Have the golden arrow, or, come back to life in a burst of flame. He was standing right there. He knows you're a phoenix. It's probably the only thing he approves of, about you. ( But, she says it with a shrug. )
[Oh. There's a lot in that, a series of worries to knot together and keep among the rest of his anxieties.]
The second one. But... Is. Are you okay with that? Not having his approval, I mean? [Having him around changes their relationship. And shouldn't it? She finally has her father back. She's a little more whole. Maybe she doesn't need as much.]
Landon. He knows I love you. That's enough for him. He sat here for me for almost twenty four hours. If he didn't think you were worth it? If he didn't care?
I don't want to embarrass you either. [ he's nowhere close to Hope's impossible backstory. It was different when they were all just misfits together. Her father is a reminder that she's basically a princess. It's hard to work through, and really he'd rather work through it by stuffing it into a box until it ceases to be a real emotion. ]
But we should drop it. You're right about the arrow being here. But there's something different about it.
[He lets the subject drop. If they keep talking about it, she's just going to say more things that she thinks he wants to hear instead of acknowledging the divide between them that he can't shake until he's good enough. He just has to keep getting stronger, and maybe then...]
We could be happy about that, but -- it's different now. I think it's more powerful here.
You think the golden arrow is more powerful here. How. Why? We don't know that, Landon. It could have no power.
( she doesn't know one way or the other, but, she doesn't want to find out. does he? )
I don't need a demonstration. I don't need to experiment. Let's just keep it hidden.
( while she personally works to destroy it. that's an idea that comes to her that she doesn't voice. it doesn't need to be down here but she refuses to believe what it can do, that it could have more power here.
It has more than no power. [There's something resigned in his tone; it's something he's been considering privately for a long time now.] It's... hot. It doesn't melt anything around it, but it burns when I touch it.
The knife's here too. I don't know if it's related. At least that much seems normal about it.
( she's brought her hand down, walked away, trying to gather her thoughts. )
Stop touching it!
( if it's that bad. she turns back. ) The knife, the arrow. I will take them. And we just won't touch them. We'll forget they're there and we won't tell anyone we have them, okay?
Hope, you're acting like I haven't been handling it for months already. They're fine where I have them. I'll let you know if I get the feeling that someone's trying to open up a Malivore portal over my bed, but I think we're as safe as we can be.
More than no. ( She plays that back. ) I feel like the way I speak is rubbing off on you. I caught that wrong, but, we do nothing with them, okay? Leave them where they are. As far as we know, all the knife does is open a portal that doesn't exist here.
That was the plan so far. And as far as I know, it only ended up with me because it was inside me when I died. Maybe... the knife was another part of it? I don't know how long I was -- unconscious -- before I got pulled in here.
[Maybe Raf and the Necromancer stopped to do a few rituals. Maybe there was something else. It's uncomfortable not knowing.]
No, I don't think it's that logical. I mean, I ended up with Vardemus' therapy box and an ascendant. I was inside one and related to the other, I helped power it, but so did thirty witches. But, it came with me. So, maybe it's just about ... how it relates to us. Or, the power that these hold is so great - and useless - that they came in with us.
( She hopes it's that and there's nothing dagger-related connected to Landon's fate. )
It needs more power, but, yes. An ascendant, basically, sends someone somewhere else through a portal. Usually a linked prison world. The chances that this ascendant could get us anywhere are slim, and even if it could, it would get us back to a prison world that collapsed. Or, maybe it didn't because for Josie and Lizzie that hasn't happened yet?
( It's hard not to talk herself in a circle about this. )
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[Is he okay with his daughter bringing home corpses?]
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The second one. But... Is. Are you okay with that? Not having his approval, I mean? [Having him around changes their relationship. And shouldn't it? She finally has her father back. She's a little more whole. Maybe she doesn't need as much.]
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( He wouldn't have. )
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But we should drop it. You're right about the arrow being here. But there's something different about it.
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( She brings a hand to his cheek, trying to impart this on him. That's not how she sees him and she hopes that's not how he sees himself. )
What, it's not what everyone's suddenly after? I think we should be happy about that, don't you?
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We could be happy about that, but -- it's different now. I think it's more powerful here.
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( she doesn't know one way or the other, but, she doesn't want to find out. does he? )
I don't need a demonstration. I don't need to experiment. Let's just keep it hidden.
( while she personally works to destroy it. that's an idea that comes to her that she doesn't voice. it doesn't need to be down here but she refuses to believe what it can do, that it could have more power here.
she's not thinking along those lines. )
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The knife's here too. I don't know if it's related. At least that much seems normal about it.
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Stop touching it!
( if it's that bad. she turns back. ) The knife, the arrow. I will take them. And we just won't touch them. We'll forget they're there and we won't tell anyone we have them, okay?
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[Maybe Raf and the Necromancer stopped to do a few rituals. Maybe there was something else. It's uncomfortable not knowing.]
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( She hopes it's that and there's nothing dagger-related connected to Landon's fate. )
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( It's hard not to talk herself in a circle about this. )