The Forgotten Zodiac

"That's great," Verolen grinned. He patted L'arc (perhaps a little roughly) on the shoulder, smiling away. "But uh," He said under his breath, glancing sideways at Sylas. "What are we gonna do about him? We can wait until after the ceremony, but...well, the thing that Rush had in mind is less than pleasent. It's not as bad as last time, but...it'll be tricky."

"What did Rush have in mind?" L'arc asked, his voice lowering and trying to make it slightly obvious that Sylas should not be listening. Of course, that could just as easily backfire and draw Sylas in to the conversation, but the human usually respected what L'arc wanted, so he thought it would work. He glanced over at Sylas and frowned apologetically, and turned back to Verolen. "Doesn't involve... what I had to do last time, does it? And please don't say it's worse than that."

"Well, yes and no. It's worse than that, but it's not...quite...that." Verolen muttered. "Rush said he can make a potion that would make him remember, but...emotionally, it would be like him experiencing all the stuff he forgot all over again. All at once. Memories and emotions and everything else. He won't gain any wounds from it, and he'll be no worse for wear by the end of this, but...it'll be extremely taxing on him, and...it might not even work. Rush said there was one other way, but...that one involves making him scared. And I don't mean like, a simple startle. We'd have to make him truly terrified of something in order for the trick to work. Rush said that would absolutely work, but...it'd be more difficult."

"...I don't know which sounds like the better option," L'arc said. He paused. "You don't reckon we should ask him, do you?" he asked, glancing over to the human.

"I haven't the foggiest what he would prefer, honestly. But he can't be scared of something if he knows it's not going to hurt him. So asking him about that...well, it kinds defeats the purpose." Verolen pointed out, then sighed. "You honestly should pick for him. All considering, he's not in his right mind...so..."

"...yeah, but... I... don't know what to do. What would you do? Flip a coin?" L'arc asked, obviously struggling. "Scare him to death or scare him to death, it sounds like to me... and niether sounds pleasent."

"Personally...I'd go with the one that's more sure to work." Verolen murmured. "But...to make him scared...we may have to 'abandon' him somewhere. The pain of being left alone will make him forget about us. All of us. So...he'll forget everything. But then we jump him and make him scared, maybe rough him up a little if we have to, then Rush hits him with the spell...and he'd remember everything again."

"...that's a sure-fire method, right? I'd... I'd hate it if I did anything to make him worse. What if he doesn't recover? I'd...." L'arc trailed off, unsure how to finish the sentence. He frowned deeply and closed his eyes. "Unless there's no way it can fail..."

Verolen opened his mouth, then closed it and sighed. "We'll have Rush cook up the poison. Both can't fail...it depends on the person. If Sylas really does forget who we are, and doesn't remember after the spell, then we'll force-feed him the potion and make him remember. One will fail and the other will work. It's the best we have."

L'arc's expression went from sour to grim, but he said nothing against the plan. "...after the coronation, right? I'm sure it'll take Rush long enough to make the potion without feeling like he's on a time constraint. I think we should just take things one at a time," he suggested.

Verolen blinked at L'arc, then nodded. "After, before, what's important is getting it back. Better sooner than later, but...like you said. One at a time." He smiled slightly. "Don't worry about it until then, okay? I'll get Rush on the potion. You just...stay with Sylas until then. All's normal."

"All's well," L'arc agreed with a nod, before turning away and trying to look inconspicuous as he made his way over to Sylas. Byrne was sitting nearby, turning his arm this way and that, still trying to get used to his new limb.

((Do you want me to tell you my plans, or did you have plans? You should have plans.))

Sylas was nearby, watching him quietly. Before L'arc made it over to him, he questioned, "How've you been holding up, Byrne? Everything okay?" He smiled slightly. "Want some fruit? I brought some apples from the palace. They're my favorite." He offered one of the fruits to his friend.

((OF COURSE I HAVE PLANS.

HAHA.

HA.))

Byrne looked over at Sylas, then grinned and nodded. Out of the whole group, he and Israel were probably the quietest, but that didn't mean they didn't get along with others. Of course, now Kendra was in competition for the role of least-talktative, but they didn't really know her well enough to say.

"Sure, thanks, Sylas. Been meaning to track down some lunch. How'd the council go?" he asked.

"Fine enough," L'arc said, nodding. "They weren't hostile or anything. I didn't expect them to be, but you never can be sure when you throw things like this on people."

((-hugs-))

"I was kind of expecting them to start throwing things back," Sylas chuckled as he handed over the apple. He pulled one from his bag for himself, quite happy to bite into the delicious fruit. "Aw man, fresh-grown fruits...that palace is becoming more and more like home, y'know?"

"The forest will always be home, though," L'arc said, having flopped into a nearby hammock. He inhaled deeply and turned on his side to face Sylas. "There's nothing like it," he said.

"Can't deny that," Sylas sat down beside L'arc's hammock, smiling happily. He didn't want to lie down, but he wasn't about to leave L'arc's side. "You ever wonder what they're like, though? Human cities? Aside from, you know, the stench..."

"I can tell you about them," Byrne said, sitting up a bit more. "Some of them are nice. The place dad and I lived was kind of  a slum, but there are some really nice cities closer to the ocean that have been established for longer. All paved roads and merchants doing their thing and stuff like that."

Sylas made a face. "Merchants? Even in big cities?"

"Not all merchants sell slaves, Sylas," Verolen pointed out from the other side of the room.

"Oh. What kinds of things do they sell, then?"

((Silly Sylas.

Also, I've realized that the Forest is basically a functioning, uncorrupted system of communism. Communism is the best form of government, technically. The issues with it come with the greed of people and thus corruption. The forest has none of that corruption. I like this realization.))

((Hehe.))

"Oh, food, clothes, stuff like that. Mom used to buy a lot of little jewels and give them to her friends as presents. I remember that," Byrne smiled a bit at the memory, before looking back to Sylas. "And all the buildings are tall."