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[unnecessaryflourishes]

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[unnecessaryflourishes]

[At first, there is naught but the city, tall spires rising up to meet the very heavens themselves even as the city stretches out before him. A city of shadows, for all that there's no one in the empty streets, and little noise echoing out from the buildings with their too-tall doors and unusually large windows. Even what few figures are present are little more than shades, pale figures that look almost unreal in their tallness (and the odd glow they seem to carry with them).

But a soul such as Thancred's cannot go unnoticed forever. And so it is that he does find himself attracting the attention of someone much more real. Admittedly, Emet-Selch doesn't look too dissimilar to the shades that inhabit his remembered Amaurot, tall and pale as he is, but he wears no mask and his hood is down, leaving his face in full view.

(Something that would raised no shortage of eyebrows back in his own time, so long ago. But here, in the heart of his Domain... he does not care.)]

Well now. What do we have here?

[funbreaker]

[ As soon as Thancred sees more of the city, he wonders what about it could have ever registered as familiar. Everything is three sizes too tall, gargantuan and towering over him in such a way that it's impossible not to feel as if the ghostly figures are looking down on him.

This isn't a facet of the Horizon itself, as everything in Strange's area had been sized appropriately. Does that mean that this is all borne from the desire of the person who created this place? Someone with a giant ego, perhaps?

Before Thancred can make any attempt to interact with the shades that wander around the place, however, he is approached by someone who actually has his face uncovered, and who addresses him directly. The figure is just incredibly tall as everything else here, though the paleness of his face invokes the idea of a ghost all the same.

Who do you have here, Thancred almost corrects, the riposte sitting on the tip of his tongue before he swallows it down. It would likely not do to be rude to someone in their own space, yet the urge had come up in him so readily. ]

... I'm only wandering through. [ His neck is already beginning to ache from having to stare up so much. ] This place is quite difficult to miss.

[unnecessaryflourishes]

[The size of everything is indeed something borne of the will - the desire, perhaps - of he who has created this space. True, it has nothing to with ego, like Thancred might expect, but it is purposeful, in a sense. And given the size both of the man he is now talking to and the shades themselves the unusual size of the building is... more understandable, at least.

Still, Emet-Selch makes not even the slightest attempt to bend down. Not even to spare Thancred's neck, and though he has noticed the lack of Thancred's customary barbs he cannot - quite - tell if it's as a result of that which the Horizon inflicts or the fact that he has not yet reached a point at which Amaurot would hold any meaning. An oddity, yes, but one he is willing enough to tolerate.]

As well it should be. It was the jewel of the star, once. Though it is hardly a surprise that you should find it more so than most.

[His soul is sundered, and of the Source besides. Two things that would easily be enough to let the soul-deep memories of Amaurot leak through, in a moment where one might otherwise be unguarded.]

[funbreaker]

[ The jewel of the star? Which star, and why is it in the past tense? Thancred looks around once more, as if the other shades or the dark structures themselves might contain answers for him. Though while he'd felt drawn to this place from a distance, now that he's here he has little idea what to make of it.

Or of the man who looms over him. It is for the best that the stranger makes no attempt to bend down and meet Thancred on his level, in all honestly. That would likely only make him feel more like he was being condescended to, somehow.

Though when he's singled out in such a way, he finds himself on the defensive all the same, fists clenching at his sides. The way that man says you, as if it's an accusation, doesn't sit well with him. ]

What is that supposed to mean?

[ This man (is he a man?) seems to know something that he doesn't. Granted, Thancred's aware that isn't difficult to manage at the moment, but the imbalance is still enough to make dread weigh down in his chest. ]

[unnecessaryflourishes]

[Of a star that, it would seem, Thancred does not recall. Which explains a great deal - and offers an explanation as to why he cannot recall Amaurot. True, it may yet remain to be seen if he does so outside of the Horizon (or on a subsequent visit), but that is something that Emet-Selch is more than willing to leave aside. There is no sense in asking when Thancred himself cannot remember.

He does, however, note the way Thancred's fists clench at his sides, and though Thancred is not wrong to suspect that Emet-Selch knows something he does not, neither does Emet-Selch address that matter. Or the way Lahabrea has left his mark on Thancred's soul.]

Even here, there are those who souls are such that they are drawn all the more strongly to this place. Souls marked by loss and sacrifice. Yours is one such.

[And in ways that he doesn't Thancred will recall, though he would like to think that some of that same weight is something that Thancred will be aware of even now.]

[funbreaker]

[ Souls marked by loss and sacrifice.

