Auni was not the person Jigano had expected to find on the other side of the door and for a moment he paused, blinking down at the clever little deer. Isuma was far quicker to react, reep!ing with a mixture of happiness and relief as she abandoned her companion's shoulder to perch upon Auni's glowing antlers, patting her friend's head with gentle talons as she reassured herself that her fellow companion was unhurt.
The bard found a tired smile for their antics, offering a shaking hand for Auni to examine and then scratching beneath the little luxere's chin as he looked past the guardian of the threshold and into the room beyond.
What he saw would have broken his heart, had it not already been bruised and diminished by the weight of the blight in his blood. Gently shifting Auni and Isuma to the side he stepped within and closed the door, turning to see the full ravages of the blight upon the young warrior's body. For a moment he couldn't speak, only shaking his head in negation before he moved across the room on unsteady feet, walking stick abandoned by the door. He knelt beside her and offered his own trembling hands, blue eyes searching her own with a resigned grief at seeing his worst suspicions confirmed.
"The books matter less than you do," he said softly, wanting to reach out, to tend to the wounds that spoke so cruelly of the blight's effects on her. For Rory's sake he had fought it, and he had hidden away the worst of the outward signs as best he could so as not to alarm anyone else, but Kiada, like Ronin, appeared to be further along in the course of the disease - or curse, as Loren had described it - and there was no hiding what she was becoming. "I wanted to apologize for... for many things. For letting you down, and for being unkind. I am sorry, Kiada." He did not bother asking for forgiveness. He wasn't sure he deserved it, and regardless she didn't look like she had the strength to give it.
The bard found a tired smile for their antics, offering a shaking hand for Auni to examine and then scratching beneath the little luxere's chin as he looked past the guardian of the threshold and into the room beyond.
What he saw would have broken his heart, had it not already been bruised and diminished by the weight of the blight in his blood. Gently shifting Auni and Isuma to the side he stepped within and closed the door, turning to see the full ravages of the blight upon the young warrior's body. For a moment he couldn't speak, only shaking his head in negation before he moved across the room on unsteady feet, walking stick abandoned by the door. He knelt beside her and offered his own trembling hands, blue eyes searching her own with a resigned grief at seeing his worst suspicions confirmed.
"The books matter less than you do," he said softly, wanting to reach out, to tend to the wounds that spoke so cruelly of the blight's effects on her. For Rory's sake he had fought it, and he had hidden away the worst of the outward signs as best he could so as not to alarm anyone else, but Kiada, like Ronin, appeared to be further along in the course of the disease - or curse, as Loren had described it - and there was no hiding what she was becoming. "I wanted to apologize for... for many things. For letting you down, and for being unkind. I am sorry, Kiada." He did not bother asking for forgiveness. He wasn't sure he deserved it, and regardless she didn't look like she had the strength to give it.
