He raised a brow at Sascha's expression of sympathy. He had laughed it off and had, by now, long experience controlling it from showing on his face, but he nevertheless nodded silent acknowledgment of his companion's kind words. The arrival of the food provided a convenient distraction, and the teenager gave Sascha a strange look at the odd gesture, unsure if it was one of respect or mockery for such a menial task. Jigano murmured quiet thanks and sent him back to the kitchen before he could confront the newcomer about it, though. With the schism between naturals and outlanders, defiantly outlander customs could sometimes be taken the wrong way by belligerent natives.
Jigano snorted delicately as he was blowing on his spoonful of stew to cool it, amused and exasperated by Sascha's naivete. "I could have brought it up to see if I could get you to confess to it," he pointed out wryly. "Make no mistake: this world can be dangerous, and not all dangerous things walk on four legs." But the young man's smile was infectious, and the bard returned it with a crooked one of his own. "And magic users here are called 'Abandoned' because the gods want little to do with them, due to an old sleight. Those who are Naturals - native to this world - tend not to flaunt their abilities because of the stigma associated with them. Outlanders... well. They see no reason to hide what they are, when many of us come from places rife with magic and see nothing wrong with it." He shrugged, taking neither side but simply giving Sascha the information to use as he saw fit.
"She recently had a baby, so she might not be in," he warned, "but I'll introduce you if she is. Hopefully she can answer more questions about how the local healing magic works than I could." He had used healing magic fairly often on his world, but in the shape of wands and potions, staves and scrolls. He'd had some healing talents of his own, but they had been small things and his focus as a young man had been on other things. Something he regretted now, but could not change.
He ate some more, tearing the bread in half and offering one side to Sascha while he used his own to help scoop up stew and eat it that way. Thanks to the Northhaveners, the newcomer's surprise wasn't unusual to the bard, though he chuckled at the way the woodworker described his own world's religion. "Imagine? It sounds as though you had little faith in your own gods. Maybe that's why they didn't answer you," he said with a wry grin. "Why would they answer a skeptic? They have little to prove to mere mortals if they don't want to, after all. But, yes, some of the gods here are more likely to answer than others. The Old Gods... not as much. Their herald-gods? Much more often."
Jigano snorted delicately as he was blowing on his spoonful of stew to cool it, amused and exasperated by Sascha's naivete. "I could have brought it up to see if I could get you to confess to it," he pointed out wryly. "Make no mistake: this world can be dangerous, and not all dangerous things walk on four legs." But the young man's smile was infectious, and the bard returned it with a crooked one of his own. "And magic users here are called 'Abandoned' because the gods want little to do with them, due to an old sleight. Those who are Naturals - native to this world - tend not to flaunt their abilities because of the stigma associated with them. Outlanders... well. They see no reason to hide what they are, when many of us come from places rife with magic and see nothing wrong with it." He shrugged, taking neither side but simply giving Sascha the information to use as he saw fit.
"She recently had a baby, so she might not be in," he warned, "but I'll introduce you if she is. Hopefully she can answer more questions about how the local healing magic works than I could." He had used healing magic fairly often on his world, but in the shape of wands and potions, staves and scrolls. He'd had some healing talents of his own, but they had been small things and his focus as a young man had been on other things. Something he regretted now, but could not change.
He ate some more, tearing the bread in half and offering one side to Sascha while he used his own to help scoop up stew and eat it that way. Thanks to the Northhaveners, the newcomer's surprise wasn't unusual to the bard, though he chuckled at the way the woodworker described his own world's religion. "Imagine? It sounds as though you had little faith in your own gods. Maybe that's why they didn't answer you," he said with a wry grin. "Why would they answer a skeptic? They have little to prove to mere mortals if they don't want to, after all. But, yes, some of the gods here are more likely to answer than others. The Old Gods... not as much. Their herald-gods? Much more often."
