Petals drifted down from the blossom on the Tree of Eschaton.
“What’s wrong with Blue?”
“The Caldera is so cold all of a sudden.”
“What was that about Port Anell?”
The root of the blossom began to swell, protected by the leaves of the Tree.
“I can’t believe she’s gone.”
“Blue barely says anything. I know he’s in mourning, but I still worry.”
Deep within the nascent fruit, light flickered. Deep within the light, thoughts moved sluggishly. Dreams punctuated by words from the outside, touched by glimpses of a world where time slid by. Sometimes the dreams turned inward, a slow and swirling contemplation. Wind rustled the leaves of the tree.
“Miss Taelah, we have some questions for Mister Blue.”
“I’ll ask, sweetie, but I don’t know if he’s going to be very helpful right now.”
The sun rose and set.
“What do I tell everyone who’s asking about Port Anell?”
“That they’re lucky. I’ve done worse for less cause.”
Birds flew. Fish swam.
“I’m going to need you to talk to the Leviathans. Uilei-nktik is calling Blue about the refugees.”
“Very well. I suppose it can’t be any more intimidating than dragons! I know she liked Uilei-nktik, anyway.”
Grass grew.
“Aww, they’re adorable!”
“I know! Blue sounded almost normal when he saw them, but any father would be cheered up seeing his kids.”
The fruit grew, sheltered in the boughs of the Tree where the mind and mana within slowly spun, experience and memories condensing inward.
“I’m surprised we haven’t seen any refugees from the Underneath.”
“At this point I doubt anyone is even left down there in this part of the world.”
The sun spun over the Caldera, shining down on the shimmering leaves of the Tree.
“Congratulations! He looks just like you!”
“Thank you. I might ask you to babysit every once in a while. I have nurses for that of course, but the Caldera and the Village are something special.”
The fruit ripened, coiled red and blue under a glossy surface.
“It’s been almost a year. I’m worried.”
“He’s an immortal. Sometimes that alters how you view the world.”
The fruit fell.
VENGEANCE HAS BEEN TAKEN!!!!!!!!!!!!
How much of Port Anell has been destroyed though?
This is oddly unsatisfying in a....complete...sort of way.
Sounds like a very large hole if they are worried about refugees from the underneath.
Suddenly more than doubling the timeline.
Yeah, a very dramatic time skip considering how condensed the time frame had been before
This... Was a bit of an odd way to initiate a time-skip. I understand that narratively you might have wanted to have a time where Blue just has to chill for a while and let events/time progress but that could have been done a variety of different ways.
Given how unique Blue is, there could just have been a reason for him to go into semi-hibernation mode for some reason. Given that she is part of him, that could have even extended to Shayma if we wanted her out of commission for a time as well.
Blue and Shayma have ready access to teleportation and a variety of other methods and have liberally used them in the past so the whole encounter was just a bit off. I don't remember Blue or Shayma ever caring about not jarring people with a teleport for instance, kids or no kids. At the very latest when things started getting aggressive with Talia that feels like something he would have instantly resorted to, as he has done in the past. Neither exactly shied away from a take "throw in jail first, ask questions later" approach in the past either. Doesn't matter how much void she has, being in some isolated chamber far away from anything else doesn't really allow her any avenue of escape, especially once you throw in a couple of fields.
Ah well, anyways, tis what it is, no point complaining about it.
This was wyite the case forcing a narrative. While I understand the narrative direction and intention for the story, to reach this point there have simply been far to many leaps in judgement and logic.
From the very start at the conflict with the void user there has simply been far to many alternatives presented throughout the story that Blue as an example could have used to deal with the situation. Displacing oxygen, manipulating space not directly relevant to the void elements influence, displacing both of them out of danger etcetc.
While it provides a 'knee-jerk' type of satisfaction it's cheap writing. Something that suprised me considering the skill of the author. I do believe that the planned effect and outcome the author desired is something quite attractive to the story, the execution just leaves a lot to be wished for.
Everyone is a general after the battle.
Sushi potato