Arnell Hallowleaf/Transcript

Arnell Hallowleaf

Transcript

Camp Dialogue

Default camp dialog for Shadowheart's dad. He has started to recover from her ordeal in the Shar grotto. He has unique branches for Shadowheart and non-Shadowheart players, as well as branches that occur before and after CAMP_Shadowheart_DaughterTears, in which SH and her parents have their first proper heart to heart following their reunion.

Shadowheart, reunion

Arnell Hallowleaf: Jenevelle. I still can't believe you freed us - that I'm standing here with you. I'd ask you to slap me so I know it's real, but I don't think I'm yet strong enough to bear it.

• Shadowheart: There's so much I want to ask about.
  • Arnell Hallowleaf: I can only imagine. It may take a little time before I'm fit to give many answers though. Forty years in captivity have left my mind... cobwebbed. But it will clear, given some rest.
• Shadowheart: That name. I don't know how I feel about it.
  • Arnell Hallowleaf: Give it time. Give us time. This is a great deal to take on at once - for me as well.
  • I should gather my strength. I've waited so long for this, a little longer won't do any harm...
• Shadowheart: How is mother coping?
  • Arnell Hallowleaf: She is strong... but she is also human. The years were harder on her than on me, in both body and mind. Shar's pit robbed us of precious time we can never have back.
  • But do not worry. We're together again - and we will make every moment count all the more.
• Shadowheart: They made me do things to you both, all those years. Please - I need to know.
  • Arnell Hallowleaf: Perhaps... perhaps later, my girl. That is a hard thing to talk about. I fear I do not have the strength for it just yet.
  • (Continues)
• Shadowheart: You should rest. There'll be time to talk later.
  • Arnell Hallowleaf: You have your mother's wisdom. Yes. I should gather my strength. I've waited so long for this, a little longer won't do any harm...
  • (End of dialogue)
• Arnell Hallowleaf: I should gather my strength. I've waited so long for this, a little longer won't do any harm...
• (End of dialogue)

Shadowheart, second conversation

Arnell Hallowleaf: Shadowheart, my darling. All is well, I hope.
I had promised you we would catch up once I'd rested - perhaps there's something you wish to ask about.

