wasn't wrong...

She wonders, does everyone think that? She's not sure, but she can't help but stew with her own thoughts on it, she sort of has the whole night, waffling between that and that confession she made there. She now can't help but be back to Camilla and her a week ago, when she was making ready to scold Bucky, and how the other woman's body language was then- Ultimately, it's all inconclusive. ]

I couldn't help myself. [ ... ] It was a failure of diplomacy.

[ Which is the part she's apologetic for. ]

You act like we're unfamiliar to such concepts, Zelda.

[It's...said somewhat lightly, at least. Lord knows she still has a bunch of complicated feelings? But for now, it was easier to simply compartmentalize and forget the fact that she disagrees about the lack of a need for bloodshed. Really, if it gets results--

...No, let's not go down there today.]

...I am sorry, however. About what has happened, back where you come from.

[That's. Honestly easier than attempting to chide Zelda, right now, because all discipline would do is remind her of Corrin even more and she doesn't need that tonight.]

[ Of course they aren't, but that's why she needed to apologize. After all... she herself had chided the others. Still, at that second part, she inclines her head, curling her legs up on herself. Saber, perhaps sensing this, proceeds to sort of. ... Pat her back with its tongue. ... It's tongue is the most mobile part of her, sue her. Still, Zelda hums and, ]

... I- thank you.

[ She doesn't even know how to respond to that, now. Brush it off as the past? It was, of course, but to have shouted that it clearly still lingered with her. She ends up biting her lip, not... really certain what way to express herself now. ]

[...That isn't helping, is it? Camilla can't really help but avert her gaze again, just. Kind of unsure, really. She's just kind of hoping that the girl won't blame herself when they're all guilty of losing their temper, and hell, she has the opportunity to live and learn, but...ugh...]

Of course.

[Like, Zelda's told her some stuff, but to know that was just...stewing, for so long, to the point that it set off such a reaction? And she missed that?]

Your life has forced such heavy burdens onto you, and taken so much. It's...quite unfair that it played out in such a manner.

[ Unfair...

Yes, it was unfair. ]

It really had been quite unfair. ... To everyone. [ She looks down at her hands. And perhaps because it is Camilla, and for whatever misgivings the woman sometimes gives her she has been kind, she just... continues, unbidden. Her green eyes swim a little. ] For ten long, long years the gods and spirits were ever silent to my devotion. Nothing I did- ... nothing worked. Ever was I ill-equipped to face my destiny, and eventually, I just came to see the failure as being inevitable. ... So many were counting on me, and my father- [ She chokes a little there and she closes her eyes ] ... My father most of all.

[...

Gods, this is all painful to hear. Like, Camilla has no context for a good relationship with her parents, and she's assuming that Zelda must have had...well, maybe a decent relationship with her own father. She hopes so, at least, but...]

You should have never had to see it as inevitable. That the gods couldn't even answer simple, devoted prayers for help...it's horrific and cruel.

[Camilla honestly sounds lowkey furious.]

Your father...he never blamed you for any of that, did he...?

[ Zelda recoils, as if struck by that. There's... there's no good answer for that, is there. She shrinks a little bit, and she... ]

I- [ She swallows and, ] ... I would- I would ... [ goddess, she is really on the edge of a sob again. But she steels herself, wills herself to be stronger. ] I would hope so.

[...Zelda, were it not for the fact that she was sick, she'd be both hugging you and proclaiming that you are her child now.

~~Such things run in the family, you see--~~]

He better not. None of you could have predicted that the gods would just--just turn away like that! It's hideous! What, did they expect--

[Her voice rises with each word, giving way from frustration to boiling hot anger--it's only stopped by her forcing herself to turn away and cough.]

[ Honestly the anger is at once really vindicating and really scary. It sounds a lot like the sum of the frustrations she had for years, but at the same time, it's still something that she can't bring herself to feel, let alone say. Still, she cuts in after a moment there and... ]

He pushed me because it was necessary! I just... I wish our final conversation had gone better.

[Okay, Camilla will at least bite her tongue at that much--she's definitely projecting too much of her own father onto what little Zelda is telling her of her own. But...]

...What did he say to you?

It was another argument... the Calamity was coming closer and closer and - he... forbade me from waisting more time playing at being a scholar.

[ She was so furious back then. But for that to be their final conversation.... ]

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with knowledge comes great responsibility

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