Merrion Priddy (merrymage) wrote in emillion, @ 2014-04-22 13:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !narrative, merrion priddy |
don't ask me what your sacrifice was for
Who: Merrion Priddy (+npc)
What: Emotionally preparing himself for the day
Where: Clinic in the Commoners
When: This morning
Rating: PGish (mentions of deaths and violence)
Status: Complete
When Merri woke, he stared up at the ceiling of the clinic, his heart heavy with what lied before him for the day. He needed to return to the Tower, to oversee the reconstruction efforts, to pick up the pieces from the destruction, to check up on the palings, to visit those of his friends and companions still injured and still teetering on the edge of life and death, to endure the scathing remarks of those in the streets, to allow whatever debris or trash citizens might throw at him on his journey from one place to the next, to keep from his mind all those who had fallen and slipped away, all those who might, and all who had lost everything else. There had never been a promise that being a councilor would be easy, and Merri knew that he had grown too comfortable. Perhaps they all did, in their own ways, so he knew he had no excuse. He had a job to do; the responsibilities were his to take, and his that he had accepted years ago. He couldn’t let Toku and Peony do everything by themselves. It was not fair to them. So, he willed himself to sit, his bones and muscles still aching having not yet fully healed. But he sat on the edge of the bed, his elbows on his knees and his head hanging down, each name and face of those who had passed entering his mind. Guy, his friend since their scholar years, who had always been so kind and friendly and helpful in all of his endeavors, whose cheerful smile he would never see again. Cressida, a more recent friend, one he wished he’d been able to know better, whose gentle kindness Merri could and would never forget. Elen, who had helped him along when he first took up the red mage track, who had been a kind but firm sparring partner even when he still hesitated drawing a weapon upon another hume. Rivalen’s mother, Rene’s aunt, a woman he never got to know but wished he had. Merri’s heart went out to Rivalen, and he blamed the samurai none for his rage and anger at the guild. (Even if he wanted to, he couldn't; Merri himself would be dead were it not for Riv.) Vivian, the Sage, who Merri had always feared and adored, who he had never dreamed would do anything remotely like this, to turn against her own guild, her own city, and betray everything she was to have stood for. Now she was gone, and in the void she left behind there was chaos, despair, and danger still. Tears fell onto the back of Merri’s hand, and he wiped them away. This was no way to start the morning. It was hardly a way to end the day, but these were his last insomniac thoughts every night (the duration growing longer every time he had a chance to look at the list of known casualties, which he even admitted he looked at to an unhealthy degree) before he finally succumbed to exhaustion. He did not sleep well, but he had no right to, but if he let himself fall to grief so early in the morning… “Merri?” Merri lifted his head to see his friend Alec standing in the doorway. The geomancer before him, too, was not in the best of shape, and he’d been one of the few who had defended the clinic against the beasts along with Merri and one of the fewer of those still who survived. Given his class, however, he was one of the prime mages helping with repairs, so he, too, could not rest. “You ready to go?” Merri nodded and wiped the remaining tears away. “Yes.” The time for grief was for later, still. |