#No power; um Reading & lying is a skill though she’s brilliant she doesn’t need power-I love that they don’t shout-waiting for Sunrise —

[acourtofquestions]

Kingdom of Ash Chapter 58

Chapter; Highlights

Not that there was much Elide could do.

Despite the generous gift of power that ran through the Lochan bloodline, she possessed no magic, no gifts beyond reading people and lying.

Rushed to get bandages, hot water, and whatever salves or herbs the healers calmly requested. None of them shouted. They only raised their voices, magic glowing bright around them, if a soldier was shrieking too loudly for their words to be heard.

The sun was barely over the horizon, judging by the light at the windows set high in the Great Hall, and so many already lay injured. So many. Still they kept coming, and Elide kept moving, her limp becoming a dull, then a sharp ache. A minor pain, compared to what the soldiers endured. Compared to what they faced on the battlements.

She didn't let herself think of her friends.

Didn't let herself think of Lorcan, who had not come to the chamber last night and had not sought them out this morning. As if he didn't want to be near her. As if he'd taken every hateful word she'd spoken to heart.

So Elide aided—and did not stop.

No, that magnificent horse trampled them, fearless and wicked, just as Chaol had predicted. A horse whose name meant butterfly

—stomping all over Valg foot soldiers.

Had his breath not been a rasp in his chest, Chaol might have smiled. Had men not been cut down around him, he might have laughed a bit, too.

But Morath was launching itself at the walls and gates with a furor they had not yet witnessed. Perhaps they knew who had come to Anielle and now hewed them down. Aelin and Rowan fought back-to-back, and Fenrys had plowed his way down the battlements to join Chaol by the second siege tower.

Morath, it seemed, did not think to surrender. Only to inflict destruction, to break into the keep and slaughter as many as they could before meeting their end.

His shield bloodied and dented, his horse a raging demon herself beneath him, Chaol kept swinging his sword. His wife lay within the keep behind him. He would not fail her.

Soon now. They'd win the field soon, and the song in his blood would quiet.

Part of him didn't want it to end, even as his body began to scream to rest.

Yet when the battle was done, what would remain?

Nothing. Elide had made that clear enough.

She loved him, but she hated herself for it.

He hadn't deserved her anyway.

She deserved a life of peace, of happiness.

He didn't know such things. Had thought he'd glimpsed them during the months they'd traveled together, before everything went to hell, but now he knew he was not meant for anything like it.

But this battlefield, this death-song around him ... This, he could do. This, he could savor.

The golden helmets of the khagan's army became clear, their fiery horses unfaltering.

Finer than any host he'd fought beside in a mortal kingdom. In many immortal kingdoms, too.

Obeying the death-song in his blood, Lorcan let his shields drop. He did not wish it to be easy. He wanted to feel each blow, see his enemy's life drain out beneath his sword.

The earth shook beneath thundering hooves, and arrows screamed overhead. Then there was roaring. And then blackness.

[sachi-pon]

free! dive to the future episode 6 liveblog/review thing

HEEEYYYY WHAT'S THIS?!?! I ACTUALLY DID MY LIVEBLOG ON TIME?!?!? yes, i actually did it!! i squeezed this into my schedule. also, i wrote a lot this time for my thoughts after the end of the episode. i wrote an essay!! so, um, please read??? well, i really want someone to read it!! ;__; i kept rambling because i was imagining myself lying down on a couch talking to a psychiatrist about all of my complicated emotional issues THAT WERE CAUSED BY THIS EPISODE. o__O *eyes twitch*

my previous liveblogs:  (episode 1) (episode 2) (episode 3) (episode 4) (episode 5)

see this episode here!! http://www.crunchyroll.com/free-iwatobi-swim-club/episode-6-the-mermaid-of-the-abyss-775637

***

the first thing i see is a VERY REALISTIC image of a telephone pole. o__o what do you mean it's not a photo?!?!?!?

wow, that girl is impatient. XD

he has been making that sandcastle the whole day and all he can come up with is just a big lump??? maybe if you had better sandcastle-making skills, other kids would want to be friends with you.

he read "the little mermaid" for a reason... is he reading about himself?!?!? he's a merman????

awwwww ikuya is precious ;__;

THAT YODEL!!!!! MY GOODNESS!!!! IT WAS PERFECT!!!! he needs to make an album immediately!!! XDDDDD

