He watched Zuriel make her stately withdrawal, bemused at her attitude but assuming it to stem from the fractious friction that flared up so haphazardly between he and the mountain who walked like a man. For a brief moment he wondered what things might have been like between himself and the General if Amalia had not been theree, wedge and binding both between them, but his heart was too heavy for whims right now, and his soul too raw with grief. The notion died before it bloomed, withered on the vine of his thoughts as he turned back to the mage - the mage-Attuned, now - and for the first time heard something of the family that the big man must once have had.
A father who was also a fire mage? Deimos seemed more a man of icy windswept heights than fiery conflagrations. Even his rage was a bitterly cold blizzard, at least what Jigano had seen of it. But for some inherited inferno to manifest itself now? "It's possible. More likely than most, even," he admitted, glancing down for a moment at his own hands. One held the lantern, the other was empty... but there were small calluses there, atop his sword calluses, from the work he'd been doing with Caiside at the forge.
Caiside...
The fire winked out, as Caiside's life had, and Jigano drew a ragged breath as he grasped after the question like a man drowning, reaching for the air. "I think you've seen them all," he said, voice shaking for a moment before he sought to firm it up. "But when I arrived I had only the one I was born with. Last LongNight, when we were fixing the perch, we needed to run a rope up through the top beam... and I found myself cloaked in a raven's feathers to carry it there. Then the night we were tested by the river spirit I left with a horse's hooves. And when we went down into the Spire's basement to... find... the Tulmhainar," not save it, no. They had certainly not managed to save it in the way that Amalia had hoped, but perhaps they had freed it all the same. "I found my snake's scales mores resistant to the poison." He shrugged a little, reaching up with his free hand to rub at Isuma's head as she cuddled against his neck. "But since then... no, nothing more."Because he doesn't know he's leveled up yet.
A father who was also a fire mage? Deimos seemed more a man of icy windswept heights than fiery conflagrations. Even his rage was a bitterly cold blizzard, at least what Jigano had seen of it. But for some inherited inferno to manifest itself now? "It's possible. More likely than most, even," he admitted, glancing down for a moment at his own hands. One held the lantern, the other was empty... but there were small calluses there, atop his sword calluses, from the work he'd been doing with Caiside at the forge.
Caiside...
The fire winked out, as Caiside's life had, and Jigano drew a ragged breath as he grasped after the question like a man drowning, reaching for the air. "I think you've seen them all," he said, voice shaking for a moment before he sought to firm it up. "But when I arrived I had only the one I was born with. Last LongNight, when we were fixing the perch, we needed to run a rope up through the top beam... and I found myself cloaked in a raven's feathers to carry it there. Then the night we were tested by the river spirit I left with a horse's hooves. And when we went down into the Spire's basement to... find... the Tulmhainar," not save it, no. They had certainly not managed to save it in the way that Amalia had hoped, but perhaps they had freed it all the same. "I found my snake's scales mores resistant to the poison." He shrugged a little, reaching up with his free hand to rub at Isuma's head as she cuddled against his neck. "But since then... no, nothing more."
