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

[sustainer]

He covers his face for a moment, frustration rising up into his throat. He hates this. Why doesn't she just explain it if she wants him to understand??

"I... yes, I understand that part. Why aren't they here after you're defeated every year? What about this year means they'll be here when they're not normally?"

[wizardseason]

"They're always here." She clarifies, watching the way he riles himself up in front of her.

"But they don't make the decision, they watch, and they forget."

[sustainer]

He sighs deeply, gritting his teeth as he tries to figure out where to go next with this. His fingers run through his hair and he scratches unhappily at his scalp.

"What are you trying to tell me? You brought me here for something, right?" he says, clearly exasperated. He doesn't want to keep coming up with questions that she can answer in the vaguest way possible.

[wizardseason]

She's just giving him all the pieces, what else would she do? But she can read the exasperation on his face and in his voice. She glances at all the platforms again, letting her gaze linger briefly on each one before she turns towards him at the end.

"I want you to know the cycle, so when you choose a side you don't regret it." She pops a mug of hot cocoa into existence near her hand and takes it.

"The world is going to end by its own hand when it chooses to end the cycle, and you'll meet them tomorrow."

[sustainer]

This is not informative. He wants to know the cycle but she refuses to explain it, and he is so utterly frustrated with her. He looks it too, his eyes going dull and irritated when she throws away the most open ended question he could possibly think of.

"Are you going to explain the cycle at all then? Who will I meet?"

[wizardseason]

The Wizard turns her gaze away from him, shifting up towards the vague space in the air above them. At first, there's nothing. But, slowly, square panels of images start appearing in the air above him. Every one of the images is moving slightly, showing the tiniest bits of movement.

The first is of a planet with glowing rings surrounding it as fire rises up from its surface.

The second is of this room, but the center of the platform is a flaming orb wrapped with those same glowing rings.

The third is glowing flaming orbs floating above all but three of the platforms in the room, with two orbs floating in the middle and the central floor piece glowing too.

The fourth is of a clearly artistic depiction of the first year. Blue on one side, with someone holding a big shield, surrounded by heroes with weapons and a princess with a crown. Red on the other side, with a wizard-hat'd person surrounded by masses of monsters. In the center is a lightning bolt signifying conflict.

The fifth is back in this room, with a vague figure that could be anyone standing in the middle. One hand has a thumbs up and the other hand is severed, laying on the floor in a thumbs down.

The sixth is two panels. One, smaller, has a line trailing to the severed hand and just shows a pair of burning eyes. The second is bigger, with a line trailing out from the thumbs up, and shows the planet aflame, with the glowing rings starting to come into existence around it.

The images all start to circle, and the sixth one links up beside the first to show it's a loop.

[sustainer]

He watches the display, taking in as many details as possible as it cycles through once, twice. On the third go around, he reaches up to point out the flaming orb.

"What are these rings around the planet?" All frustration has vanished from his voice now that she's provided him with something. It's a clearer vision of what goes on then he's gotten so far, and he's still looking at each panel even as he asks the question.

[wizardseason]

"They're the spell we tried to cast." She answers, looking up at the panels as well. She motions up at the first, second, and sixth panels where the rings are.

"It's still going, resetting the cycle every year."

[sustainer]

"And who is that?" he asks, pointing towards the eyes beside the thumbs down. He's back to just taking the information in, trying to piece is all together with what he knows.

[wizardseason]

Her gaze drifts slowly towards the eyes that he's motioning at. Her smirk stays solidly in place as she prepares to answer.

"You'll meet them tomorrow." She answers, returning to the vague realm of non-answer answers she's been dwelling in.

1/2

[sustainer]

"Oh." How annoying.

[sustainer]

But it does bring him to probably the most important question of the night. He gestures up at the changing images, and turns a pointed eye onto her.

"Where are the children, in all this? Your whole... plan?"

[wizardseason]

"Some of the children are right here." She answers, before turning away from him to look at the other pedestals. "Others haven't found their way back yet."

[sustainer]

He...... hates that. He's had his suspicions since earlier today, but his stomach drops when she says that. He hates to just make assumptions when she's being so vague, but there are not a lot of other answers that he can see right now.

"Are they the monsters?"

[wizardseason]

Why beat around the bush with this answer?

"Some of them are."

