Wizard's House

[wizardseason]

"Hey"

The Wizard greets the evil-allured knights the same way every night, with the same word, while casually sitting on the steps of the porch outside of her little home. The building looks handmade, like it was built by people who cared about the place they were going to live. Surrounding it on all sides are fields as far as the eye can see. Vegetables of all kinds, with fruit trees and bushes placed throughout the landscape. Closer to the home are bigger trees, willows and others, providing shade from the strange three suns above. Wherever this is, it isn't the world that the knights know.

Plunged into the ground a mere few feet away from the steps leading up to the home is a handwritten sign that states the following:

Knight Rules:
- Tell others if you want
- You can't reveal others
- The world ends this year

Comments

[wizardseason]

There are so many threads to pull, Gyre hasn't even scratched the surface. He pulls on the right string, though.

"Magic is magic, and the Protector." She answers both his questions, surprisingly, but doesn't elaborate literally at all.

[sustainer]

"Okay."

He says it like he understands, but he doesn't really. Suddenly he's wishing he'd kept up with all this wizard death shit. The Protector was the one who picked the Princess, right?

"Why doesn't he want you have four?"

[wizardseason]

Gyre's got the basics of the protector down, that was something. She'd educate him if he wanted, and if he asked.

"He doesn't want to die, and he doesn't want the world destroyed." She answers like it's the simplest thing in the world.

[wizardseason]

Ah, yes. Their conversation has come full circle, now. They're getting back to the core idea here, and that meant that she could give him a little more since he was digging for it.

"I'm trying to kill the Protector."

[wizardseason]

Nope, the Wizard's staying right here, watching the way Haizea responds. She's curious what it'll take to make her flinch. Which truth will hurt the worst. Which one will give her pause and make her question it all.

"I didn't start it alone, and I didn't start it without reason." Her small smirk is turning into more of a smile now, the slightest of excitement creeping onto her features for the first time.

"I could have left this world to burst, planets are beautiful when they fracture."

[sustainer]

He feels incredibly stupid for just a moment. Of course the dude who fashions himself The Protector wouldn't want the world to die. At least it gives him an easy path back to the other threads.

"Can he stop it by himself? You said the world would end no matter what, right?“

[wizardseason]

"He can't do it alone. So long as I'm defeated, it spins on."

Her answer fits what's been said about this yearly business. The knights and princess have to fight. The Wizard has to be defeated. The world has to be saved. It all lines up with that narrative.

[wizardseason]

It's like she's kicking a puppy.

"No." She answers, her voice void of any reassurance or emotion at all.

"There is no secret." She isn't going to lie, sorry Matilda.

[daddykong]

He doesn't flinch. At all. "Shocking." It's deadpan, almost like he's imitating her. "He's the Protector who rallies us to defeat you every single year, of course you want to kill him." But then Garrot scowls, and that scowl turns into a growl.

"Why are any of us here?" His voice begins to escalate- not to a scream, but with more emotion. "Why do any of us- why did my father have to die for your grudge?!" And he's breathing loud and deep, hands balled into tight fists as he just angrily hyperventilates.

Garrot knows that no matter what she says, it won't be good enough for him.

[scandeled]

It is. Matilda trembles a little, trying not to cry, then gives her head a good shake. “Y-you should have picked a better knight. Someone who would know what to do.” Like Delilah would. “I-I’m going to try, but you’re still here telling me we’re all doomed!”

[wizardseason]

"You'll live if you try." She answers, the closest to a reassurance she'll get here.

She doesn't address the better knight part, though. She had her reasons but most of all she wasn't answering it because it wasn't important. Matilda could think whatever she wanted of herself, that didn't change reality.

[wizardseason]

"You're all here because it's never worked." She answers, completely emotionless as she says it. She won't get wrapped up in his anger, but she won't try to quell it either.

"We knew after the second--" A pause, the first time she's reconsidered something she's said. She doesn't really give any visible tell about why she's reconsidering it, but she corrects herself nonetheless.

"No, the first year was enough. It should have ended then."

[scandeled]

She’ll take what she can get, and she smiles a little wearily. “You’ll try too, won’t you? You could help stop this awful thing. You don’t have to be all alone.” She’s hesitant, but genuine at least.

