Has silence taken you?

Have you lost your voice?
What must you know before delving into the unknown?
Do the heavens not sing with praise of your bravery?
Will you act before fate slips from your hands?





[UNSIGNED]
________________________

You'd like to think you know me
I can hit the holy note from my hymns
No fears of heights and no enemies
In the waters of optimism

With a Raven Quill Pen I leave indication
Something is telling me I’m out of time
The people cheered on, As I stand behind you
Hey don’t draw the line

I pass my Time at the table
Whispers wasted in the sand

Fifteen songs I'll learn to sing

Do you really think the heavens sing praises for someone like me?
Can one walk into the unknown without being blind to all that there is to see?
If it's fate, it will happen, will it not?
Or are you afraid that we have forgot?
Do you know how this story affects you and me?
Or is your desire to see us sing these songs blind curiosity?
Can you see how long we have thought about what's been penned?
And how these songs affect the stories on our end?
Can the scroll in my hands really bring back to me;
one of the people I really wish to see?
Or are we being used in some cruel fate;
where the only winner is you and for us it's too late?

I was not forced.

I had a hundred thousand moments where I could have chosen differently.

Just because there might not be a truly good outcome does mean there is not still a choice.

Why does the Arani not just intervene directly? They could have, just as easily changed these fates in the way the song did and by saying we will sing these songs, they more or less committed the effects of these songs to happen. However, as far as I know (please correct me if I am wrong), Arani cannot imbue...songs with their abilities.

However, Arani aren't the only race connected to fate are they?
There is hardly any information on them but Ordrim also have some sort of connection to Fate.

So, as I prepare to try and use how I changed fate to rescue someone I care about; these questions still spins in my brain:

Why does it take two beings capable of manipulating fate to accomplish this goal?
Why these subjects? How do these subjects connect to the larger picture?
Cennius, seemed to know the song was about him? Were these subjects aware of their connection? If not, how did Cennius know this song would help him?

Don't get me wrong, I am usually one to spit in the fact of not having a choice, but I'm now fully interested in the motivation behind this all and if only by singing the songs we will find out how these seemingly random players are acting upon this stage of fate, I think we should ensure that they are sung.

You know, I always wondered how that worked when there were lots of Arani around. Did they all go around shouting at each other, like children playing games of pretend, hoping that their voice would be loudest and their choices become shared reality? Can they see when others of their kind have meddled in something? Why didn't they just... talk the Null away, for instance? (No, no, don't nitpick this; I can see you all out there raising your quills to say that they didn't need to - perhaps not in this timeline, but in countless others, no Arani saved the world.) Presumably even sociopathic immortal entities wielding absolute power would like the world to stick around - and this one in particular seems to be on the general side of things continuing to exist, or he would not be shoving scrolls in our hands.

If it is so important that the power be released from these scrolls to accomplish some effect - this binding of Fate and Bardics to the new Weave, or defeating Necrophitus, or whatever - why doesn't this all-powerful being just speak aloud that it happens? I do not think for a moment that it's out of some kind of paternal "the mortals must do things on their own" sort of instinct. Perhaps a sadistic one; perhaps he enjoys watching us scramble. More likely, I suspect it is because there are limits to his power. To take blindly that when your dear, wonderful grandfather (that you never seem to miss an opportunity to remind us is your grandfather - you can stop now; believe me, we are all aware) says as gospel truth is foolish. Are you sure you don't just buy the whole spiel because it makes you sound even more special by extension?

Even assuming this ultimate power works exactly the way you believe it does, all he said was that two would be sung. (And from his little posting here, he was getting frustrated that nothing was happening yet - yet another nail in the coffin of his power.) Two. Of the three (at least) unsung. Nor was there any timing specified. The original statement could still have been an immutable truth if one was held back and sung in a new age when bardics had no supernatural force, because they were never tied to the Weave.

I was fated to sing it, yes. Because I loathe Croinamara. Because my nature is to follow incomplete stories to learn more. Because both myself and Adam Hand share the same impetus behind our wounds. Because love was fed to an eternal hunger. Because I am just an ordinary woman. Because

we only own our hell

It was my Fate. But I still had a choice.

My response to Dear Grandad was not some damned poetry contest entry. It was the songs, because I wanted to tell him something without giving him any of my own words. He has used me twice now; I did not want to give him any more pieces of me than have already been taken. I speak now because, after all this, I have come to an interesting point.

Devariatus, if you must use our voices to accomplish what you want done, then our voices are more powerful than yours.

So come. Try to prove me wrong. We will see whose praxis is stronger, and whose words linger when this is through.

Besides, sometimes enough fates get tossed around by time, you can't complete an Arani's words. I'm proof of that.
I wonder if there is some 'one's stronger/louder' that makes that happen.

Lois, that was very well written. Thank you.

-Ilana