Oh, he had pushed his wisdom more than once, a mistake that had cost him more than one friendship. Some he had been able to rebuild, others... others dangled, breaking and broken, beneath the weight of his hubris. It had been a year of painful lessons and failures, backsliding and self-sabotage, but he was learning, however slowly, to let go and allow his friends to live their lives, even if they chose not to accept his help. His was only one way after all, and in the world there were many ways, and 'right' or 'wrong' didn't always apply to them. They just... were. Sometimes he had to let go and trust in his friends the way they trusted in him. In the end weren't they all stronger for it?
The darkness was little barrier to a man with a fox's eyes, and he felt a faint surge of satisfaction that he had guessed correctly about her desire for a task beyond scattering the ashes of her old life. "I know little myself," he admitted ruefully. "I learned of it mostly from Loren, who you'll meet soon enough, I'm sure. A substance that amplifies magic..." He paused, a hint of warning coming into his voice. "But which can also cause it to go out of control, becoming too powerful for a mage to control. It's rumored to be found in Halo, but Warder Neron claims it doesn't exist - or at least, that they don't have any. He's offered me the chance to go looking for it, though the location is near a village of exiles with... questionable eating habits." No need to shock Maea just yet. Not when her curiosity would almost certainly lead her to pursuing more details soon enough.
The surprise on her face was nearly enough to surprise a laugh from him, if their surroundings had been less dour. He shook his head as he stripped the thorns from the flower, then reached out in invitation, tucking the flower behind Maea's ear if she would allow it. "Oh, the Voice has only threatened to kill me if I interfere with her portals," he said lightly, as if it were a mild annoyance and not the life-ending edge of danger he knowingly danced along. "Which is its own little piece of awkwardness. But no. Safrin grew tired of my..." And there he paused, the forced levity fading as he sighed and looked down to the lantern at his feet. "My pride. My... hubris. My desire to be a hero when in her eyes I am anything but." He attempted to shrug it off, but there was a pain and a fear there that had been burned into his soul at her hands. "The magic was not intentional on her part, I think. It was... an accident. A side effect of her punishment, nothing more. But it has been just as effective, in its own way." He looked back to her, a weary sadness in his smile. "To have all this power, to have regained the magic I had so long yearned for... and to have it fail so often. I can Heal, but I cannot fix Amalia's legs. I can make fruit and flowers grow... but not in the land of Halo, where they need food even more desperately than here." The 'curse' was not the magic itself, but the miracles he had once seen performed by others, that he could not do himself, even to save his friends.
The darkness was little barrier to a man with a fox's eyes, and he felt a faint surge of satisfaction that he had guessed correctly about her desire for a task beyond scattering the ashes of her old life. "I know little myself," he admitted ruefully. "I learned of it mostly from Loren, who you'll meet soon enough, I'm sure. A substance that amplifies magic..." He paused, a hint of warning coming into his voice. "But which can also cause it to go out of control, becoming too powerful for a mage to control. It's rumored to be found in Halo, but Warder Neron claims it doesn't exist - or at least, that they don't have any. He's offered me the chance to go looking for it, though the location is near a village of exiles with... questionable eating habits." No need to shock Maea just yet. Not when her curiosity would almost certainly lead her to pursuing more details soon enough.
The surprise on her face was nearly enough to surprise a laugh from him, if their surroundings had been less dour. He shook his head as he stripped the thorns from the flower, then reached out in invitation, tucking the flower behind Maea's ear if she would allow it. "Oh, the Voice has only threatened to kill me if I interfere with her portals," he said lightly, as if it were a mild annoyance and not the life-ending edge of danger he knowingly danced along. "Which is its own little piece of awkwardness. But no. Safrin grew tired of my..." And there he paused, the forced levity fading as he sighed and looked down to the lantern at his feet. "My pride. My... hubris. My desire to be a hero when in her eyes I am anything but." He attempted to shrug it off, but there was a pain and a fear there that had been burned into his soul at her hands. "The magic was not intentional on her part, I think. It was... an accident. A side effect of her punishment, nothing more. But it has been just as effective, in its own way." He looked back to her, a weary sadness in his smile. "To have all this power, to have regained the magic I had so long yearned for... and to have it fail so often. I can Heal, but I cannot fix Amalia's legs. I can make fruit and flowers grow... but not in the land of Halo, where they need food even more desperately than here." The 'curse' was not the magic itself, but the miracles he had once seen performed by others, that he could not do himself, even to save his friends.
