Sam's friendship had remained a steady light when so many others had flickered from the storm of his mistakes. He treasured the afternoons and evenings he spent tucked in the bookshop or at his friend's house, discussing lines of poetry in old books or dissecting the motivations of characters in the adventure tales that were better read than experienced. Zariah's Queenship had interrupted much of that camaraderie, and the Voice's machinations towards his friends had raised protective hackles on the fox's back, angry that she might be using Sam as a pawn or a tool. He had let those fears out at the wedding when it became clear how drastically the bookmaker had changed in recent months, but he regretted scaring his friend, hurting his feelings when the gentle redhead was only trying to help. The goddess he wanted to please was not, Jigano strongly suspected, worthy of that adoration, but he could do nothing about it now.
Yet.
And until the Blight had been burned out, root and branch, from the Greatwood and Hollowed Grounds, he could only split his attention so many directions.
Jigano smiled as Sam arrived, and turned to greet his friend while Isuma chirruped a hello of her own. "I don't mind," he chuckled ruefully. "It's true enough. But I'm hardly an invalid, and hopefully we won't find anything too troublesome tonight. After the tumult of that first night when the barrier fell, and then following Amalia down to free the Tulmhainar... well, we haven't really had a chance to do much looking around just to see what's here. It's worth seeing what we might have missed in all the rushing up and down, don't you think? Perhaps we'll find some books or histories from the time before the barrier was created." Perhaps that, or other things... it was hard to know what to expect just yet.
He gestured into the stairwell, where the stairs spiraled around the hole that Safrin had made in her bid to reach the Tulmhainar. "I'll let you choose our first path. Up, or down?"
Yet.
And until the Blight had been burned out, root and branch, from the Greatwood and Hollowed Grounds, he could only split his attention so many directions.
Jigano smiled as Sam arrived, and turned to greet his friend while Isuma chirruped a hello of her own. "I don't mind," he chuckled ruefully. "It's true enough. But I'm hardly an invalid, and hopefully we won't find anything too troublesome tonight. After the tumult of that first night when the barrier fell, and then following Amalia down to free the Tulmhainar... well, we haven't really had a chance to do much looking around just to see what's here. It's worth seeing what we might have missed in all the rushing up and down, don't you think? Perhaps we'll find some books or histories from the time before the barrier was created." Perhaps that, or other things... it was hard to know what to expect just yet.
He gestured into the stairwell, where the stairs spiraled around the hole that Safrin had made in her bid to reach the Tulmhainar. "I'll let you choose our first path. Up, or down?"
