[Acacea]

A collection of entries and memories from inside a frozen instant now behind her.

Acacea giggles as a small unicorn figurine made of glass races up and down her back while she lounges on a bed in the guest quarters of the Minaret of Symphony. At least, she thinks they're guests, despite the bar on the door, and the fact that this place is technically many years in the past and so is likely just a hallucination, anyway. So while some of her friends pound on the door and ask to be let out, she and Katrien just order some pie and milk from the room service, not really phased.

"I am not an obstacle course!" Acacea informs the unicorn, craning her head to look over her own back. Then she looks at the plate with the delicious-looking slice of pie with several different kinds of berries included, apparently a recipe lost in time, as this is the only place she's ever managed to order any. "Do you like pie, Diamond?"

She groans when the unicorn wriggles through her hair and slides down the side of her face to plonk squarely in the middle of her pie, leaving little hoof prints on it. The halfling sighs and informs Katrien that apparently this is a masterpiece of pies, fit for both mouths and unicorn thrones, and Diamond naturally replies by plopping her small glass bum down in the pie as if daring Acacea to eat it, now.

"Oho! You doubt me! I think not! I'd eat it even if you rolled in it and crawled in the filling! Well, like...I would, once you aren't in it anymore. Glass is probably bad for the digestion." The figurine practically smiles as it steps daintily off of the slice and into her hand, leaving little pie-prints on her skin.

Acacea rests her chin in her other hand, recalling the things Emily Nightwoven had said about the unicorns in her letters to Narsil...the sorrow she'd felt when she was forced to let the matriarch die in order to save her child, the joy of walking amongst the herd and raising the little one.

"Yet...there was nothing I could do. She was gone, and they clearly had no idea how to tend this, her daughter and last legacy. Perhaps the sole hope of the herd itself...My promise...I would keep...and preserve this small life for them, and for her. She who I promised to save, I would save by protecting her little princess..."

The result of that "protection" sits in Acacea's hand now, and the bard looks down to it a little sadly. "How could Emily ever do that to you, Diamond?" Diamond nuzzles her nose to Acacea's cheek, clearly trusting that this one at least, never would. Katrien mumbles to herself when Acacea taps the unicorn's nose, and mutters "I wonder if they offer room massages..."

"Prolly...maybe knock again?"

"Wonder what the others are up to. No creaking springs from the next room, so..."

Acacea snickers at that, and replies, "Ah well, Rolf didn't seem too enthused at the prospect; I'm not too surprised," before looking back down at the unicorn to ask if she had known that Acacea and her friends would come for her, since she had known what would be done to her before it ever crossed Emily's mind.

Diamond looks back up at Acacea, her melodic voice saying merely, Water. Acacea squints, wondering if glass ever gets thirsty, and then shrugs, stuffing her pie in her mouth and shaking the crumbs off the plate so that she can pour some water from her canteen into it. The unicorn steps up to it, looking at Acacea, and then touches her small glass horn to the water.

The water comes to life and the Minaret and Tower appear. They both blacken and decay suddenly, darkness spilling from them. Two angels fall dead from the sky, and the land sickens. Playful Unicorns stroll to the scene and fall as if before a plague.

Without warning, the water shifts focus; the towers get covered in a shimmering egg like shell--blues, greens, and reds mottle the surface. It flickers and a tear falls on one tower; two angels burst forth in love and joy, while the other egg withers and dies.

The eggs reform and the tear once more falls, streaking onwards it strikes the other, leaving a splash as if it hits a river. A fierce horn comes from the top of the egg, a hoof from the bottom...the egg the angels flew from withers and dies.

Acacea bites her lower lip before addressing Diamond, her eyes on the images in the water. "Why not both? Surely it does not have to be one, only..."

The image changes to show a huge lake filled to the brim...the lake empties, pouring forth the waters to one tower or the other, but then being left empty.

Diamond's small eyes look up and her sweet voice chimes to Acacea, The choices will belong to all of you.

Acacea sighs a little at that, tearing her eyes away from the now still water. "It's some kind of rule that unicorns can't just speak common, right? Like a sage or somethin'."

The unicorn almost laughs, but her eyes are clearly afraid for her future. I cannot interfere with your choice, Loved of the Alicorn. "I do not know what to do, Diamond, but I still am trying to free you..." All will do what they think right, and they, with you, will choose where the tear falls. With that last statement, Diamond trots back to the pouch made for her, climbing inside.

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