Chezarina, Byron makes eye contact with you, a rarity with him. His eyes are an eerie combination of purple and green, the kind of bright colors you see during summer lightning storms.
"Do you have a clue about the time?"
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"We need to find the time," Bye says to no one.
Bye doesn't sleep, but he's not much good for watches. Except the kind that tick. He tries to sit near people and understand how they talk and how they're quiet and how talking seems so easy for them. He still doesn't sleep. Watches. Have to find the time.
Bye has equations of his own in his head, different ones, and he can't really help with anything. He broods and fidgets and mumbles to himself. Fredrik, the older boy with a serious face, comes over to Bye while the others are halfway done with the cage. Showing a bit of kindness to the strange sylph, he asks few questions about a certain red alloy that goodpriest edmund had mentioned after his singular vision. They talk for a few minutes, and Bye seems slighly more at ease now. Perhaps there is a better way. A bridge starting with forgiveness.
Zeph, I'm imagining that lost post, and I'm sure Bye was talked down for now. He's not willing to talk about anything else until tomorrow (same with Gull, he is being led around by Fredrik right now) I know re-typing a good post that was lost can feel discouraging and pointless, so I wanted to let you know - no pressure.
Bye is a terrible liar, and he knows it, so he simply nods. "So? I. I can't. Even remember my own. Own name. I need to try first. Me. My name. Bry name." He words are calm at first, but his breathing is getting slightly faster.
"Time. Need to find the time." Bye, the strange, muttering sylph, has kept mostly to himself after you crossed the Breathless, but now he meanders over to gently usher Gull away from Chezarina. There is a motherly scolding in his tone.
Bye is there too, clucking to himself. Yes. But also, Moon is his fault, and he's sorry.
"One more is alright. But not more than that. Too many eyes, too many questions in them." Bye is easily distracted, and refuses to answer many of the questions. For a long time now, you've been used to responsive, intellectually curious adults in your life, and you are unable to emotionally connect with this sulky, mumbling el. Unlike treating an infection or a broken bone, the subject has to be willing to meet you halfway - there is no forcing therapy down a patient's throat. As the testing wears on, Bye becomes more and more insistent about the time. "We still haven't found it. When are we going to find the time so we can leave?"
The addled sylph struggles to tell you his name as you make you way into the building. "Bribing. Bry- No. Ryan. Bright. " He begins breathing harder, struggling to continue talking. "Bye. Rrrrye." His jaw clenches from the effort, then he seems to give up. "D-damn it. "Moon took it away. I can't think about my name anymore. I know it's there. It drives me crazy, and I know it's there but my name is Bye. It's like I'm saying Bye to my memories of myself.
"Yes." He takes your hand like a drowning person, clinging desperately to rescue.
"We can come back later? And find the time?...so I can really leave?" He seems impossibly hopeful, like a poisoned el offered an antidote.
The nervous sylph shakes Albert's hand, and then turns toward Zephyr. Where is safe? Can you tell me more of a Father Sky that doesn't hate me?"
Surprisingly, he listens to Albert's advice. In a very quiet voice, he says, "Close to bed time for the little ones." He peers at you, his eyes a pale white-blue and full of anxious thoughts. "Why are you here? Did you kill a golem and take its clothes?"
"They'll be coming soon. Lightning comes from the Sky and they're dangerous and they'll hurt you and me too. Im' just trying to find the time, and then I can leave!" He voice is raising in pitch now.
As Fury follows Zephyr's plan, the muttering sylph suddenly stops in his tracks, like a startled rabbit. "Who's there?"
He rubs his eyes, his hands leaking magic. He casts something like see invisibility, but with other components riding along. A bit of green-ray acid eats away at the stable wall, which the mage appears not to notice. Squinting, he sees Fury. He takes a deep, shuddering breath, and then begins weeping noisily. "I'm sorry! How many times can I say it? Are you some last piece of Sky come to kill me? Empty my lungs in some painful bleeding vengeance? I thought the clouds were good! I thought they were you!" He falls to his knees, pounding the ground. "I don't care anymore. I thought the cwmwl was good. I thought it was good."
The strange sylph mumbles to the stable walls. "Trees know how many years pass. It's in their things. Rings. So do they know what time it is?" He begins peering closely at the planks of wood.
Zephyr, a sylph with a wild look in his eyes peers around the stables and on the ground. He seems to be confident in his invisibility. He doesn't look up, so he doesn't see any mysterious gasses that may or may not be floating above him. "Gotta figure out what time it is..." he mutters to himself. He is not acting as though he is aware of anyone from your group.
Byron swallows what he was about to say with a gulp. The loquacious sylph manages to remain quiet as he keeps pace with you in the wintry midmorning air, even as he begins to shiver in the cold - he clearly did not think about dressing for the weather.
Byron looks positively nonplussed at this, and (assuming Ibinu and the others start past), he says, "Now-see-here-you-need-to-wait-and-"
As you turn a corner past an apothecary, you nearly run into a sylph that is wearing a labcoat sullied with yellow sweatstains and charcoal smudges. His eyebrows are completely singed away, and his hair is also a strange, sickly yellow. He is mumbling to himself, but without so much as a pause for breath, he starts talking to you. "What-are-you-doing-here-we-don't-need-volcano-here-or-any-of-your-temple- mysticism-" He trails off, frowning, waiting for a response. |