Shattered
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
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Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#15
His throat burned as he continued to struggle, spine arching as his body tried and failed to twist free. To shrink, to grow, to find freedom in feathers or scales. He failed and failed again, with the names of his friends echoing in his mind.

Amalia, dear to him as a sister, the one he loved so fiercely that he wounded her without meaning to.

Kiada, young and proud and brave as a lion, becoming something even stronger and more amazing every day.

Melita, child of the sun and summer just as Rory was, bright and full of mischief, who made him smile even as he cherished their friendship.

To save one he held close in his heart, who had held him before when he had fallen apart and helped him find his way again? Or to save two he held great affection for, innocent souls who brought brightness to his life and who he wanted so desperately to protect and earn their respect? Always before he had chosen the good of the many over the good of the few, choosing the world over his own heart, making of himself the martyr he wished to be...

But Caido had changed him, no matter how hard he had struggled against it, nor how often he fall back into bad old habits. The many might outweigh the few, but he loved Amalia, deeply and in spite of how he had failed her. He could not imagine Safrin harming her shield, no matter how angry she grew at him...

But he couldn't risk it. No matter the rightness of choosing to save two over one he couldn't abandon the baker who had never abandoned him.

Safrin had been right when she accused him of wanting to be a hero, spinning his stories to make him seem better than he was. He was no baker nor farmer, no. He was a villain in his own right, at best the lesser of two evils, and no matter how hard he tried to overcome that the taint of his previous choices would always be with him.

His struggles subsided as the name fell from his lips in a broken whisper:

"Amalia."


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#16
SAFRIN
Well see, now things were getting interesting.

"Rory, or Amalia and Kiada?"

Coding base by Sky!
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
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Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#17
She asked impossible choices of him, and the emotional toll of them combined with the glittering, dizzying cosmos around them gave him no chance to second-guess her reasons or her goals. He could only stare into eyes comprised of distant galaxies in mute despair before he finally hung his head, knowing that the choice alone would cost him everything.

Choose one, and should harm come to the other he would never be forgiven. The goddess had caught him truly, and he shuddered in the magical shackles that held him bound in place as he closed his eyes, seeking the truth in his heart. He loved them all, knew they all cared for him. But as much as Kiada meant to him... as much as Amalia meant to him, the young woman growing into her confidence and strength, blossoming beneath the skies of Caido until he couldn't be prouder of her...

His voice was not even a whisper, the name barely a breath as he exhaled it through the tightness in his chest, his body otherwise limp and defeated in his bonds as Safrin stripped all the pretty lies away and laid bare the truth he had been trying to hide from and overcome for so long.

"Rory."


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#18
SAFRIN
See, now they were getting somewhere.

"Rory, or that Amalia and Deimos would forget each other entirely."

Coding base by Sky!
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
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Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#19
His happiness, or that of Amalia? He and Deimos had never been close, but the big man meant worlds to Amalia. He had done much for her that Jigano had been unable to. Much of her recent confidence had come from him, and the love and support he gave her, as the bard's better impulses came from Rory's influence. Neither of them would be who they were without their partners. If he lost Rory, he would lose so much of the light in his life. But if Amalia lost Deimos, or at least the memory of him, what would become of her? Would she lose all that confidence, that strength she had uncovered in herself with the General's help? She had been through so much already...

But so had Rory.

And so had he.

He had no right to choose for any of them, but he trusted in the love that Amalia and Deimos shared. It was foolish and stubborn of him to think like that, he knew, but they would find each other across worlds and stars now that their hearts had connected. They were both strong. Stronger than he was, in so many ways.

If he lost his heart, if he lost Rory...

"Rory," he said again, helplessly. Hopelessly. He was afraid he would lose everything, as Remi once had, but in the grip of the goddess's power he could do nothing but answer the impossible questions she put to him as she broke him down to cosmic dust and forced him to face the inherent selfishness in his heart.


