Half of the Kingdom(ft. commentary)

~Feb 2

"Iphnis, you talk to him," Miryanna whispered. She knew it was a little selfish to just lay it all on Iphnis, but she honestly had no idea how to remedy this problem.

Iphnis turned to Karayan, who still had an alarmed expression on his battered face.

"What do you remember?" He asked.

Karayan closed his eyes as if he was trying to think. "I--I don't... know..." He trailed off.

Iphnis nodded, "It's alright, you're still weak. Rest now."

Karayan drifted off into sleep again.

Miryanna sat in her chair, feeling sleepy again. She yawned. "What was that? Will he recover?"

Iphnis shrugged as he also took a seat. "Hopefully. But it'll take time." He sighed. "Come to think of it, he might not want to remember."

Miryanna gave him a confused glance, "Why do you say that? If i'd forgotten something I'd want to remember so I knew what I'd done."

"That's just the thing, Miryanna, what did he do?"

Miryanna thought for a moment, then Iphnis' reasoning clicked with her. She covered a hand over of her mouth, "Oh, I see what you're saying. Karayan's done dreadful things and he might be better off leaving them in the past."

"Well, it's not quite like that. You see, the atrocities he's committed aren't things you can just leave in the past. They are all deserving of consequences. Severe ones. We can't just hide him away from the world forever. Sooner or later he'll have to come to terms with his past. But another thing is, If he remembers, will he return to his old ways?"

And yet again with Iphnis calling all the shots. Miryanna bb i love you but have barely thought for yourself over 50,000 words and i am deeply sorry for that

Miryanna's eyes widened unconsciously at the thought of Karayan just continuing killing and ravaging like he did before. But now that she thought about it, it didn't seem too improbable. "What should we do then?" She asked.

Iphnis sighed. "This isn't something we can sculpt and manipulate to our own purposes. I'm not an expert in this kind of thing and only know what I do because of a book I saw lying on my father's shelf that I decided to read because I was bored. There could be multiple outcomes. Mayhap one we haven't even thought of."

Iphnis is so smart and wise but also so dumb. It really makes me wonder why I made him do all the things I did. In the beginning I think I presented him as being this super wise all-knowing gnome, and that's what i wanted to be, but there's also a conflicting characteristic of him being playful and mischievous. Now, I like the more playful kinda stupid version because that's more personable. Rereading this now, I realize something I really don't like about him is, as I've said, he calls shots he really should not be calling. I presented him as being super wise and helping miryanna to do the right thing, but this goes hand in hand with miryanna never thinking for herself. Iphnis nudged her to do something extremely drastic, rescuing karayan, that would affect miryanna's life in an extremely big and extremely negative way. And why? It was iphnis who nudged karayan to "do the right thing" and why? iphnis has said himself he's of no real importance in the gnome or human world. He's literally just a young tinker/smith. HE SHOULD NOT BE INFLUENCING THESE DECISIONS.

The reason he does is because i really liked iphnis and wanted to give him something to do, so I did. at the cost of miryanna's agency. it was a dumb move on my part.

Miryanna leaned back in the chair, her sleepiness intensifying. Her mind was starting to fog up again. She wasn't a night owl.

"Let's sleep on it tonight. Karayan isn't strong enough to even stay awake for more than a few minutes. We have time to figure out a solution. But keep in mind: this still isn't a thing we can manipulate. I think we should just let it run it's own course."

so i'm thinking everything iphnis is saying right now is actually me troubleshooting and trying to figure out whether to build a ladder to get out of this hole I've dug, or to make a tunnel system. spoiler: i never figured it out.

Miryanna nodded and got up to go to her couch and lay back down. Sleep came soon, for which she was thankful, and she stayed asleep until Iphnis woke her in the predawn.

As she sat by Karayan, she thought more about the conversation of last night. How would this turn out? All the consequences and outcomes Miryanna thought of each had their pros and cons. She sighed and settled back into the chair. It was a very nice and comfortable chair.

of course they both have their pros and cons good grief i was desperately trying to find some sort of balance and balance is the last thing this part of the story warrants. Big decisions and big consequences are the theme now, but noooo i had to let off all the characters easy.