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Ignia felt overwhelmed. Thancred’s heart and his actions said two entirely different things and it was giving her a headache. Everyone else was varying levels of frustrated or annoyed and desperately trying to comfort Minfilia. She could take time to herself to just feel . She hated burying her emotions in any way but her negativity wouldn’t help her daughter at all.
Y’shtola not recognizing her and the others, and the subsequent frustration (and Urianger was, of course, keeping secrets, because what else could he do. She could only trust that he was acting out of everyone’s best interests, as he always did) was her tipping point. She needed to get away from everyone and feel herself . The Greatwoods felt like a blessing because she could get away from everyone and not feel all the anger, frustration, sadness, or even happiness and joy from anyone else. It was just herself.
Ignia leaned back against the tree and slid down the tree trunk, ignoring how it scraped at her back. She pulled her knees up to her chest, burying her face in them as tears of frustration ran down her cheeks. Her tail curled around herself and she could feel her ears twitch every which way, listening for disturbances. She really didn’t want anyone to find her like this.
“My, my, what’s this?”
The miqo’te’s buried her face deeper into her knees and her arms tightened around her legs as she leaned away from the voice, recognizing the snarm in an instant, “Just go away. I don’t want to deal with you.”
“How harsh, I came here because you’re all the way out here alone,” She could sense the near void that usually made up Emet-Selch's presence lean back against the tree, on the side opposite her. As if he was giving her a semblance of privacy while still being close enough to pester her.
Thanks.
“What’s it to you?”
“You have your companions, your lover and even that slip of a girl you’ve taken in and yet, here you are,” She balled her hands, nails digging into her palm, “Don’t you usually go to that overgrown lizard when you’re like this?”
“Shut up!” Ignia shot to her feet, and she was rather sure her shout had echoed through the forest but she was so done with Emet-Selch, “I just wanted a moment to myself for once. Is that idea so novel to you?!”
“I assure you that time alone is a concept I am rather familiar with,” She froze for a moment, the bitterness coming through clearly against what was normally void. It was so rare to naturally feel emotion from the red-masked Ascians, it had been like that with both Lahabrea and Elidibus. That his bitterness, his loneliness, came through so clearly spoke of how powerful it was. Truly, so powerful was it that she took a step back, even while being unable to see Emet-Selch.
Ignia turned her head away from his direction, yet still mostly facing the tree dividing them, “I don’t know what your story is. But you’ve been watching us. You’ve seen some of ours...mine-”
She stopped mid-sentence and clutched her head, feeling the onset of a splitting headache-
“Emet! I have souvenirs!” Worry, joy, pride.
“After your recklessness, He---?! I had to stop Lahabrea from censuring you!” Franticness, “Why do you insist on depleting your already low aether?”
“I am merely doing my duty as --em,” Respect, adoration, “But awwww, you do care, H----!”
Frustration, love, “Of course I do, you’re my s-”
Without her realizing, Emet-Selch had made his way around the tree and gotten close enough to grab at her wrist, his grip nearly bruising as his touch pulled her out of the memories, “Do you so enjoy prying into people’s memories?”
“I don’t have a choice about it!” Rhalgar, her Echo was such a fickle thing. At least, it didn’t make her collapse as it once did. Now, she was simply a standing liability. Yes, it was arguable which was worse. But by the Twelve, she couldn’t tell if the anger radiating off her was her own or if it was coming from Ha-Emet Selch.
Twelve, those memories had messed with her far too much. She pulled her wrist back, clutching it with her free hand, “Just leave me alone!”
“You are little more than the embers of a once brilliant flame, Warrior of Light, ” Emet-Selch leaned in, glaring and Ignia just backstepped, the space barely allowing her to separate his anger from her own feelings, “But I cannot help but wonder just how far you fragments will go.”
“Then sit back and observe like you wanted to!” The miqo’te couldn’t help the yelling. One moment of peace, that was all she wanted and she was denied even that, “Do you just find joy in finding every way to pester us?”
“My, just-”
“Why don’t you get away from her,” The curt tone made the Ascian step away as a carbuncle stepped between them, hissing. Ignia winced at the powerful hostility radiating from the xaela who had come up from behind them. She knew it wasn’t directed at her but she was already feeling overwhelmed with all the emotions in the air.
The Ascian rolled his eyes, holding up his hands and watched as Mars put himself between them, “My, my. Let us not start a fight and attract every Sin Eater in the Greatwoods. I’ll take my leave now.”
“Hey, you can’t just-!” Mars couldn’t even finish what they were saying as Emet-Selch teleported away, disappearing into the darkness as he was wont to do. Immediately the anger, the bitterness that she hadn’t realized was near suffocating her was gone and Ignia could feel her knees buckle.
“Igni!” She heard Mars shout but she dodged their hand shooting out to help her and leaned against the tree. As she got her breath back, Ignia could tell that they had noticed the red around her wrist, “What did he do…?”
She shook her head, not wanting to start a fight, knowing someone would if they heard the full story, “‘M fine,” She could barely bring herself to speak right then, let alone to understand just what happened in that Echo but she could still feel the anguish and the loss that colored every memory Emet-Selch held.
Warm aether bumped against her leg, climbing up her back and wrapping around her neck. The tail that floated in front of her face smelled like gunpowder and jasmine and old books, and she could feel tension bleed out of her shoulders at the familiar scents, reminded of simpler times in Il Mheg with Thancred and Urianger.
“…let’s head back to Slitherbough, Igni.” Mars’ voice brought her back to reality. Yet, still unable to find her voice, she just nodded, setting Tonkotsu down to ground…and resisting every urge to pick him back up when he whined. She settled for petting his head, not realizing Mars was carefully watching the pair.
The miqo’te made her usual signal to go before blinking and realizing who she was with, “…go back.”
“Alright…” She was not thinking about the worry radiating from Mars or how close they walked with her on the way back to Slitherbough. Ignia was more surprised that it had taken this long for her voice to shut down like this. But she didn’t need to speak to fight at least.
In truth, Emet-Selch hadn’t gone far. Just only far enough to remain out of sight as he watched the au ra turn and well, worry and fret over the miqo’te, even if she brushed off all attempts to help her.
Only as the small Carbuncle leaped up and wrapped itself around her neck as though it were a scarf did Emet see a flash of times past. Two children he had cared for and a cat presented and loved and shared between family. Yet, he blinked and forced himself to ignore the hues of the soul, tainted with light yet still hauntingly familiar colors.
They were not Hestia and Ares. They were merely incomplete husks, unworthy of preserving the memory of the world he had once loved. Emet-Selch would see them returned to him in the end, perhaps long past this temporary truce.