"haru really is gone." well i'm sorry he didn't follow you to america to continue his lifeguard career???? lol

i feel like ikuya's constant thinking "i need to be stronger" and "i can't become weak" is actually making him weaker somehow. o__o

"what can i do for him???" you have to stop and realize that you can't fix everything, hiyori.

i love how he clearly heard ikuya speak japanese and he responded in english! kawaii desu!! XD

"we've met somewhere before, huh?" wait, you guys forgot about it?? -__-

abrupt scene change... o__O

"there is one book i like." HMM, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT IS.

yes, ikuya, it's girly. just admit it. XD

"what can i do for ikuya?" i just told you, you can't always fix everything. just because you saved ikuya before, you think you always have to be the one to "save" him from everything? but that's not realistic. you can't control everything, so you shouldn't feel like it's always your job to save ikuya.

...aaand i'm talking to a fictional character. moving on!!

HOW ARE THEY JUST HAPPENING TO ALSO READ THE LITTLE MERMAID TOO?!?!?!? i guess everyone in this area has a little mermaid obsession. okay, now i seriously want to go watch the little mermaid movie. that was not a joke. i actually feel like i want to watch it sooner or later. free! gave me the idea!!! <3

HOW IS THAT MOM JUST HAPPENING TO DESCRIBE HIYORI'S SITUATION?!?!?!?!? what the... is she psychic?? i am scared of her now. what other powers does she have?!?!?!

oh man, hiyori now has that classic look where you can't see his eyes through his glasses. that is never a good sign... lol

makoto's swimsuit <333333 i love it so much. when i think about makoto in that swimsuit, i feel like all is right with the world. i can breathe easy. i can go to sleep happy. i know that there is peace and hope in the universe.

MAKOTO'S LITTLE BLUSH!!!! <3 did you see that?!? did you all see that? he is such an angel!!!! ^___^

"what's ikuya up too? have you kept in touch with him?" OH NO, you done went there. you done went and asked the question. you done messed up, my friend.

**** AWKWARD SILENCE ****

makoto is trying to explain everything but it's not working ^__^UUU

"it's my fault." OMGGGG HARUUUUU NOOOO. STOP. NOOOOO. i'm done. i'm dead. his little quiet voice broke my heart. he feels SO guilty about all this!!! i want to give you a hug, my precious baby. <33333

oh now he's telling nao about the "suffering" thing. i thought i was already dead but now i have died again. this show is TOO PAINFUL!!!! .>___<.

"makoto and i haven't suffered at all!!" don't say that!!! the writers of this show will hear you say that and they will try to think of a way to make you guys suffer!!! that's how writers are. writers like to brainstorm ways to make our characters suffer. it's what we do. XD

having watched ikuya throughout this whole season so far, he seems to be feeling worse and worse, to be honest. =(

haha, ikuya is so clueless. um, hiyori is talking about YOU, dude!!!

haru doesn't even want to eat mackerel?!?! WHO ARE YOU AND WHERE IS THE REAL HARU??????

oh it's that shady guy again. i forget about him all the time!!!

*pauses to read all the crunchyroll subtitles for Shady Guy's blog*

haru is COMPLETELY COOL while the shady villain guy talks right into his ear. XDDDD

#cafeteriasoba #hidakauniversity #tanukisoba #sobarules

ryuuji??? he has a name? but i don't want him to have a name. i want him to continue being Shady Evil Villain Guy.

WHO IS HE?????????? now i want to know!!! >=(

i'm pretty sure you made up all those provers but whatever

wait, what?!? wait!!! what just... they are all talking about ryuuji?!?!

"he suddenly quit swimming competitively." why? i bet the reason is something bad...

haru has his excited face on, i see.

"he probably missed your calls because he's busy focusing on the next competition." sure, okay, i believe you... you've been 100% honest all the time, of course!!

hmmmmmm okay i can kinda see one reason why hiyori feels such a strong need to "fix" ikuya. natsuya has assigned that job to him!!

haru's been thinking about why he only swims freestyle... uhhh you're just now thinking about that after how many seasons/episodes??? lol

i love how makoto and haru act like this kid is a genius who just revealed a brilliant scientific discovery

*mysterious person appears* wait who is that???

i knew that wishing star thing would come back eventually. (well, duh)

"even if i sink, no one's going to save me anymore." he's talking about swimming? or... his emotions???

i had a feeling someone would start yelling soon. this scene was too quiet!!

