Quoted By:
There is an understandably joyless mood hanging over you all as you return to the Hodgson Estate with Will, leaving him in the care of the now empty manor. You feel sorry for him, imagining the young man wandering aimlessly through the ancient manse with only a collection of pagan idols for company. You feel sorry for him, because you can imagine a world in which you fall into a very similar fate.
“I'll be fine,” Will assures you, seeing some small part of your dark thoughts in your face, “I've got some closure, as I said. Now, I just want to put this all behind me and get on with my life.”
“Well. Good luck to you, Master Hodgson,” you decide, with a silent inward shrug. You're certainly not going to force him to join you, if he's decided to do this by himself. Is he really that different to those men who devote their lives to plumbing the depths of the Demesne? He's chosen a different doom, that's all.
It leaves a bad taste in your mouth, all of it.
-
When you return to your home, you spend the first day or so in solitude. Much of it, you spend by a window looking out into the dense forest outside. Looking at the forest now, you automatically find yourself thinking about the mountains. Both are entirely indifferent to human affairs, both were ancient when men were young.
Eventually, your isolation is disturbed by a tentative knock at your door. “Isambard?” Ariel calls out quietly, “Are you decent? Or, failing that, are you fully dressed?”
“Fully dressed,” you reply, the glib response coming easily to your tongue, “Still working on the “decent” part.”
Ariel shows herself in, closing the door tightly behind her before sitting down on the edge of your bed with an easily familiarity. “I never want to go hiking again,” she announces with a low laugh, “It's been a while, but my legs still feel like they're about to drop off. I can't believe some people actually do this stuff for fun!”
You offer her a vague gesture in response. You know where this conversation is going.
“Speaking of fun...” she continues, “There was the small matter of our wager. You've not forgotten, I trust.”
“I've not forgotten,” you tell her, sitting down in a low chair at your desk and facing her, “Do you really think this is the time for something like that? A fun day out for everyone, doing... whatever it is that people do on fun days out. Really?”
“Yes, really,” Ariel insists, giving you a stubborn scowl, “It's a damn sight better than staying hidden away in your room like this. You need to get a bit more normalcy in your life, we ALL do. You'll lose your mind otherwise – and, if I'm being quite honest, you already look halfway there. Take a look at yourself in the mirror.”
Against your better judgement, you do as she asks – a haggard, wide-eyed ghoul stares back at you, gaunt and bloodless.
[1/2]
