◈ @humanridley asked: ❛ What became of Horace's notebook after he turned hollow? Was it lost? Was Anri able to find it, or did something else happen to it? ❜
In Anri’s default verse, she doesn’t find Horace. At some point, she comes to terms with the fact that he cannot possibly be alive, and learns to disregard the little voice that insists he chose to abandon her. In that timeline, the notebook remains on Horace’s person. It eventually becomes waterlogged, disintegrating in the refuse of Smouldering Lake.
But I’m nothing if not self-indulgent, and I have the softest of spots from Anri – Horace, too. While Anri would never have had the courage to explore the deepest reaches of the Catacombs of Carthus alone, she would muster herself and go if pointed in the right direction. Horace was a Blue Sentinel, after all, so I think it’s reasonable to imagine he assumed guardianship of Anri not only through their bond, but through his covenant. It’s possible that she herself was aligned with the Way of Blue, which I rather like to imagine. Either way, Anri doubts her strength when alone, so it takes a nudge to send her far beneath the earth in search of her friend.
It’s imperative that Horace is already slain by the time she discovers him. Anri would not have been able to put him down, even if he was hollow, even if he attacked her with every ounce of his mindless strength. While she might meet his onslaught defensively, she could never harm him. Eventually, she would be exhausted, heartbroken, overwhelmed, and ultimately killed by the one she loved so dearly.
But if she finds him dead? Anri spends several days at the Smouldering Lake, grappling with her grief. She removes his helm, she braids his hair, she does not flinch even though he is decaying, even though he stinks of rot. She never did like the executioner’s armour, and rightly guessed that Horace chose it to distance himself from the world, from others, from the hurt they might bring. In time, she finds a place for him. Somewhere dry, secluded. Around his remains she carefully heaps stones, encasing him in a cairn. She prays over him, she sings to him, and she cries. Near his grave, she builds a small and simple shrine that consists of his Llewellyn shield, his halberd and a solitary prism stone. Those glowing pebbles had long held significance for them, and she takes comfort that its light will never go out, that Horace will never be in complete darkness.
Of course, she keeps his notebook. It remains on her person throughout the remainder of her days, but she rarely has the emotional reserve to read through it. His helm eventually finds its place among the graves of the children they once knew, where Anri keeps vigil until she, too, hollows.
