LeavesHisPast swims across the cold water to the island, in lupus. He looks around as he recovers himself, feeling saddness well up within him. Fighting it down, he begins to search for Sepdet.
Sepdet is not immediately visible, when the arrival struggles drippingly ashore. For a few moments, there is only the sound of his own labored breathing and the slap of dripping water off of his fur. The island is strangely still, a tumble of rocks and stone and very ordinary bushes scrambling up and down paths, a few manzanita bushes and laurels and some taller trees. Closer observation reveals some burned patches, broken limbs, bushes ripped up or despoiled, but also signs of fresh trimming, some paths cleared away, and some piles of broken rock, ash, bones, and debris that have been swept into neat heaps.
Dante has the feeling he is being watched, and he can smell her scent close by. She steps out of a spray of laurels she was hiding in as he draws near, a broom in her hand.
LeavesHisPast slides into his birth form. "Hello, Sepdet." He pauses, his voice soft, his body wracked with exhaustion.
Sepdet grips the handle of the handmade broom and leans her cheek against it, looking down at him with a worn expression. ~Call before you come here,~ she says quietly. ~I won't keep out friends, but I do guard it now. I promised him I would.~
"I'm sorry." Dante looks up, with urgency is his tired expression. "I have a question, though, I don't understand something. Why... why did Dana tell me that Chloe consorted with demons?" For the first time since this whole incident began, there is a hint of doubt in his eyes - not huge, just the smallest glimmer.
Sepdet snorts. ~Oh. Because Dana was jealous of her. But there is a small truth behind that pain.~ She moves down to the flat beside him, picking her steps with care.
LeavesHisPast almost collapses at her words. Apparently, that's all he needed to hear, was a bit of reassurance. "I knew... knew she had to be mistaken. I just... didn't know why she'd lie to me."
Sepdet settles down on a rock and closes her eyes, remembering something that makes her breathing strained. ~It's not quite a lie, but it's not the whole truth. Let me tell you what I know of that.~ She is silent for a moment before mustering her thoughts. ~Chloe was rebuffed so often from hunting the Enemy with us that she always hunted alone. I remember that time. Jerran. She told me Brian's pack was going against Jerran soon, and Jerran was a powerful Warper of some sort, and she feared for Brian's life. So she said she would hunt Jerran first alone. I told her not to, but I told her not to come and help us at Lake Arthur either, and you see what happened there.~
LeavesHisPast smiles just a little. "She had to be willfull, to consort with the likes of us." Then he nods, listening.
Sepdet's grief chokes her voice for a moment, but she goes on. ~My fears were realized. Jerran did something to her, bound a demon-spirit to her. She became strange to me. She was -fighting- it, but I had not the skill to help her, and I knew if the Garou found out they'd slay her. Like Wyrmtaint, you know? So her mage-friends, in the end, had to rip it from her, and they thought little of her for getting herself into such a foolish spot. But there is -one- lie you will hear on this which is not true.~
LeavesHisPast leans forward to hear her words.
Sepdet opens her eyes and looks at him with a trace of bitterness. ~Brian's pack did go and fight Jerran, and brought back his head. But they also said Chloe was there, serving Jerran, at his side, mocking Brian. Or at least the -shape- of her was. And this I know is -not- true. Because she was with me that whole night. I was holding her, trying to help her find a way to heal herself. Jerran was a Warper. He must have used some trick to give Brian pain, make him think Chloe betrayed him. Ask Brian this: he shall tell you what his pack saw, what Steven and Megan both believe to this day.~ She grimaces bitterly. ~Maybe Dana saw the same thing. I don't know. I know the Lady was half under Jerran's control, but that night, at least, she was still with Gaia.~
LeavesHisPast sits up straight, a bit reenergized. "Thank you, Sepdet. That explains a lot. I do not need to ask Brian, I believe you. And I also believe in redemption. That which can be cleansed, should be cleansed." He smiles, his confidence returning.
From afar, to the room, Brian pops on briefly, to check +mail. I should be back on later, in a couple of hours.