Thancred frowns, a hand lifting up to rest over his chest, as if his beating heart might somehow hold the answer for him. It is impossible to know what he might have lost or sacrificed when he can't find a single memory to hold onto, a single experience to anchor himself to. Yet he'd come here, to this ghostly city, and that apparently means something.

There is only one way that this stranger could say such things about him with authority. Yes, he could be lying, and yet Thancred must admit he doesn't suspect that. He can't say why, but he does believe he's decent at reading other people, and the towering man's words seem genuine. ]

... We know each other. [ It's the only reasonable conclusion to draw, yet no matter how long he studies the stranger's face, it becomes no more familiar to him. He heaves out a sigh, finding it more and more frustrating that he can't recall a thing now that he is in the company of someone who knows him. Are they friends? Enemies? Or something in between? ]

[unnecessaryflourishes]

That we do.

[Emet-Selch makes not the slightest effort to clarify how, or why. He doesn't even offer the slightest suggestion of whether or not he had been similarly giant during their prior meetings. But he sees no reason to deny that they do understand each other. That he knows something of Thancred's soul, though it has come as much in bits and snatches as anything. Little glimpses of who Thancred is, when he is not turning some manner of ire his way simply for being an Ascian. But those glimpsed had yet been enough. If not the complete picture of who Thancred might be.]

Why, for a time we even traveled together.

[Again, he doesn't mention any details. But this time, it's more deliberately done. A moment of curiosity - absent his memories, what assumptions might Thancred come to, he wonders.]

[funbreaker]

[ They traveled together? Thancred frowns, brain still grasping at details that simply will not come. It feels as if this stranger (who is not actually a stranger) is telling him the bare minimum, and he can't determine if that's an attempt to not overwhelm him or if it's meant to get under his skin.

His neck is beginning to ache from being tilted up for this long, and that alone makes the claim a bit difficult to believe. Something isn't quite checking out here. ]

Were you this size when we did so? Surely that must have been a burden for one of us.

[ It would mean there was either someone too small for the world they were traveling through, or someone too big for it. Both could be problematic. ]

[unnecessaryflourishes]

[While it's not wrong, precisely, that Emet-Selch is offering only the barest minimum of information - even here he can't entirely resist the urge to attempt to provoke Thancred a little - he is yet attempting to not be completely overwhelming. He remembers his own trip to the Horizon, after all, and the feeling of knowing so very little about himself and the world he might have come from and it is not one he would have considered enjoyable.

Even if his not unaware that his slow careful offerings of information are likely not helping much. And yet, it feels more correct than simply seeking to overwhelm Thancred. Tempting though it might certainly be.]

No. I was nearer your height, at the time.

[Plus or minus a foot or so, but he figures that's negligible, given the vast disparity between their heights as they currently stand.]

[funbreaker]

I see.

[ All of this must have taken place outside the Horizon, in a time and place that Thancred cannot begin to conceive of, and straining to remember will only make him more frustrated. He still knows none of the details and this stranger-who-isn't-a-stranger doesn't see fit to share them with him. It would be a bit of a waste, given that it will all come back to Thancred as soon as he leaves this place.

Yet he also can't quite stop himself from asking questions as he continues to take in these strange surroundings and how they somehow manage to feel both foreign and familiar to him. ]

And you can simply... do that? Change your form at will, even outside the Horizon?

[ Yet this seems to be the height that the stranger prefers, if this is how he chooses to appear here. Somehow he suspects there is more to it than simply wanting to tower over others. ]

[unnecessaryflourishes]

[Perhaps fortunately, simply asking questions is one of the better ways to get answers out of Emet-Selch. There might still be no guarantee that any answers will be the complete truth, but they are still answers nonetheless.]

To an extent, yes. Though it would not be as simple a matter as it is here.

[Doable, yes - he has done so many a time - but not quite so easy.]

[funbreaker]

I see.

[ Thancred crosses his arms, tapping his foot against the unfamiliar ground beneath him. There is more he could ask, but to what end? Soon enough his memories will return to him and then he will be able to form a conclusion about this interaction, bizarre as it has been. ]

Well, if you have aught else to tell me while I'm here, feel free. Otherwise, I will continue to wander. And I expect we'll speak again, ere long.

[ He's not certain he should ask for a tour, or that he wants one at all. ]

[unnecessaryflourishes]

I do not. You are free to leave should you wish.

[In time, Emet-Selch imagines they will meet again. Either in the Horizon once more, or through any of the various other means at their disposal. But if Thancred is disinclined to remain in his domain, then Emet-Selch sees no particular reason to force the matter.

(There is no point to it, and he has no immediate reason to do so besides.)]

Though I imagine that we will speak again, given time.