20 7098

Transcript

THE KINGS AND QUEENS: Disgraceful … evil … Ay, blasphemy …abomination!

CIRINA: Can you help, your Majesty? You can project magick through the ring, can you …?

IPOLA: I can try. Pontagar, try to clear your mind. Breathe … deeply. Hold it … release. Breathe. Think only of breathing, if you can.

PANEL 2

IPOLA: Let me see what we’re dealing with … Definitely Shuach …Subtle, though. Needs at least a little of the subject’s trust. Lunadeia, valfalakan Pontagar cha fertu …
PANEL 3

PONTAGAR: (begins to weep ) No … no. I … I killed my own father …

PANEL 4

IPOLA: Yes. Yes, I see. It was forced on you, Pontagar. You were … being Erogenian, which is sometimes very inconvenient, but never evil. Remember what truly happened, not the lie you were told. You are your own man. You choose! No one may choose for you. No one may simply tell you what to think or remember, what choice to make. Not Naurik, not me, no one! You saw what you saw, you know what you know. It’s still inside you. Embrace it …

PANEL 5

PONTAGAR: Thank you … Ipola. Yes … yes, I see perfectly again. He was … a traitor.

20 7098

Memory – Page 1246
Posted on June 30, 2022 by jedraft

20 thoughts on “Memory – Page 1246”

  1. jd.

    Ipola ROCKS.

    1. jedraft

      Word.

      JED

  2. lync1968

    That was a perfect followup to the last page. In current arc I like Pontagar better. His attitude was a lot like Arrogonds’ before he went with Zona and the other Erogenian champions. It’s nice to see the signs of maturity.

    1. jedraft

      Well, as the creator, I wanted him to grow and change. I thought that the experience of working with a close group of people in daily life-and-death situations would teach him to see things in a new way. War has a tendency to change people, in this case I reasoned it would sober him up and make him less of an asshole.
      Warm regards,
      JED

      1. Phoebe

        The fact that he was rescued by the cute little blond they were looking at as an inferior should also have some sobering up effect me thinks…
        (Trying to reply again, because the previous attempt ended up in the main thread)

  3. Ladyofthemasque

    I absolutely love how she does NOT lead the witness. The closest she gets to it is the jab at how being very Erogenian is sometimes very inconveneient, but never evil. (She does have Opinions On Erogenian Ways…but again, she’s not leading him to any conclusion.) And in fact, she’s reminding him that HE is in control of everything within his own head.
    She is re-empowering him with her spell. HIM, not her, nor how he should feel about anything, other how that what happened was not actually evil, but simply typical, normal, and natural for their particular culture.

    1. jedraft

      Yes, her wording was very precise. It has to be, or else she would be as guilty of blasphemy as Naurik was. For a people so culturally cognizant of the consequences of one’s actions in the balance of the cha, of personal freedom and responsibility, to take that free will away is absolutely abhorrent. It’s to make someone’s actions a lie, which Erogenians hate with a passion.
      Warm regards,
      JED

  4. Descartes

    We ought not forget that his father could have been magically seduced too.

    1. jedraft

      Stay tuned. :}

      Warm regards,
      JED

  5. SeanR

    Don’t count on it. Your father was telling you traitorous things, but considering what you nearly went through, you really should give your father the benefit of the doubt. Naurik had much longer to shape your father’s will to his liking.

    My personal theory is he chose to push things because some niggling part of him knew his son would get him free of these psychic fetters in one way or another.

    1. jedraft

      Stay tuned. 🙂

      Warm regards,
      JED

  6. Xeiran

    Descartes and SeanR have it in one, but it may take Pontagar more time to deal with the grief of having to kill one’s father who himself had been mind-bended.

    1. jedraft

      Well, Oedipus gouged his own eyes out. Hopefully, Pontagar won’t go that far.

      Warm regards,
      JED

  7. Lora

    Yes, well done, Ipola. Time for explanation for the council. (And I hope Ipola’s dress doesn’t slip more though I doubt she would find it embarrassing, just poor timing).

    1. jedraft

      It’s stuck there by magick. 🙂
      Just not stuck *too* tightly …

      Warm regards,

      JED

  8. Ganurath

    In which case, the man was a prisoner in his own mind, forced to live a lie by horrific spellcraft. To a people for whom truth and being true are so fundamental to their faith, it’d be a fate worse than death.

    1. Ganurath

      …That was intended to be a response to one of the “his dad might’ve been bewitched” comments above.

  9. SFCGator is

    Whoa, cool beans. I hoped that this would be where the story would be going. Fascinating!

  10. Phoebe

    The fact that he was rescued by the cute little blond they were looking at as an inferior should also have some sobering up effect me thinks…

    1. Phoebe

      This was supposed to be a reply, can’t delete it, but replied properly above…

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