Sepdet holds her knees. ~She wasn't innocent. Twice in all her years hunting the Wyrm, she was caught and turned away from us. But she never -betrayed- us. She never struck a Garou while she was tainted, or gave away our secrets, or caused us injury. She only injured herself. And the one time she wasn't able to free herself from the taint on her, she came to this island, offered herself to the spirits and the Garou for culling. She bared her throat. Quiet ripped it open. The Purity spirit that lived here, the one the Dancers killed, said, 'Live' and accepted the sacrifice, and healed her free of taint.~ The Strider's eyes harden. ~She would never have slipped even once, if she'd been allowed to hunt the Wyrm at our side. I've been tainted too, you know, and it was she who brought me back to Gaia. The last time only seven days ago.~
LeavesHisPast pages: Must have been some mean ol' GM who did that to you.
You paged Dante with 'Heh. Somehow when I'm IC I forget OOC stuff sometimes, and I'd honestly forgotten it was you. :)'.
Dante responds, "Who among us is truly innocent? Who can claim they live a life of purity, untouched by the Wyrm? None. None who are not a hypocrite or an infant." His self-confidence builds again as he speaks.
Sepdet's shoulders hunch. ~Actually,~ the Strider corrects herself softly. ~She -was- innocent. That's why she'd take on any danger alone, to heal or protect her loved ones. Sometimes she paid a high price for it. Sometimes the enemy won a round against her. Sometimes I thought I was going to lose her to the Wyrm, because of the risks she took. Sometimes I thought I'd have to kill her, when her magic and mine wasn't enough to erase the Enemy's wounds on her. But somehow she always managed to keep with Gaia, hang on until she could be free again, even when a vampire had its fangs at her throat or a Warper stronger than herself had her bound to him. In the end it was the Garou who proved more deadly than all the Dancers, mad Warpers, or vampires she dared to face unaided.~
The new moon looks up at the elder Strider. He doesn't respond with words, just a soft, empathetic smile.
Sepdet reaches down stiffly to pick up a stray flake of ash, then stands and moves to the water's edge to crumble the dust and cast it on the water. ~Other Garou would not have tried to help her as I did. They would have culled her. I knew she was fighting it, the two times it happened, and I knew her heart was still with Gaia even while the enemy was trying to take her from us. But I can't prove that. That is what the Garou will say she deserved to die for, long ago. That is why they will say her death is justified. They hold a few mistakes against a lifetime of good, and years more that she might have served Gaia.~ The Strider looks back at Dante darkly. ~Like Derrick, you know?~
The Gaian looks back evenly. "And if they do say that?"
Sepdet turns back towards the thin and little-used path above the water's edge and kneels, feeling the rock and small patches of moss and dirt for blemishes left over from the Dancers' short time here. ~I cannot change Garou,~ she says with the calm of one who sees a train bearing down on them. ~Steven calls me traitor, and means to kill me, and I am not strong enough to beat him. Perhaps, first, Nightflash will come and challenge me over her grave, and I will have to throw myself under his claws instead. My name will be dishonored in the caern. But I will die doing what I was meant to do. Healing a place and honoring the dead. And I will not seek vengeance, because I am a Healer, like Chloe, and we do not take the blood of other Garou no matter how richly deserved.~ She touches the raven's feather now braided into her hair.
Dante stands up, "You've given up, then? That's how you're remembering her?" His voice softens, "Are you hoping to see her again in the afterlife?"
Sepdet shakes her head. ~Striders disappear when they die,~ she says patiently. ~I will not see her again. But I will no longer walk Wolverine's path. For the past three years, Dante, I have raged that fools like Nightflash took my hunts away from me, Steven mocked me, Brian himself insulted me and favored Fostern of half my experience over my scars and service. I decided I would fight challenges to my honor. I would not take the scorn a mule is used to shouldering. But that anger led me to Wolverine. The only way I can defend myself, defend her memory, is to pluck out the eyes of those who are blind. I have two choices: fight my tormentors with all the rage and anger that makes them blind, or go back to the way I used to be. A healer and a mule who takes scorn mutely and serves Gaia and doesn't try to fight for herself.~
"And there is no middle path?"
From afar, Dante . o O (You don't seem very mute to me...) ;)
Sepdet's mouth quirks tiredly. ~I will keep my eyes open for it.~
Long distance to Dante: Sepdet heh. Player types too much.
Dante walks over and touches the Strider, briefly. "I have my thoughts, my beliefs, my desires about this... but then, I am not you. You are older, wiser... I'm just some silly new moon cliath." He pauses, wetting his lips. "But, would you indulge a boy to speak about his own life?"