"i couldn't become human." ha!!! that proves it. ikuya isn't human. he is a merman. like i have said before, free! is a fantasy anime <3333

hiyori??? i think that ikuya knows how to come down the slide on his own. it's not that difficult. little kids do it all the time. XD

he's on top of him. WELL THIS IS AWKWARD

that scene with their feet looks so weird o__o

"can you just forget about nanase??? i'm way more attractive than he is, so why don't you love me instead????"

ikuya finally gets aggressive toward hiyori!! i felt like that was going to happen!! but wow o___o you guys. just continue being friends already. ;__;

hiyori!!! you just told him to "forget about nanase." it didn't work the first time so obviously it's not going to work the second time!!

"sorry i just assaulted you. whoops"

omg, i want this episode to be over. it's too sad. ;__; *looks at time* uh-oh. there's time for another scene...

looks like Evil Shady Villain (i don't care what his name is) has evil plans for haru with his evil smile!!! haru... you've got to escape!! get away now!!!

that's all!!! now here are my thoughts: i was very emotionally destroyed by this episode because like i said, i noticed that ikuya kept getting worse and worse (not just his swimming times, but his feelings) and then he got into a fight with hiyori at the end. ;___; ;___; ;___; i'm so upset because hiyori is GENUINELY TRYING TO HELP and it's just not working. you saw the flashbacks where hiyori and ikuya's friendship formed. so you can see that ikuya means a lot to hiyori, which is why i said that hiyori is genuinely trying to help. plus, i pointed out that natsuya wants hiyori to watch over ikuya. so that's something that adds to the pressure on hiyori. so i felt so bad for him when first, he tried to invite ikuya to a cafe and he didn't want to go, and then, he tried to tell ikuya "stop thinking about nanase" and ikuya got mad at him for it!! remember, from hiyori's perspective, haru is just a bad person who's causing trouble. so from that perspective, it makes perfect sense that the solution to ikuya’s problem would be to stop thinking about haru. so i think it was surprising for hiyori that ikuya got mad at him. =( remember how earlier in the season, ikuya tended to be agreeable with hiyori? he went along with most things hiyori said/did. that's what hiyori's used to, and so that's why i think it was surprising for hiyori when ikuya got mad. he thought ikuya would just agree with his suggestions as usual.

ikuya actually has a positive view of haru and he does want to keep thinking about him. he is grateful for haru's rescue of him, and he wants to be "strong like haru." at the same time, he's angry at haru. but his true feelings toward haru are actually positive, which is why he rejected hiyori's advice to stop thinking about him. i don't think either of them are listening to each other. hiyori wants to fix ikuya instead of listening to him, and ikuya feels that doing things alone gives him strength, so he's not interested in trying to be fixed by hiyori or anyone else. he just wants to be "strong" on his own. ...it's not going well.

i loved the part where ikuya was on the slide and hiyori was on top of him. XD it was so dramatic. hmm, maybe i am beginning to ship them??? i don't know though, because they really need to work out their problems first. they're not quite at a point where i'm like "YEEAAAHHH I SHIP THEM, HIYORI x IKUYA 4EVER!!!!!!!" they'd be so cute if they weren't... you know... in a pretty damaged relationship right now. ^__^U actually, it's not just about this fight. even before that, their relationship was "off" to me. (not when they were kids. i'm talking about the present day) something about their friendship wasn't quite right. and so i'm not surprised that they ended up fighting.

...still, i'm hoping that they will soon work everything out and have some heartwarming moments!!! <3333

wait, i'm not done yet. i also want to say that it was so painful to me when haru said "it's my fault." there was something so broken in his voice. i could hear it. i think that every person has had situations in their lives where something that someone said or did bothered them and it continued to bother them for a long time even though it shouldn't have. you know that feeling when you can't stop thinking about something even though that thing keeps weighing you down??? it really shouldn't make you so upset, and you should let it go and not let it get to you, but you just can't stop thinking about it because you're taking it too seriously. what haru is going through right now is so relatable. 

honestly though, asahi and makoto don't seem to fully grasp how deeply this is hurting haru. asahi said that he and makoto swam with haru and were fine, and makoto agreed, but i was thinking, "haru's not going to instantly feel better just because you guys said that." when you're feeling that bad about something, one quick and simple answer isn't going to fully heal you. i expected makoto to understand how hurt haru is right now, but i'm not sure if he does!! (...which is weird.) the good news is that nao seems to have a plan, i guess. i don't have a clue what he's thinking of doing, but i'm sure that haru and the others will get through to ikuya somehow. right? RIGHT???