Deimos, it seemed, shared Remi's enthusiasm for the portals as the taller man's focus seemed to narrow down onto him at the revelation. Jigano nodded confirmation of his friend's emphasis, and felt a wry, if weary amusement at the question. "I brought it up once before, before the barrier fell," he said quietly, but without reproach. He remembered the tall shadow brooding in the back of the room, back in the time before they had known each other's names properly. But back then no one had seemed interesting in doing anything with the knowledge he shared. Now, perhaps, it would be different.
Perhaps.
"There is ocean to the east of us, or there should be. When I went exploring in that direction before, we found ourselves hemmed in by a great elemental storm of lightning and wind. We found the same thing when Amalia took us west, towards the Stonesong... and the mountains that we think lay beyond." He exhaled slowly, remembering the very roughly drawn map that the book had contained, and gave a wry smile to his friend. "There is desert on this continent, and plains, and volcanoes... if the map we have is accurate," he admitted in the name of honesty. But Safrin had seemed to indicate that it was, and that no few of those places were connected by the portal network. Whether that network sill worked... well, they wouldn't know until they cleared the gas and tried to reach that pillar of light again.
And talk of how to reach it had the other man tensing up again, smile fading and barriers being built between them again. Jigano studied him for a long moment as he considered not the questions, but the one who asked them. "The gas is a problem," he acknowledged. "Vai will use the wind to keep as much of it away from us as possible while the other mages work. Your masks were better than nothing, and Remi will probably come by soon to ask you how you made them and see if they can be improved with the two of you working together. Other than that... there are a lot of plants, and the more we can bring to bear against them, the better. But I don't think Rory will let me go down there again without him," he acknowledged with a wistful tilt of his head, both glad to have someone who loved him enough to follow him into hell, and desperately afraid that the farmer would be badly hurt if he did. "So we will have fire, at least. Even if using it is dangerous with the gas." Vai had told him about the explosion. That was something else they would have to watch out for...
Perhaps.
"There is ocean to the east of us, or there should be. When I went exploring in that direction before, we found ourselves hemmed in by a great elemental storm of lightning and wind. We found the same thing when Amalia took us west, towards the Stonesong... and the mountains that we think lay beyond." He exhaled slowly, remembering the very roughly drawn map that the book had contained, and gave a wry smile to his friend. "There is desert on this continent, and plains, and volcanoes... if the map we have is accurate," he admitted in the name of honesty. But Safrin had seemed to indicate that it was, and that no few of those places were connected by the portal network. Whether that network sill worked... well, they wouldn't know until they cleared the gas and tried to reach that pillar of light again.
And talk of how to reach it had the other man tensing up again, smile fading and barriers being built between them again. Jigano studied him for a long moment as he considered not the questions, but the one who asked them. "The gas is a problem," he acknowledged. "Vai will use the wind to keep as much of it away from us as possible while the other mages work. Your masks were better than nothing, and Remi will probably come by soon to ask you how you made them and see if they can be improved with the two of you working together. Other than that... there are a lot of plants, and the more we can bring to bear against them, the better. But I don't think Rory will let me go down there again without him," he acknowledged with a wistful tilt of his head, both glad to have someone who loved him enough to follow him into hell, and desperately afraid that the farmer would be badly hurt if he did. "So we will have fire, at least. Even if using it is dangerous with the gas." Vai had told him about the explosion. That was something else they would have to watch out for...
