"You held out long enough," he assured her. And she had, clearing the air long enough for Delah to build the shelter, at least. Jigano gave a thoughtful nod as she accepted his offer of explanation, and he sat back a bit as he gathered the threads of the tale from a wound still raw and grieving for what had been lost. "Where to start... is a little difficult," he admitted, frowning down at nails dirt-blackened and roughened, a far cry from their usual clean and well-manicured state. "I suppose all the way back to the night the Barrier fell. A group went into the basement of the Spire, and later a couple came out, warning of that poisonous gas and in terrible shape. A few of us went in after those who were still down there, intending to bring them out again, hoping to rescue them." He sighed, grimacing slightly at the memories of that night, all shadows and blood and pain.
"When we got down there we found... well. One dead man, his head bitten off. A giant tortoise-like creature that had been slain, and in the room beyond that a great white snake protecting a pillar of light..." Something he meant to talk to Vai about later, but he was afraid to digress too far, and instead pulled himself back from the tangent for the moment. "At the time we had to flee when the Spire shook and started to collapse. We thought the tortoise creature dead, and the snake refused to leave its duty and was presumed dead afterwards as well. But... we were wrong."
He looked up at Vai and Felix, lips twitching in a weary smile. "This next part of the tale is more Amalia's than mine. While she was in the Fae village she met a creature called a Tulmhainar, a giant tortoise-like being she described as very ancient, and very kind, that feeds on memories. Not that it steals them," he quickly reassured her, knowing how touchy a subject that could be, "but just the act of sharing them gives it sustenance, somehow. I... am not very clear on how it got there, but that meeting made Amalia realize that the creature we had found below the Spire was likely one as well, and she learned that such beings do not die so easily. She gathered us, and the Fae joined us, to try and rescue the Tulmhainar who we thought was trapped beneath the Spire, and to try and free it and heal it if we could." He winced, expression going somber as he sighed. "That is what we were doing down there in the first place, and why. What we actually achieved..." The look he turned on his friend was bleak as he shook his head and glanced away, lips tightening against the admission of failure.
"When we got down there we found... well. One dead man, his head bitten off. A giant tortoise-like creature that had been slain, and in the room beyond that a great white snake protecting a pillar of light..." Something he meant to talk to Vai about later, but he was afraid to digress too far, and instead pulled himself back from the tangent for the moment. "At the time we had to flee when the Spire shook and started to collapse. We thought the tortoise creature dead, and the snake refused to leave its duty and was presumed dead afterwards as well. But... we were wrong."
He looked up at Vai and Felix, lips twitching in a weary smile. "This next part of the tale is more Amalia's than mine. While she was in the Fae village she met a creature called a Tulmhainar, a giant tortoise-like being she described as very ancient, and very kind, that feeds on memories. Not that it steals them," he quickly reassured her, knowing how touchy a subject that could be, "but just the act of sharing them gives it sustenance, somehow. I... am not very clear on how it got there, but that meeting made Amalia realize that the creature we had found below the Spire was likely one as well, and she learned that such beings do not die so easily. She gathered us, and the Fae joined us, to try and rescue the Tulmhainar who we thought was trapped beneath the Spire, and to try and free it and heal it if we could." He winced, expression going somber as he sighed. "That is what we were doing down there in the first place, and why. What we actually achieved..." The look he turned on his friend was bleak as he shook his head and glanced away, lips tightening against the admission of failure.