[daddykong]

"Of course it never worked, I'm not stupid." The words are downright venomous, and Garrot's snarling face is showing more and more teeth. "If it worked, the Protector would be dead, you would die, and the world would end." He's listening, even if he's not happy about it.

Garrot pauses for a moment to restrain his emotions, to keep himself from wasting time asking questions he didn't care to know the answers to. His breathing comes under control surprisingly fast for someone so angry so often. "Why can't you and the Protector just fight it out in the stars somewhere? Just leave us all alone?"

He had to stop himself from asking about what happened in the first year, about why there was a first year to begin with, about who she meant when she said we. But he'll wait. For now.

[wizardseason]

"I have to die to stop it." She answers flatly, it's a reality she's come to accept over the years. What else would she do with her time if she had to stick around after all this?

[wizardseason]

She's pleased that he's followed it all this far, but unfortunately he's still angry. He still wants answers to questions that there aren't good answers to. The only answers he'll get are ones that make him angrier, and unfortunately she has to give him them.

"Because the world would have ended in the first place without us."

[sustainer]

That is... a lot to take in. His eyes widen, and then widen again. Now is the first time he's actually mad since he woke up here, an absolutely furious snarl in his throat all of a sudden. Sure, the snarl hurts around his scar but fuck, the implication in her statement is so fucking ugly.

"He's making this happen? Why, because he's scared to die?"

[daddykong]

Garrot looks absolutely disgusted. There's the word again. Us. He'll push his luck, but only because it's better than his claws pushing on her windpipe in frustration.

"Us like you and the monsters or you and the Protector?" He breathes out through his nose, sounding like a wild animal backed into a corner, about to charge. Garrot's trying to keep his cool, but this is a lot. He's glad some of the other Knights didn't have to deal with this shit. "What would've ended the world before all of you showed up?"

[scandeled]

Well, that shuts Matilda up quickly. Then her shoulders start to tremble, and she hiccups, and the tears start to well in her eyes.

[wizardseason]

She's tempted to drop him in a lake to cool off. She's going to answer some of his questions, but not others. She'll give him some information, but not all of it. Baby steps for a baby monkey.

"This one was flawed, unstable from within." She answers, calmly. "Destined for stardust."

[wizardseason]

Ah, Gyre's one of the few to pick up on a bigger, bleaker picture. She hadn't even given him the details, she'd let him reach the conclusion. He wasn't the first knight to realize it, but if the Protector ever caught wind that he'd learned of it he'd be dead for real.

It's a shame she wasn't going to tell him just how bad it was yet. He just needed the minimum amount to stay alive.

"Don't trust what he says." She dodges the question, she could explain his reasons but that was always the whinny that sounded better from the horse's own mouth.

"He won't let it end."

[wizardseason]

If Matilda was hoping for any consolation from the Wizard, she's not going to get it. Instead, the Wizard is disengaging here. She turns, slowly walking away from the dog knight.

She'll still be around if Matilda wants to pursue or once she collects herself, but the Wizard isn't going to break her further.

[daddykong]

Garrot doesn't know shit about the planet or rocks. They don't have a pulse, and they hurt if you punch them. But he raises an eyebrow.

"You threatened to destroy the world for years, so why not just save it instead?" A huff. He's so very skeptical. "If you can keep coming back from the dead every year, why can't you just fix the flaws and leave?"

There's a sinking feeling that the Protector is involved, and not in a good way. The world could end with him being crushed, after all.

[wizardseason]

She knows he won't believe her answer, but she's going to tell him anyway.

"I've tried." She stays calm, raising her mug to her mouth to take a sip. The scent wafting off of it now is hot chocolate, rather than coffee.

But he'd made an assumption she wants to shoot down. "I don't choose to come back, either."

[sustainer]

He's mad! Wow, he thought if he was going to be mad at anyone, it'd be the wizard. So many people hate her so much, and he can't help glancing towards Garrot at the thought, wondering how that was going.

He's still here though, in the moment with her, and he can't help but hit the tree above her hat after another second of thought. If the world is still here because some little coward wants other people to die so he can live, that is inexcusable. But he also knows she's the wizard, and while he's pretty sure she's not lying, he can't be certain. She hides herself well.

"How do I talk to him myself?"