#i'm explicitly not tagging this as wolidibus though because nothing shippy happens until pandae era but man. the seeds of it. are here

[azems-familiar]

i wrote more of that elidibus scene today. whoops. it is now 3.5k words long. i'm suffering. have another small snippet:

Lelesu lets out a long breath, and the noise seems to catch Elidibus’s attention; he opens his eyes again, focuses his attention on her. And he seems less intending to draw up his glyph and proclaim their enmity with sarcastic comments and leave, at the moment, so she asks the question. “We’ve been to Anamnesis Anyder - the ruins of it. In it we found records left behind by the faction that summoned Hydaelyn…they said Elidibus sacrificed himself to become the heart of Zodiark. Was that…you? Are you still the man you were?”

Elidibus tenses, but he does not make to exchange blows with her, which is a relief. “I am Elidibus,” he says, with the cadence of an oft-tread mantra, as though the words themselves can be a shield against the static she’d seen in his memories. “It is my name and my duty, and I will never stray from it.” He lets the words hang in the air for a moment - and then lets out a very small sigh, pressing a hand to his temple. “Yes, it was I, though your understanding of events is lacking. I gave myself to be Lord Zodiark’s heart that my people might know salvation…only I could make the decision. For it is my duty to guide the star on its course, and Lord Zodiark…is merely an extension of that duty.”

“Your duty,” Lelesu murmurs, and swallows hard. It- aches, for some reason, something she can’t define. “Did you not give yourself a choice?”

“Look at me, Warrior of Darkness, and tell me true: would you?”

And really, there’s only one answer to that question, is there?

She thinks he reads her response on her face, because he nods once, and he looks entirely resolute. “You understand, then, that I will strike you down - destroy you body and soul. I must. For what you have done to my brethren, to their lives and their service to the one true world, death is the only fitting consequence.”

“...I understand,” she answers, and she does. “I wish there was another way. That we could’ve found…some other solution. But I do understand.”