Day 4 | Evening | We Are Servants

[Laila Bridger]

Laila was a bit unnerved.

Sure, they hadn't been dialed in an on guard, but the wo.an- whoever she was- had gotten really damned close.

"As my sibling here said, Laila. Laila Bridger."

[Kannon]

"Oh, I don't mean to impose. I have been waiting for someone but I am not sure it is either of you."

The woman's voice, controlled and commanded, had something familiar to it though neither could place it.

[Kiran Alsahar]

"Oh, I don't mean to impose. I have been waiting for someone but I am not sure it is either of you."

The woman's voice, controlled and commanded, had something familiar to it though neither could place it.

Kiran raised an eyebrow. That got their interest up. "What sort of person are you looking for?"

[Laila Bridger]

Laila... also arched an eyebrow.

"Pretty sure it's not me, anyway. 'Cause I've not once in my life had anything to do with a meeting nobody told me about ahead of time."

She half-smiled.

"Bit above my pay grade."

[Kannon]

"Ones who lean away from self-gratification as the life's purpose." The woman said.

[Kiran Alsahar]

"Ones who lean away from self-gratification as the life's purpose." The woman said.

Kiran tilts their head. "Someone who exists only to serve?"

[Laila Bridger]

The words Kiran spoke jogged something in Laila.

That oath this morning, the one I didn't know I knew... what else is buried in my damn brain?!

[Kannon]

"To keep from dying is not that same as to live." The woman gestured toward the waitress. "That woman there is a servant. But what does it tell about her existence?"

[Laila Bridger]

"Take it from someone who was just existing and not living for the past three years, she's not a servant. She serves, but it's not who she is."

[Kannon]

"And wherein does the distinction lie?"

[Laila Bridger]

"When she finishes her shift, she's going to go home and pay all of this no mind. It's not why she gets out of bed in the morning, it's just something to do."

Sip.

"It's how I know I'm not a soldier anymore. Haven't really been one since Elacca."

[Kannon]

"And are you anyone now?"

[Laila Bridger]

"And are you anyone now?"

Part of her wanted to say "nope," but it wasn't true.

Oh, she had been no one for years, just looking for a grave that would take her, but...

Some part of her that had only recently awoken needed its say.

"I'm a lot of things. A human for the first time in a good long while."

She glanced at Kiran.

"I'm a sister again. I'm a mother in waiting. I'm someone who is only alive for and because of the others in my life, and I owe that life to them."

Laila set her glass down, to gesture with both hands.

"I want this for anyone who can accept it, but I don't know how to do it. I only know that my joy in life only means something if it's shared, and that burdens are lighter when they're shared. Am I anyone? I'm more than I was, but I haven't got a word for it."

[Kannon]

"I think you need fewer names now, not more. Words make indeterminate determinate, infinite finite. They cannot be divorced from preconceptions. You know who you are a sister to. What if you didn't?"

She looked at Kiran, the quieter observant one, with patient scrutiny. "Truth dwells between experiences, and it carries the necessity for change once spoken."

[Kiran Alsahar]

"It carries the inevitability of change," they replied. "Knowing and speaking the truth fundamentally changes one's relationship to it. Even if you don't consciously do something about it, you subconsciously respond to it."

They looked out into the crowd. "I've seen a truth, and I'm driven to change it, for instance."

[Kannon]

"How?"

[Kiran Alsahar]

"Pathfinding," they reply simply. "I saw a golden path built of fear, suffering, and hatred. It would lead to a better future, but a future with those things as it's foundation will have them built into it. Humanity deserves better."

[Laila Bridger]

Golden Path...

Laila sat up slightly, her subconscious mind picking up and sifting things she had forgotten, but not fully giving them to her awareness.

That was focused on Kiran, and she found herself nodding at what they said.

"I think if you tend something, if you take responsibility for it, then you have to love it. Some pain is inevitable, and you can learn from it, but it shouldn't be the foundation of any guidance."

Oh. Was that in there all this time?

She trailed off.

"I... this is all still new to me."

Glanced at Kiran.

"Us?"

[Kiran Alsahar]

Kiran nodded. "If a path is unacceptable, the solution isn't to sigh and accept it because the destinationis what you want. The solution is to blaze a new trail."

"We need more than love. More than pain. Let me ask you a question: What was the first sign that we as a species had be ome 'human'?"

[Kannon]

Wanna.jpg (21.14 KiB) Viewed 839 times

Kul wahad! Why are they speaking of it? And in this manner? Curse the wild Mothers, they always complicate things. Curse you, Jessica, if this is any of your and your son's doing. Mother Harishka must know of this.

Wanna calmed herself with the Litany.

No, this should continue. I must know more.

"You ask to test or to find the answer you don't have?"