[sustainer]

Did the air get cold? Gyre's demeanor certainly frosts over, his expression going hard and dark. He takes a step towards her, his hands tensing into fists.

"What does that mean?"

[wizardseason]

"It means there are four of the children in this room, and there are twenty more out there." She watches him, curious what he's going to do with his emotions here.

"But they're all only pieces of one whole."

[sustainer]

He's going to get mad! The shift takes a moment as he processes that first bit there. The second she calls them pieces though, he completely loses his composure.

"They're children! You want us to fucking kill kids??" he shrieks, and his hand swings out to absolutely belt her across the face. This is not the tact to take with Gyre!

[wizardseason]

She lets him have his outburst, but when he swings at her he hits nothing but air. His hand passes through nothing at all, like she's just a hologram, and she waits for him to process that before she speaks again.

"Tell me, Gyre, why are you angry?" She doesn't give a pause as she speaks, instead rapidfiring questions at him all at once as she approaches him. Then, all at once, she's physical and oppressive and he can't raise his hands anymore as she shoves into his personal space.

"Because you think they're being used? Because you think they're trapped? Because you think they're helpless? Because you think they're tools?" She brings a hand up, raising his chin so he can't look down at her. She finally stops advancing, holding him in place.

"Tell me."

[sustainer]

He doesn't expect her to escalate? She's always so calm, and she wants them on her side, right? When his hand goes through her, he's not surprised and he sighs, beginning to straighten. He's furious, but he also knows he can't do anything to her, and that initial spike of anger is passing through him.

Instead of letting him settle though, she's suddenly advancing on him. He moves to get his hands up between them protectively, but it's like something is holding his wrists down. He's trapped. He can't move his body, and while fear grips his chest for a moment, his brain also uh lights itself on fire. His anger returns doubled and then tripled again as she bombards him with questions instead of answering a single one of them. By the time she's finished, he snarls at her, barking, "Let-- go--!"

And he lifts his foot. To slam it into her chest.

[wizardseason]

This situation is important, and it's important that that not be glossed over. Fortunately for him, when he snarls and attempts to slam her in the chest his foot goes right through her and she disappears. He can move freely again, and she's standing about six feet away from him taking a sip out of her coffee. Instead of advancing or continuing to escalate, she just watches him calmly.

Take a second and reflect, Gyre. Then answer her question.

[sustainer]

He stumbles when his boot passes through her and then she's gone, completely imbalanced by the force he put behind it not meeting anything but air. He catches himself before he falls completely at least, hands out as his eyes dart around him. Trying to find her. When he does, he bares his teeth at her and retreats. Six feet is not enough in this moment, and he slides back to the edge of the circle, glaring deeply at her the entire time.

Only once he's there does he actually take a breath and try to process all that. His anger doesn't fade at all here. What she's told him is that they have to kill all the monsters, and that at least some of the kids are monsters. He has dealt nearly the killing blow on all of them, and the idea that she or the Protector or both of them have tricked him, and all the knights before him, into this is making his stomach twist into knots. And she has the pure audacity to sip coffee instead of explaining herself.

He thinks his disgust is completely justified, so no, he's not going to answer her question. He's going to demand, "You tell me. You're the one looking for allies."

[wizardseason]

She allows him his retreat, allows him his space. She's done escalating, and she wants answers. But he won't give them without something to bite at, so she'll give it to him to get him talking.

"They know the price better than anyone, and they understand the motions we have to go through to bring this cycle to an end." She explains, watching him.

"If you show them what you think is mercy, you'll be hurting them worse than the Protector is by keeping them here."

[sustainer]

There is this pure acidic hate in his eyes as she starts talking. How can she speak so calmly about children paying any price at all? Much less the price of dying. Dying for forty years straight. The mere idea of it makes him nauseous, and he's still furious when she finishes.

"How can that possibly be true!" he barks. He's still furious, but the fury is pulled off her very slightly. He doesn't know what happened back then, but the fact this was ever an answer that was on the table is so utterly disgusting to him.

[wizardseason]

Because she's spent forty years with these children, Gyre. They may have looked like children when he saw them, but their age is anything but that. She lets him be mad, watching him.

"They want this to end, they're tired of being used like pawns in some big game." She starts walking again, a slow pace around the circle as she repeats something she'd said before.

"And they are pawns. Pieces. Because someone decided it was easier to control something in smaller pieces than it is to control it as a whole."