Has something happened to...?

[Toaster Retribution]

...Axies? When Arclo speaks of him, something bugged me?

"When one achieves immortality, one must find purpose beyond the struggle to live, as old Axies always said."

Since Axies is alive, as far as we know, why speak of him with said? Wouldn't says be the correct choice of words? Or has something happened to Axies that we dont know of?

[Weltall]

More likely the use of past tense is either because Axies hasn't said that since he decided on his goal of cataloguing all the world's spren (making it something he said, not something he currently says) or because Arclo simply hasn't seen Axies in a long time and so he uses the past tense reflexively.

[nervousnerd]

Yeah. It is possible that Arclo thinks that Axies is dead but it could just be that they haven't crossed paths in a long time.

We don't know if Arclo has been staying in Tashikk permanently or if he moves around a lot as well. I wonder what kind of range he has on his cremlings; We know he is at least all over the city but there has to be some limit in my mind.

[AerionBFII]

I think he was simply remembering something Axies once said. If he new him well maybe he expected he'd got himself killed by now, with his shenanigans.

 

[DSC01]

I understood the implication to be that Arclo just hasn't seen Axies in a long time. That may be the way that you would talk about someone who had died, but it is also the way that you would talk about someone that you used to know but just don't see anymore.