The darkness still coiled within his skin, sliding slick, black tentacles through his veins to wrap around his heart and throat, inciting rage and deep melancholy, vicious insults and snarling epithets at those who deserved them least. The Blight still corrupted his body and wove its dark influence over his heart... but it no longer controlled him, drinking down his mind and soul into an oblivion from which he had never thought to emerge. Roses had been planted, thorns had been wielded, and the grey light of dawn had begun to filter through the nightmare, promising that sunrise would indeed come again.
He was still weak from the trials the Blight had forced his body to undergo, gaunt from lack of proper food and rest and his white hair hung lank in its braid. Black veins still crawled through his eyes and beneath the skin of his hands, but the ebony was cut with more crimson each day, and though his hands shook as though palsied they once again obeyed his conscious direction, clawless and strengthening by the day.
The bard walked across the Bone Bridge on slow feet, leaning on a walking staff that was going into its second season of use and wrapped in a cloak of white furs, though his skin was still chill to the touch and warmth was hard to come by. He walked with purpose, however slowly, knotted measuring strings and stakes in the pack he carried. Blue peeked through the blackness that still shadowed his eyes, and he squinted against the snow that was beginning to fall from a steel-grey sky as he reached the center of the macabre span--
And nearly tripped over a bundle of clothing and meat in a human-shaped skin. A very upset human-shaped creature from the look of him, and Jigano cleared his throat gently as he stopped and leaned on his staff, hesitant to reach down when he was uncertain of his own strength.
"What is wrong?" he asked instead, voice quiet and coaxing though still rough with blight-strain.
He was still weak from the trials the Blight had forced his body to undergo, gaunt from lack of proper food and rest and his white hair hung lank in its braid. Black veins still crawled through his eyes and beneath the skin of his hands, but the ebony was cut with more crimson each day, and though his hands shook as though palsied they once again obeyed his conscious direction, clawless and strengthening by the day.
The bard walked across the Bone Bridge on slow feet, leaning on a walking staff that was going into its second season of use and wrapped in a cloak of white furs, though his skin was still chill to the touch and warmth was hard to come by. He walked with purpose, however slowly, knotted measuring strings and stakes in the pack he carried. Blue peeked through the blackness that still shadowed his eyes, and he squinted against the snow that was beginning to fall from a steel-grey sky as he reached the center of the macabre span--
And nearly tripped over a bundle of clothing and meat in a human-shaped skin. A very upset human-shaped creature from the look of him, and Jigano cleared his throat gently as he stopped and leaned on his staff, hesitant to reach down when he was uncertain of his own strength.
"What is wrong?" he asked instead, voice quiet and coaxing though still rough with blight-strain.
