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Whispers of Mhynt and Nova

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That struck a nerve. Mhynt's composure had a flash of clear pain again.

"Yes. Yes, I... know that," she said, clearly trying to find a caveat or defense, but coming up empty for a solid twenty seconds.

"...But I at least... have the opportunity to heal. Eventually. With time. I'm... I'll try to find help. It doesn't have to be Owen, or anything like that. He's helped me enough, and... and I know we've drifted too far apart. What... hurts," she let slip, "is how similar he still is."
 
Mhynt had to stop walking at that one, sighing to herself.

"...He was my light," she said quietly. "But now I lost him, and even my... my daughter, too. I'm sensitive to souls, due to my position in that world. So I can recognize someone I'd seen before, even if they were in another body. Another life. And... my daughter. She was lost during the war that sealed me in the Voidlands. Yet... so recently, I saw her again. Only... she didn't recognize me. It wasn't 'her' anymore. yet... I knew, I knew, she... intended for that. Some plan, just like her father."

Mhynt kept walking. She had a bitter smile.

"I was the only one too afraid to risk myself for the world. Maybe... this is my penance. I was left behind."
 
Nova walked along silently at first. Then, his gaze fixed ahead of him, he said.

"It's only a penance if you make it that way."

He stopped. His black feathers swayed back and forth. Nova blinked several times. "Sorry, I--"

Shaking his head, Nova exhaled. "There's a phrase that goes around my world. 'The spirit never forgets.'" He paused, his steps echoing around the cavern. "Even as we grow and change, the most important things remain close to us. But it's up to each of us... what we do with ourselves."

A sad laugh escaped his beak. "The others have... their own secrets, I imagine. But things are... on a very different scale for us. Sometimes it's just easier to think about Forlas than home." His dusty claws scraped across the rock. "Still, you've lived a very different life here than back home. So, if you're going to be free when you return... maybe you take that life in a different direction."

Not that he could know what that even looked like.
 
Mhynt smiled faintly at that. "Funny," she said. "Our worlds are so different, but... I've heard a phrase or two like that at home. Memories are Eternal. That's what we have, but... it's more like a warning. All our regrets, our what-ifs, our pains... They don't just go away. You can't escape them. You can only... find ways to heal. And in my case, hope that time may heal even the scars..."

Mhynt sighed.

"Eternal. It's a long time. I don't... know if I can face that. If anyone can, unless it's... one step at a time." she glanced at Nova. "In some ways, I... would envy a break from that.

"But... not enough to give up. Even if sometimes I... wish I could stop, just... stop... I can't. Maybe I should find a new direction... Nova." Mhynt's walking was more even. "Only if I make it that way... Thank you. I think... I'll understand that one day."
 
"Yeah." Nova clicked his tongue. He forced himself to crack a smile. "Even in your craziest fantasies, did you imagine that break would be a spaghetti western?"

He blinked several times. "Uhh... at least, that's what Dave's called it? I think?" A beat. "Between all the swearing."
 
"I don't think I've seen spaghetti since I've come here," Mhynt said with a pensive frown. "Maybe I'm out of touch... or maybe humans are stranger than I had imagined." She hummed thoughtfully. "Spaghetti without that void tinge sounds nice, though... The wheat they grew in the Voidlands always had that... ash as part of the soil."
 
Nova paused mid-step, as if he hadn't considered that the food had anything to do with things. "I mean I kinda figured Frontier Town wasn't the kind of place to serve good spaghetti. But maybe the big city?"
 
"Maybe," Mhynt said, tail flicking. "Maybe we--"

Mhynt abruptly started glowing. Seconds later, she returned to her Grovyle form--and her shadow stopped fizzling about. Seemed things were back to normal.

"...Right." She continued to walk. "Maybe we can try something like that. Talk about some foods we haven't been able to eat, and try them. Or make them. I'm decent at cooking. Resourceful, too."
 
And this time, the smile Nova offered was genuine. Yeah. I think... I'd like that."

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