01x04 - Scourge

[bunniefuu]

To live is to suffer

No, not that one.

It's not quite ripe.

It needs just a day more sun,

or it'll taste bitter.

How can you tell, da?

The trees taught me,

just like they'll teach you.

Now this one This one is just perfect.

Every sweetness of existence

is a seed of future grief.

What's that?

Da?

Pain and darkness

Thyr!

Loss and betrayal.

They are always there

Just waiting to bloom.

Thyr!

Thyr!

I need you to find somewhere

Somewhere I saw in a dream.

A dream Or a memory?

I

I'm not sure.

For this, I shall add to your debt.

Let me gaze into the depths of your mind.

That's not as I saw it in my dreams.

In your dream you saw the past.

Now it is different.

It lies in Ghyran,

in the depths of the realm's heart.

A tainted place.

Heavy with the Plague Father's pollution.

And its skies are blighted.

What are you seeking there?

This will lead me there?

It will.

You intend to go alone?

Hmm.

That does not seem wise.

That's because it isn't.

This is not your concern, Hendrick.

Is it not?

Disregarding the fact my duty

is to advise as well as obey

Ignoring that such an expedition alone

is a risk

Excepting all of that,

how could a friend not be concerned.

This is not a sanctioned mission.

It's personal.

I know. You're hunting memories.

Not just memories.

A Kurnothi hunter brought me this

from the Ghyran Heartlands.

Hmm.

What is Thyr?

Not what, who.

I can't remember, but

I think, before,

I was close to finding out who I was.

Who I am.

Thyr

I've been having dreams of her.

Of how she died.

- Neave

- I think she is

I think she was me.

It's as if it's calling

to something inside of me

And now she's shown you where Thyr lived?

No, where she died.

Neave, I've said this before.

Leave the past alone.

Who you are now is

all that matters. This

this quest for the past

will only break you apart.

The Anvil takes what it takes.

Accept that. Accept the present.

I can't.

I need to know who I was, Hendrick.

You can't give me my past.

No one can.

I have to find it myself.

I see that my counsel will not stop you.

I will face the consequences,

just as I will face whatever is out there.

But I am going.

And I'm coming with you.

Don't even think of arguing.

Thank you, old friend.

Tell no one of this.

The pain ends

They left me impaled

on the trees I had tended.

They forced me to watch

as everything I had grown, rotted.

They forced me to listen

as hunger and plague

consumed those who still lived.

Do you know what it sounded like?

Not cries, not pleading.

Just air passing through

blistered throats,

bubbling in lungs filling with pus

It sounded like water

boiling dry over a fire

then quiet falling,

one failed gasp at a time.

I did not die

Hours, days, years

all passed.

No heroes came to save me.

No golden god

reached down to ease my pain.

My flesh withered

and the tree grew through me

It drank from the rot of my life

and it sustained me.

And as it did, I saw the truth.

Existence is cruel,

and the more you care,

the more it will hurt.

You can either embrace that cruelty,

or you can be its victim.

And as I accepted that truth,

for the first time I knew

that I would suffer no more.

Please

It was a gift. Bitter, but true

A gift I offer to you,

as it was offered to me.

The pain will it really end?

It ends.

The suffering, though

That is eternal.

But that suffering will not be yours.

The taint of the Plague God

lies heavy on this place.

You did not need to be here.

We must be cautious, that is all.

It was different once

I see few signs of defences,

no walls, just terraces for cultivation

Foolish to build a settlement here.

This is the Heartland of Ghryan,

the most stable part of the realm.

They thought they were safe

They wanted to make a life.

You remember that?

I understand it.

I think we are close.

Neave Where is Neave?

The Blacktalon-Prime is not here

It's coming.

Plague and ruin. Coming here

Shakana! Light of Azyr, you're alive!

We thought the blighted skies would

Neave Where's Neave, Rostus?

I don't know. I haven't

There are plague seeds coming

to Hammerhal.

Shakana, steady.

What are you talking about?

Before the Hag Queen cut my throat,

she told me

The Khainites did not k*ll our agent.

It was someone else.

Rostus, someone is coming.

Coming for Hammerhal.

But

You must listen.

- Lorai, I

- Now.

The plague fruit I took

from the tainted human

It's growing.

That can't be.

We k*lled the plague lord

that created this fruit.

Orimos wasn't its creator.

He was a pawn.

Vindessa said the enemy was called Thysis.

Thysis?

He's bringing his plague seeds here. Now.

If Thysis is the creator of the fruit,

we must k*ll him.

Yes. k*ll the tree and the fruit withers.

And we save the people of Hammerhal.

We need Neave.

The Blacktalon-Prime went hunting

for a dream

What? Where's Hendrick?

The Silver Wolf watches her back.

Lorai, please.

Where are they?

The place that grew this fruit.

Hmm.

Then it must be a trap.

We go after her. Now.

What about the plague seeds?

What about the people of Hammerhal?

Get word to Lord-Commander Carthalos.

Tell him what's coming. Warn him.

- Shakana

- Neave would come for us

no matter what.

Thyr did not die here.

They were fleeing

Lives discarded.

Shouts, screams

She protected them

But she-

No I.

I could not hold all the enemy back.

I ran, and

There was a shadow.

A horned shadow

It was here.

The skies are cursed and blighted.

The storm will carry you

to where she went, but not to her side.

We'll manage.

Remember. Carthalos.

With thunder and by lightning.

Neave!

Neave, you need to stop.

You are losing hold of the present.

The Horned Shadow

It came for me.

A m*rder*r of heroes.

It came here because of me

I am the reason it happened

Neave. Don't go any further.

I fought

I tried to shield them, but

I fell, here.

But I can still see it.

I shouldn't be able to if I

Neave, stop.

You need to stop. Please!

If I died here, why can I remember more?

Neave, go no further.

You don't need to remember more.

You are who you are.

I was not her.

I was not Thyr.

I

I am so sorry, Neave

But you will not remember this.

Revenge

I have transcended

life's lies and shackles,

but I confess the hunger

for revenge still clings to me.

I don't see them

Something isn't right here.

Shakana!

Revenge is coming, though.

As it was promised to me.

Hendrick, what's happened?

Where's Neave?

There are no heroes.

Under every golden lie,

there is a seed of darkness

And eventually,

every seed bears fruit.