He had seen this sky before, with no air or clouds to soften it, nothing but the icy expanse of darkness and the suns that shone with a steady, distant light. He had seen it in the memory of a dead traveler between the stars, a soul transposed upon his own, mingling past and future, as that ancient sky-sailor had looked out a porthole upon the endless night beyond.
And seen the stars devoured, winking out, one by one, as the rhu-chalik servants of the Dominion of the Black swarmed the ship Divinity, shredding minds and sanity for their masters and sending the proud vessel into rout that ended upon the soil of Jigano's world in a thousand fiery fallen stars scattered across Numeria.
Safrin's gaze now brought that memory into sharp focus, the devouring darkness rekindled in the frigid caress of her voice as she mocked his struggle. He lacked the strength to fight this goddess, had no friends around him to weave their skills into a defensive web. He was alone in the night, and he knew so very well from Riz and Oni's first betrayal that a lone bard was a dead one.
He was nothing without his friends, be they thieves or bakers, wizards or farmers. And he had been so afraid of them leaving him that he had been doing his damnedest to drive them away, to sabotage his own happiness because deep down, he knew he was worth more as a dead martyr than a living bard. He had been trying to overcome that flaw that she and Ludo had both pointed out to him before, but he wasn't strong enough alone.
But Isuma and Rory had never accepted it. Not once. Of everyone he loved, they returned it without question or reservation. They cared for him fiercely, and that care made him worth something, even in his own jaded eyes.
He couldn't lose either of them.
His heart would not simply break if he did. It would shatter and he didn't know if he would ever find all the pieces again.
And then the goddess lost her patience with him, giving him no more time to struggle, no more time to think. The images she flashed before him stole his breath and stopped his heart, and if he'd been given just a little longer he might have questioned the star-eyed goddess so beloved by Ronin and Amalia threatening innocent lives...
But there was no time, and a single name was torn from his lips in a raw, wounded roar:
"Rory!"
And seen the stars devoured, winking out, one by one, as the rhu-chalik servants of the Dominion of the Black swarmed the ship Divinity, shredding minds and sanity for their masters and sending the proud vessel into rout that ended upon the soil of Jigano's world in a thousand fiery fallen stars scattered across Numeria.
Safrin's gaze now brought that memory into sharp focus, the devouring darkness rekindled in the frigid caress of her voice as she mocked his struggle. He lacked the strength to fight this goddess, had no friends around him to weave their skills into a defensive web. He was alone in the night, and he knew so very well from Riz and Oni's first betrayal that a lone bard was a dead one.
He was nothing without his friends, be they thieves or bakers, wizards or farmers. And he had been so afraid of them leaving him that he had been doing his damnedest to drive them away, to sabotage his own happiness because deep down, he knew he was worth more as a dead martyr than a living bard. He had been trying to overcome that flaw that she and Ludo had both pointed out to him before, but he wasn't strong enough alone.
But Isuma and Rory had never accepted it. Not once. Of everyone he loved, they returned it without question or reservation. They cared for him fiercely, and that care made him worth something, even in his own jaded eyes.
He couldn't lose either of them.
His heart would not simply break if he did. It would shatter and he didn't know if he would ever find all the pieces again.
And then the goddess lost her patience with him, giving him no more time to struggle, no more time to think. The images she flashed before him stole his breath and stopped his heart, and if he'd been given just a little longer he might have questioned the star-eyed goddess so beloved by Ronin and Amalia threatening innocent lives...
But there was no time, and a single name was torn from his lips in a raw, wounded roar:
"Rory!"
