He nodded absolute agreement to keeping the news in mind, but the roiling tension he'd felt at the initial shock of the revelation was fading as his reassurances for Maea served to reassure himself as well. Maybe he was completely wrong about them... but he didn't feel like a copy, and it was really no different than what had happened to his friend Cassandalee on his world. A mind and soul caught in crystal and glass shortly before her original form had been destroyed, until a new body could be found for her centuries later. He had not viewed her as lesser for it, so how could he view himself as such? The Voice's interference in his life hissed and burned deep in his heart, but he had risen above her meddling, and he refused to let her drag him down again now.
The sudden change in subject earned an arched brow of surprise, not least because so few people ever asked him. He was usually on the other side of the question, and a warmer smile played at the corners of his mouth for a moment as he looked down at his pale friend before the carnage of the recent festival reasserted itself and it faded. "Ah, well, busy, yes. Blighted and cursed, with a warrant out for my arrest for a season before I was king for a few hours. Zariah nearly succeeded in closing the Guild, but failed in the end thanks to Amalia. New friends have been made and old ones lost..." He shook his head, looking around at the moonlit Fields and then past them, to a distant farmhouse out of sight, at the edge of the Woods. "Rory and I have come to an... understanding," he said quietly, slanting a glance and a small smile towards Maea again as he spoke. "I live at the farmstead with him now. Isuma often stays near him for me when I am in town or traveling. He is... much withdrawn from the world, these past seasons. This past LongNight was particularly hard on both of us." But Rory's tale was his own to tell should he choose to seek out the pale youngster, Noah's sister. The Provost sighed at the tumultous past and tilted his head at his colleague, a questioning gesture as his hands began to play idly with a pale lily that hadn't been there before. "And you, Maea? How much have you heard of what has passed since we were last together?" A formal phrasing, but a gentle teasing in it for his young friend as they fell back into the rhythm of question and answer and question again.
The sudden change in subject earned an arched brow of surprise, not least because so few people ever asked him. He was usually on the other side of the question, and a warmer smile played at the corners of his mouth for a moment as he looked down at his pale friend before the carnage of the recent festival reasserted itself and it faded. "Ah, well, busy, yes. Blighted and cursed, with a warrant out for my arrest for a season before I was king for a few hours. Zariah nearly succeeded in closing the Guild, but failed in the end thanks to Amalia. New friends have been made and old ones lost..." He shook his head, looking around at the moonlit Fields and then past them, to a distant farmhouse out of sight, at the edge of the Woods. "Rory and I have come to an... understanding," he said quietly, slanting a glance and a small smile towards Maea again as he spoke. "I live at the farmstead with him now. Isuma often stays near him for me when I am in town or traveling. He is... much withdrawn from the world, these past seasons. This past LongNight was particularly hard on both of us." But Rory's tale was his own to tell should he choose to seek out the pale youngster, Noah's sister. The Provost sighed at the tumultous past and tilted his head at his colleague, a questioning gesture as his hands began to play idly with a pale lily that hadn't been there before. "And you, Maea? How much have you heard of what has passed since we were last together?" A formal phrasing, but a gentle teasing in it for his young friend as they fell back into the rhythm of question and answer and question again.