• Shadowheart: What really happened that night in the woods, when I was abducted?
  • Arnell Hallowleaf: You were to come of age that night - left alone in the woods, and using only Selûne's guidance to find your way back to us.
  • But you were not alone in the woods. We caught a Sharran spy near our village, and learned that his accomplices sought to abduct you.
  • I had to find you - to bring you home - and I had to do it quickly. In my haste, I made a terrible mistake.
  • I took on my wolf-form to cover the ground more quickly. And it worked - I followed your scent, and reached you before the Sharrans could.
  • But when I found you, you did not see your father, rushing to save you - you only saw a wolf, hunting you in the darkness.
  • I should have told you of my curse before that night. Then... everything would have been different.
  • You panicked, and before I could explain, the Sharrans found us. Father and daughter. Wolf and prey.
  • They took us both.
  • When I awakened, you were gone, but your mother was with me. They were spiriting us away to the city, hidden and bound.
  • That should have been the day you came of age, and into the Moonmaiden's teachings.
  • Instead, the Sharrans used us to teach you different lessons. Painful lessons.
    • Shadowheart: How is it you could transform into a wolf at will?
      • Arnell Hallowleaf: The Moonmaiden's blessings are many. She taught me to control the curse - but she could not teach me to control my paternal instincts.
      • The failing was mine.
    • Shadowheart: I'm sorry. This would never have happened if I hadn't been frightened, if I hadn't ran.
      • Arnell Hallowleaf: You must not blame yourself. You were a child; your mother and I were supposed to protect you.
      • We grew complacent - underestimated the depths of Shar's bitterness, the fanaticism of her followers.
      • But perhaps this was always meant to be. Perhaps the Moonmaiden's path was merely longer for you than we knew.
      • (Continues)
    • Shadowheart: Why did nobody else help you? Or come to search for us?
      • Arnell Hallowleaf: Perhaps they did - ours was a small community, spread thin.
      • We grew complacent - underestimated the depths of Shar's bitterness, the fanaticism of her followers.
      • But perhaps this was always meant to be. Perhaps the Moonmaiden's path was merely longer for you than we knew.
      • (Continues)
    • Shadowheart: All these years... you were so close by. And I did nothing.
      • Arnell Hallowleaf: You could have done nothing back then - not without putting yourself in danger. The Moonmaiden guided you in her own time.
      • (Continues)
• Shadowheart: You're not upset, are you? About my name?
  • Arnell Hallowleaf: A name is nothing. Your happiness is what matters. Just... forgive your father the occasional slip of the tongue. I will adapt, given time.
  • (Continues)
• Shadowheart: If you're a lycanthrope, does that mean I am also?
  • Arnell Hallowleaf: Well it depends - do you find yourself more hirsute at certain times, craving warm flesh? Actually no - spare your father the answer to that.
  • Well it depends - do you find yourself more hirsute at certain times, craving warm flesh? Actually no - spare your father the answer to that.
  • I am a lycanthrope, but your mother is not. It was a toss of the coin to determine if you inherited that side of me.
  • If you have not changed after all this time, I believe you are safe.
  • (Continues)
• Shadowheart: What comes next for us?
  • Arnell Hallowleaf: I've heard enough about this 'Absolute' threat to understand it cannot be ignored. Your mother and I can wait until you prevail - and I know you will.
  • Beyond that, your mother will need my care - and yours too, if you wish to join us.
  • Somewhere quiet, close to nature. Where the sun can warm us, and the moon can watch over us as we sleep.
• Shadowheart: You promised you'd tell me what I did to you both. I'm ready to hear it now.
  • Arnell Hallowleaf: Are you sure, Shadowheart...? Picking at old wounds may not serve any purpose...
    • Shadowheart: Please. I need to understand, if I'm to move on.
      • (Same response as)
    • Shadowheart: There is nothing old about these wounds - they've never been allowed to heal. I would know.
      • (Same response as)
• Shadowheart: They made me do things to you both, all those years. Please - I need to know.
  • Arnell Hallowleaf: Very well... but I shall not wallow in ugly details. That is what they would have wanted - to have let their physical torments live on in our spirits. I will not allow that.
  • They had you use us for... practice. All the techniques that the Sharrans hold pride in. Trickery, interrogation... torture. They even had you, our own daughter, try to convert us.
  • The worst part was not anything you did to us - it is what they had done to you. You didn't recognise us. Those eyes I had wiped tears from now looked at me like a stranger.
  • I... I feared I would give in then, but your mother's strength bolstered me. She never gave up calling you daughter, no matter what you said. Or did.
  • We were still a family, in that room. Suffering. Enduring. But we did not give up. Your mother and I swore we would see the look of recognition in your eyes once again. And we did.
    • Shadowheart: I'm sorry.
      • Arnell Hallowleaf: Don't be. Knowing you were out there gave us the strength to hold on. And you returned to us, just like you were supposed to, all that time ago.
      • Return to node
    • Shadowheart: How did you both go on like that? I could never have the strength...
      • Arnell Hallowleaf: Knowing you were out there still was enough to sustain us. And you are stronger than us both, daughter. We merely had to endure - you had to choose your path. One that brought you back to us, at last.
      • Return to node
    • Shadowheart: What about the wound on my hand? Was that to hurt me, or you?
      • Arnell Hallowleaf: Both. They marked you before our eyes. They said it would discipline you for straying, while extending our torment also.
      • Not just with the pain, but with the knowledge that every time we felt it, your true self was being punished, for trying to break through their indoctrination.
      • Return to node
    • Shadowheart: I've heard enough.
      • Arnell Hallowleaf: Yes. Now you know all that is worth knowing. Let us put this behind us, for good.
      • (Continues)
• Leave.
  • (End of dialogue)