You Say Stubborn, I Say Thorough

Lúta confirmed that she had been down to see Resin and it just twisted the boy's guts up with envy. Why was everyone else allowed to go see his mother except for them? Art made up his mind on the spot that he would get down there again somehow. No one was going to keep him away from his mother, even if he hadn't found an answer for her yet. Nobody deserved to be left all alone, abandoned and forgotten—least of all Resin. This castle, this pack, this family... this was all her creation. She deserved to be surrounded by the safety and warmth and love she had created for them, not left in the dark and the cold and the silence. It was decided. Cure or not, he would go see her again.

When Lúta began her explanation with a heavy sigh, Artorias knew he wasn't going to like what she had to say. He maintained his stony expression as best he could while she laid out the impossibility of the situation for him, explaining that everyone was doing everything they could, but that Resin most likely would never get better. It was difficult to keep the pain out of his eyes and prevent his face from grimacing with the way his heart was wrenching in his chest. How was his mother always so capable of remaining stolid in situations like this? He was still so angry; angry at the situation his family had been thrust into for no reason, angry that there seemed to be no solution, and angry that he was going to lose his mom and he couldn't do a damned thing but watch while it happened. Time had tempered down some of the fire that raged in his heart though, and the boy no longer felt the need to yell or scream or lash out when he was confronted with reality. It didn't make it better, but he was beginning to take it in stride.

Artorias turned away from Lúta before she could see the tears welling up in his eyes, sniffling them back while he tried to distract his mournful mind with anything else. "But we have to save her... She'd save all of us in a heartbeat..." Why couldn't they save her? Why would the gods ever create something so terrible without a way to stop it? He was grateful to hear that Lúta was as stubborn as he was and refused to give up without exhausting every attempt first, but it was becoming so damn hard to keep that hope alive. There was still one lingering question that remained in Artorias' mind—a question he hadn't found the answer to since he began to put the pieces together weeks ago. "What's happening to her...?" he asked in a low, sorrow-rough voice. He needed to understand what was happening to his mother, why it had happened to her, and what would come next. "What's it going to do to her...? What will she become...?" Before she dies. The words didn't leave his lips, but the implication was there. This could only end one of two ways: with Resin's full recovery, or her demise. From the way everyone had described it, it seemed as if the latter was becoming unavoidable. His mother would die and they would lose the thread keeping them all held together.


"Artorias" | Thoughts | "Corbin"