It was the question he had been expecting, since the day in the Guildhall when Sam had asked it before. The abruptness of it then had prickled the kitsune's pride, and a closing up of the defenses that he was only just beginning to lower. Things were different now, though. It was not the secret it had once been, and this time he had offered his friend the question. It made a difference, what was offered and what was taken, and he smiled wryly at the bookmaker's confusion. "We just talked about how marriage and courtship might be different between worlds," he said gently instead of answering immediately. "So, too, with other things. The ability to use magic was common on my world, often celebrated, and it was not unusual for it to be a gift from the gods themselves, granted to their worshipers and priests. Here... Here, mages are called 'Abandoned' and the gods have turned their faces away from them. Many of the Naturals who are mages do not like to talk about it or reveal their powers. In the same way, just because Attuned are 'normal' and welcomed here does not mean it is that way on other worlds, where they may face difficulty for being a shapechanger." The bard sighed, sipping his tea and closing his eyes to savor the taste of the apples beneath the rich flavor of the tea leaves.
"Yes, I am Attuned, Sam. But on my world I was a kitsune, from a race of shape changers neither human nor animal, but something... both. And neither. We are our own people, our own race, much as the Fae are. I was not born human, and I was not given a choice of it, as your Attuned here are. If I had been raised in the land of my ancestors, among my own people, it would have been different... but my parents had traveled far, across an ocean and a continent, to settle in a strange land where our kind were very rare, indeed. They wore their human shapes at all times, and kept me hidden and disguised until I was old enough to control my own shifting... and I was raised to hide my abilities and the truth of what I was from everyone. I never told anyone on my world, not my closest friends who I had known for years, not those who I owed my life to a hundred times over, that I was anything other than a human mage, an Oracle and Bard. Of those who learned of it on their own... well. Only one was still alive when I last heard from him, but he, too, was from the land of my ancestors. So." Jigano shrugged carefully, raising his eyes to look at Sam over the rim of his cup. "So the secrets kept for a lifetime are not so easily shared, no matter how close the friendship. It has taken time to try and unlearn the defenses that kept me alive, on at least two occasions, when a foe aimed for the heart of a human and struck - but a kitsune's heart is a little further down and to the right, and so I survived a blow that would have otherwise killed me, had I flaunted what I was as your Attuned here do."
He raised a brow at hearing thatSamuel would never likely get married, a silent chastising of the Ascended man's low opinion of himself, and the bard let his disbelief speak for itself, finding silence to be as effective as dissent sometimes.
"Yes, I am Attuned, Sam. But on my world I was a kitsune, from a race of shape changers neither human nor animal, but something... both. And neither. We are our own people, our own race, much as the Fae are. I was not born human, and I was not given a choice of it, as your Attuned here are. If I had been raised in the land of my ancestors, among my own people, it would have been different... but my parents had traveled far, across an ocean and a continent, to settle in a strange land where our kind were very rare, indeed. They wore their human shapes at all times, and kept me hidden and disguised until I was old enough to control my own shifting... and I was raised to hide my abilities and the truth of what I was from everyone. I never told anyone on my world, not my closest friends who I had known for years, not those who I owed my life to a hundred times over, that I was anything other than a human mage, an Oracle and Bard. Of those who learned of it on their own... well. Only one was still alive when I last heard from him, but he, too, was from the land of my ancestors. So." Jigano shrugged carefully, raising his eyes to look at Sam over the rim of his cup. "So the secrets kept for a lifetime are not so easily shared, no matter how close the friendship. It has taken time to try and unlearn the defenses that kept me alive, on at least two occasions, when a foe aimed for the heart of a human and struck - but a kitsune's heart is a little further down and to the right, and so I survived a blow that would have otherwise killed me, had I flaunted what I was as your Attuned here do."
He raised a brow at hearing that