Sepdet nods a little tiredly. ~If you will walk with me.~ She starts heading back up towards the shelf where she was working before he arrived.
LeavesHisPast nods, and starts to walk with the elder. He unhooks the small leather ring from his beltloop - the one that holds his tokens. First, he shows a small metallic coyote charm. "My birth name was Laughing-Coyote. This reminds me of my home, of where I came from. It shines like the setting sun behind a thundercloud rising over the moutains, ready to pour its rain on the unforgiving desert ground."
A glimmer of a smile crosses the Strider's features and she nods recognition, fondness for the totem he names. She holds out a branch of one of the bushes for him to step through, moving mindfully in this place. Then she climbs across to a flat space of rock where all the moss and lichen and dirt and plants have been ripped away. The rock face is blackened in a few places, but it's clear that it's been swept clean of ash. An ugly Dancer-glyph has been carved into the stone there, and she kneels down behind it.
The second thing Dante shows is a Naval Aviator pin. "This was my father's. He died at sea, in the service of his country. It reminds me of my ancestors and of all those who have died in noble sacrifice for their people and what they believed in."
Sepdet picks up her leather water-skin and sprinkles the burned spots and the glyph, then she braces the broom against her shoulder with one hand and uses it to scrub at the rock, throwing her body's weight into it. The other hand she clenches into a fist, and uses her own fingers to rub at the surface and pick ash out of the cracks. She continues to listen while she works, not looking at him so very often, but with a sympathetic tightness in the set of her mouth and eyes. ~Honor to the fallen,~ she murmurs reflexively.
Thirdly, Dante shows a cute, if battered, keychain sized 'Pound Puppy.' "This is a reminder of my days in Cavall. It was a time I was in need and in pain and I had friends who did not care about who I was or where I came from, but just cared about giving me comfort."
Sepdet again nods slightly, an echo of his sentiments making her purse her lips silently with memory as she continues to work. She seems subtly more comfortable even while her shoulders are knotted against the homely task of scrubbing: her movements are freer, unstiffened, and there's a hint of the little dance she used to make of living.
Finally, the new moon shows the small Kokopelli icon. "This is Kokopelli, the healer. He reminds me of my healing in the Homeland... and what it means to be a true Child of Gaia, and that we Garou should not just be about /defending/ the Mother, but about recovering what has been lost - and cleansing the evil from her sacred body."
Sepdet grimaces. ~Some of you have forgotten that,~ she says tightly, applying herself a little more aggressively to the stone.
Dante glances over at Sepdet. "Perhaps they have. But I have not, and will continue to walk the path as I see it. Perhaps that is the liberty of the new moon."
Sepdet stops moving for a moment and casts her eyes towards the heart of the island. ~'The battle shall not be fought with tooth and claw, but in the hearts and minds of the Garou.' Horus-rhya's words, before he fell. The sept is losing that battle, Dante. They do the Wyrm's work with their hearts, as often as they defeat its enemies with their claws.~
You paged the room with 'Er, defeat 'our' enemies. Freudian slip there'.
Dante says "I would go a step further and say it is in the hearts and minds of all people, Garou and human. And, yes, I know how the battle goes, and yet I choose to go on. I'll work, I'll fight, I'll speak and teach the cubs as best I can. And, hopefully, one day, I'll be an elder who guides the sept... and hopefully I'll still have the energy to do so." He pauses. "And if I go down for my beliefs before then, then so be it. But you better damn believe I'm not going to be resigned about it."
Sepdet sighs. ~On another day, Dante, I would get out the "pom poms" for you, and tell you how very important that is. But you'll have to pardon me. Just now there's this mark I need to get out of the rock.~
Sepdet gets up and moves quietly across the cleared area to gather up a pair of stones, one large, one chipped roughly into a wedge-shape. She brings them back over to settle down beside the glyph and set to work with chisel and crude hammer.
Dante rests his hand on the Striders shoulder for a brief minute. "I know, Sepdet. And you will again, when you're ready. I love you, friend, daughter of Owl." Of course, he says this in a sibling love sort of way. Then he slides into lupus and heads off.
Sepdet looks after the Gaian with a bemused expression. ~Go well, Coyote's child.~