[There's very nearly a scattered laugh on Kratos's next breath. Out of Niflheim itself. What makes you think we're not already there?
[The varied and sundry reasons why they hadn't been able to destroy that fell place four thousand years ago all boiled down to one thing -- the fact that the three of them together, even as beings of light, had not been able to penetrate the darkness of that cursed dimension. By then, their beings had been too suffused with bitterness and despair for their light to reach the deepest paths of hell. The last time Kratos had been there ...
[He shivers and grips Yuan's shirt tighter, letting out a noise of objection. He doesn't want to think about that; about the imprints their beings might have left in dimensions under this one.
[Just hold on. He can do that, maybe. He's done it for fifteen years, for lack of any other path before him. It hurts; every moment still hurts. But Yuan's managed to draw him some ways out of the pit that is his mind. Turned outward, it's easier for Kratos to cling to the comforting sense of Yuan's mana, and listen to Lloyd's worried voice, note the presence of his life; just a note, like Kratos is afraid to go near in case the potential future shatters.
[What my son must think of me ... An unintentionally aired thought. What must Lloyd think, of a father so broken? A son isn't meant to have to care for his father. He would be better off with the dwarf.]
no subject
[There's very nearly a scattered laugh on Kratos's next breath. Out of Niflheim itself. What makes you think we're not already there?
[The varied and sundry reasons why they hadn't been able to destroy that fell place four thousand years ago all boiled down to one thing -- the fact that the three of them together, even as beings of light, had not been able to penetrate the darkness of that cursed dimension. By then, their beings had been too suffused with bitterness and despair for their light to reach the deepest paths of hell. The last time Kratos had been there ...
[He shivers and grips Yuan's shirt tighter, letting out a noise of objection. He doesn't want to think about that; about the imprints their beings might have left in dimensions under this one.
[Just hold on. He can do that, maybe. He's done it for fifteen years, for lack of any other path before him. It hurts; every moment still hurts. But Yuan's managed to draw him some ways out of the pit that is his mind. Turned outward, it's easier for Kratos to cling to the comforting sense of Yuan's mana, and listen to Lloyd's worried voice, note the presence of his life; just a note, like Kratos is afraid to go near in case the potential future shatters.
[What my son must think of me ... An unintentionally aired thought. What must Lloyd think, of a father so broken? A son isn't meant to have to care for his father. He would be better off with the dwarf.]