Jigano gave a tired nod, a stray pulse of gratitude slipping through an Attuned bond he still wasn't used to feeling Deimos on, though no words accompanied it. A promise to tend to the dead, at least one of whom was - had been - a friend sent a shiver of deja vu down his spine, remembering other pyres on other worlds.
Other friends, brothers and sisters in arms, brought down before their time.
His own eyes drifted down to hands that had been cleaned but still smelled of Caiside's blood, or at least held the ghost of the scent in his mind. Not his first body, no, but each one he knew was still a blow. Isla, Emmett, Edy, Lucas, 108... the list grew longer every season, each face added to the ones that had followed him from Numeria. He closed his hands gentle, fingers flexing against his palms as he exhaled and tried to look past the ghosts that clouded his vision. "I should go back..." he said quietly, glancing over briefly to Deimos's hands and the fire they had so recently contained. In another time congratulations might have been in order. Now? He could only hope it was enough to protect the General and their loved ones from the dark.
He didn't leave so much as drifted away, a pale shadow in the crowded hall as he retreated back to the deathwatch to conserve his strength until Kiada needed him.
Other friends, brothers and sisters in arms, brought down before their time.
His own eyes drifted down to hands that had been cleaned but still smelled of Caiside's blood, or at least held the ghost of the scent in his mind. Not his first body, no, but each one he knew was still a blow. Isla, Emmett, Edy, Lucas, 108... the list grew longer every season, each face added to the ones that had followed him from Numeria. He closed his hands gentle, fingers flexing against his palms as he exhaled and tried to look past the ghosts that clouded his vision. "I should go back..." he said quietly, glancing over briefly to Deimos's hands and the fire they had so recently contained. In another time congratulations might have been in order. Now? He could only hope it was enough to protect the General and their loved ones from the dark.
He didn't leave so much as drifted away, a pale shadow in the crowded hall as he retreated back to the deathwatch to conserve his strength until Kiada needed him.
