A Final Adventure [PK]

[AstriaS 3813]

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A Final Adventure

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    Sylvia awoke that day with something of a slow start. Then again, most mornings were slow, at her age. As of that morning, she had been alive for one-hundred years, plus a few more. She had little care to keep counting after triple digits came into the picture. As far as she was concerned, after all, she had lived a full life. But now, she was beginning to feel it; that beckoning call of death. Though she had long attempted to prolong herself just a few more years- just long enough to finish her precious work, and to complete her collections- she had now, in that moment, come face to face with the only truth. Death, she realized, was inevitable. Even if she had managed to squeeze a few more years out of herself, it would still find her eventually.

 

    ‘All things have an end, just as they have a beginning,’ she mumbled to herself, running the tip of a heavily burn-scarred thumb over the cover of a locket which she held in her palm. Its engravings were worn, and a very antique-looking patina had come to color its faces- a state not unlike herself, Sylvia mused. That little piece of brass, simple and altogether unimpressive, despite appearances was perhaps her most prized possession, a gift from her beloved husband from an age past. She had worn it when, in her youth, she joined her comrades-in-arms in raising blade against the Inferi, and when she joined the first Norlandic expedition to Almaris. She had worn it in battle with a terrible drake, where she received her most prominent feature: the burns that covered her left arm and her legs. And now, in her old age, she wore it through an age of seemingly endless war.

 

    Sylvia stared at her adored little locket for several moments. Precious moments, beloved memories, terrible strife and utter chaos. She really had been through it all. A life of adventure, really- a good life, worthy of a storybook, in her opinion. And though she had lost her youthful vigour, she had not once hidden from her love of the escapading spirit. To explore, to learn, to see- and sometimes to put oneself in peril- that was the very essence of life. For that reason had she resolved to embark on this final journey. As she looked back over the stern of her vessel, towards the fading coast, she smiled and stepped to the side to pull the cover from an old birdcage. With a gentle coo, she beckoned the aged bluebird within to perch on her finger, and raised her avian companion to eye-level.

 

    ‘You and yours have been a delight, dear,’ the elderly woman whispered, giving the bird a final kiss atop its little, blue head before releasing it to the sky with one last message to be delivered. Having said her goodbyes, tearful as they were, Sylvia would not be returning to Almaris. She knew this, as did many others. She paced, slowly and with a pleasant smile on her face, to the front of the departing ship, staring at that infinite horizon as it drew nearer, but remained forever beyond reach.

So ends the story of Sylvia Camian, a storied life punctuated with one final adventure into eternity.

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Spoiler

Hi, hello. Welcome to my obligatory spiel at the bottom of the PK post.

 

Sylvia was, far and away, probably my favorite character I've played in a long while. If Alisa was my most accomplished character, Sylvia was absolutely my most storied. I started playing her at 5 just under two years ago. As of this post she is 102. And I have adored every second of playing her, from random antics as a child, to fighting demons, to her brief political career, to spending time teaching her students towards the end of her life. I definitely didn't accomplish everything I wanted to do with the character, for sure, and I'm a bit disappointed in that regard. There were a few more things I wanted to learn and do, just to make Sylvia's work feel complete. But, at the end of the day, every character has an expiry date, and keeping them around after typically leaves them feeling hollow, in my experience. As a final note, I would do the usual shout-out thing to thank everyone who was involved in her story, but I can't remember them all purely because she met so many people and did so many things. Thanks to all of you that contributed to this character I loved so much.

 

Anywho, that's my tangent for the day. Hope you guys enjoyed Sylvia as much as I did. Sad to see her go, but it be what it be.

 

Signed,

Astria <3

 

[rukio 8912]

And thus, within the All-Father's halls, a girl murdered before her time was finally reunited with a dear friend from her youth. "You got old..." Was all Alyssa said at first, perhaps confused and surprised at the many changes Sylvia had endured. 

 

Spoiler

rip the branch wielding homie

 

[Wand 933]

Behind the lids of his tired eyes, Feanor Sylvaeri remembers his comrades-in-arms. It had been Murdok who reminded those men and women of Varhelm that their faces and names would live on in the memory of the long lived. 

 

Although he would not soon forget her face or name, there was the ever present, physical reminder of the Firewatch upon his finger -- forged of starsteel, and as everlasting as their vows in battle.