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#20
SAFRIN
The chains around the bard begin to loosen. Only a few more to break. Only a few more questions to ask.

"Killing an innocent? Never seeing Rory again?"

Coding base by Sky!
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
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Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#21
When it had been between deaths of those he loved he had known that one would be lost no matter the choice. He had chosen selfishly, hating the choice but being dragged away from his self-destructive impulse towards martyrdom by the genuine fear of losing that which he loved most in the world.

When it had been between the death of the one he loved most and Amalia's heart, even then he had chosen Rory, chosen his lover's life in the trust and hope that Amalia and Deimos would find one another again, that their bond would be strong enough to endure.

But this? His happiness and Rory's... but on the other side of the scale, a life that could have been saved. There was no justification for it, no argument he could make to himself to mitigate the price even a little. On one side, death. On the other... no one dying. And all it would cost was his heart.

So there was a line he wouldn't cross, hypocritical though it was.

Tears rolled unheeded down his cheeks, his voice dull and colorless as his hair as he answered: "Never... seeing Rory again."


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#22
SAFRIN
More chains fall away.

"Rory, or never seeing anyone within the Hollowed Grounds again?"

Coding base by Sky!
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
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Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#23
The chains might have been falling, but the bard's struggles had ceased as Safrin's interrogation shook him to his core, snapping connections inside of him that he had clung to for years just as much as the shackles that bound him. As he was given more freedom of movement he curled inwards, instinctively trying to make himself smaller and less of a target, though there was no evading the arrows of her words.

To remain with the man he loved, or to lose the friendships and family he had built over the past year?

The question should have been harder than the others. And yet... so many had died. So many he couldn't save, or at least hadn't been there for. Even those who lived he had hurt over and over again, by accident or self-righteous arrogance. Sam and Amalia, Kiada and Remi... It would hurt them if he left he hoped knew. It would be a betrayal, in a long line of them, that few would ever forgive, not after all he had done before.

But they would mourn his loss and move on, hopefully to healthier, better friendships than he had been able to give them. Safrin was right. He had no real importance to the Hollowed Grounds except in his own mind. They might not be better off for his loss... but they wouldn't be worse, either. There would be others who could do more for them, be more for them. Remi and Ashetta, Loren and Ronin, all powerful guardians who could put their lives on the line for the people of the Hollowed Grounds.

All Jigano had was words.

And only one that mattered in that moment.

"Rory."


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#24
SAFRIN
The shackles fall away. "There it is." Safrin's voice is far away. Everything is far away, and cold, and isolated, and lonely.

"Next time you fancy yourself the hero bard, you remember this. Next time you dare say you'd do anything for your friends, know that it is a lie. You choose yourself over them every time. Your happiness over theirs. Your love, over theirs.Next time you look into Rory's pretty blue eyes and tell him you'd do anything for your love for him, know that isn't true.

But know this as well. You made the same choices nearly everyone else would. Do you know what that makes you, Jigano?

Not the hero.

Not even the villain.

Just..

ordinary."



Back in the field then, lilac coloured blooms waving around and Isuma at his side, Jigano was left alone, his soul cracked by his own choices, and therein, a new power would grow.



Congratulations! Jigano is now a hybrid!

Coding base by Sky!
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#25
Stars could burn so cold, even though they were fire. Even though they were suns. Safrin's words were colder still, whispering of the places between stars, the great airless ballroom that they moved about in their stately cosmic dance. There were no chains that bound him but still he hung exposed and aching from the trial to which he had been put, stripped of his illusions and airs.

Ordinary.

Once he would have rejected it with all that he had him.

Once he would have longed for it with every broken fiber of his being.

Now...

Now he was too exhausted and too cold to know what to do with the goddess's proclamation. He curled downward on his knees amid the blooms as Isuma cuddled against him, peeping soothingly, and neither of them noticed when the flowers around him seemed to bend just slightly more towards him than the wind could account for.


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