The voice echoed strangely in his ears and in his head - and in his eyes, the text writhing like something living, the ink unbinding from the page and running free and liquid once more across the paper. There was no doubt of who it belonged to, not when he had heard it twice before and would likely remember it all of his days...
Assuming he got to keep those memories.
"A price I offered freely for a bargain you kept," the bard said quietly, his voice confident even though fear flickered through his blood and chased its way through his thoughts. He hadn't expected Ludo to show up, though perhaps he should have. But what harm could there be in a story?
Oh.
The fabric grabbed him before he could react, before he could even draw breath to protest his trespassing upon knowledge that was written down and handed into his keeping. He was given no chance to resist, no chance to struggle before he was yanked into the book in a way that was becoming all-too-familiar and he tumbled into the dark.
Down, down, down the rabbit hole once more, far longer than he had fallen in the previous two books he had been devoured by. Long enough to begin to feel the first stirrings of panic that he would fall forever through the void before the ground found him and brought focus to a world without direction once more. If that was down then he could stand up, legs shaking, as he looked around at the buildings that seemed to lean out of the night and the snow-
Snow?
Wonderingly, Jigano reached out to cup a falling flake in his palm, but the voice that hissed in his ear - in his head - gave him no time for pleasantries. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, the bard tucked his hands into his sleeves and began to walk down the street, eyes darting from shadowed arch to shuttered windows to closed doors, drinking in details and letting questions sizzle and burn through his mind.
But he held his tongue, asking nothing of his guide but the story Ludo had deigned to share with him.
Assuming he got to keep those memories.
"A price I offered freely for a bargain you kept," the bard said quietly, his voice confident even though fear flickered through his blood and chased its way through his thoughts. He hadn't expected Ludo to show up, though perhaps he should have. But what harm could there be in a story?
Oh.
The fabric grabbed him before he could react, before he could even draw breath to protest his trespassing upon knowledge that was written down and handed into his keeping. He was given no chance to resist, no chance to struggle before he was yanked into the book in a way that was becoming all-too-familiar and he tumbled into the dark.
Down, down, down the rabbit hole once more, far longer than he had fallen in the previous two books he had been devoured by. Long enough to begin to feel the first stirrings of panic that he would fall forever through the void before the ground found him and brought focus to a world without direction once more. If that was down then he could stand up, legs shaking, as he looked around at the buildings that seemed to lean out of the night and the snow-
Snow?
Wonderingly, Jigano reached out to cup a falling flake in his palm, but the voice that hissed in his ear - in his head - gave him no time for pleasantries. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, the bard tucked his hands into his sleeves and began to walk down the street, eyes darting from shadowed arch to shuttered windows to closed doors, drinking in details and letting questions sizzle and burn through his mind.
But he held his tongue, asking nothing of his guide but the story Ludo had deigned to share with him.
