Remi had warned him that Sam thought the bard hated him, so Jigano wasn’t as surprised as he might have otherwise been. The hurt had been given time to fade, for emotions to calm as he remembered the bookmaker’s quirks and odd memory lapses. He accepted the ‘oh’ with a final, gentle pat to his friend’s shoulder before he helped him stand and then began to lead the way, giving the bookmaker his arm to lean on as the Ascended seemed to totter unbalanced down the hall.
The story was remarkably coherent for Sam, and rather than risk derailing it Jigano simply listened, drinking in the words and testing the connections they made with what was already known. Did he judge the other man for his gullibility and childish petulance at proving the Voice wasn’t a careless child letting her toys rot in the yard when she was done with them? Absolutely, but he kept the words locked behind his teeth for now. It was done, it couldn’t be undone, and after what he had sparked with Amalia he was afraid of voicing any criticism of his friends at all.
He had so few friends left, and the part of him that tried to drive them away because he didn’t deserve them had done more than enough damage to those that remained.
Sam’s barrier was news to him, as was Rexanna’s ability to become invisible. Jigano merely nodded thoughtfully, filing the information away and giving his friend’s arm a reassuring pat when Sam tensed or shivered. He wanted to shiver, too, at the description of how Rex had lost her eyes, remembering the sunken lids over them as he had helped to set her broken bones. ”It bit you?” he asked, an obvious question but one he wanted to make absolutely sure of. ”Before you could determine anything about its shape or substance?” If Sam had learned at least that much maybe they could formulate a better plan for dealing with them…
The question came as Jigano paused outside a plain door, expression falling into grim lines once more as he looked to his friend with an apology in his eyes. ”We aren’t letting them have the bodies this year,” he explained, a catch in his usually controlled voice. ”Those who die on the doorstep… we’re bringing them inside so we can bury them properly after LongNight, and hopefully save their souls as well.” The lantern on his hip held, he hoped, at least two now. He pushed the door open, angling himself between whatever waited inside and his injured friend, lifting his lantern to bathe the room in its light and illuminating the two bodies already there as he did so. ”Roana… and Caiside.” His voice caught again on the second name, sorrow roughening this throat. ”I’ve been keeping an eye on them, in case… in case something tried to hitch a ride inside with them. Maybe that broken glass is result of something else going on, but I wanted to make sure they were still here and secure… just in case.”
The story was remarkably coherent for Sam, and rather than risk derailing it Jigano simply listened, drinking in the words and testing the connections they made with what was already known. Did he judge the other man for his gullibility and childish petulance at proving the Voice wasn’t a careless child letting her toys rot in the yard when she was done with them? Absolutely, but he kept the words locked behind his teeth for now. It was done, it couldn’t be undone, and after what he had sparked with Amalia he was afraid of voicing any criticism of his friends at all.
He had so few friends left, and the part of him that tried to drive them away because he didn’t deserve them had done more than enough damage to those that remained.
Sam’s barrier was news to him, as was Rexanna’s ability to become invisible. Jigano merely nodded thoughtfully, filing the information away and giving his friend’s arm a reassuring pat when Sam tensed or shivered. He wanted to shiver, too, at the description of how Rex had lost her eyes, remembering the sunken lids over them as he had helped to set her broken bones. ”It bit you?” he asked, an obvious question but one he wanted to make absolutely sure of. ”Before you could determine anything about its shape or substance?” If Sam had learned at least that much maybe they could formulate a better plan for dealing with them…
The question came as Jigano paused outside a plain door, expression falling into grim lines once more as he looked to his friend with an apology in his eyes. ”We aren’t letting them have the bodies this year,” he explained, a catch in his usually controlled voice. ”Those who die on the doorstep… we’re bringing them inside so we can bury them properly after LongNight, and hopefully save their souls as well.” The lantern on his hip held, he hoped, at least two now. He pushed the door open, angling himself between whatever waited inside and his injured friend, lifting his lantern to bathe the room in its light and illuminating the two bodies already there as he did so. ”Roana… and Caiside.” His voice caught again on the second name, sorrow roughening this throat. ”I’ve been keeping an eye on them, in case… in case something tried to hitch a ride inside with them. Maybe that broken glass is result of something else going on, but I wanted to make sure they were still here and secure… just in case.”
