The finality of Ludo's 'no' bowed Jigano's head with the weight of regret that he wouldn't be able to give his friend better news. He had hoped to find a way, a loophole in the Voice's contract, to bring some of that wayward flock back to the Old Gods. He had hoped to find hope for those who had been tricked or bribed by the Voice... and though it fluttered away to shreds beneath the soul guide's quiet certainty, still the bard held to a sliver of it.
Just because something had never been done before didn't mean it couldn't be done at all. But at the very least there was no simple, easy way for it to happen. So be it. Jigano wouldn't give up looking, but he would put most of his energies elsewhere for the moment.
"The Spire," Jigano repeated, the shame and anger at Wessex and the Voice twisting in his chest as he remembered how the Queen had disoriented him with her strange power, and the iron goddess had trapped and bound even his most powerful of shifts. "I tried to stop one of the Ascended, the one who was brought back after dying to the Spire Demon's claws, from going through the portal after she killed Rae's guardan serpent, but the Voice appeared and stopped me," he admitted, a growl rumbling in his chest. "And she gave her something, some light... some power, I think, as a reward for that murder. Is there some way to shut down or reduce the effects of their upgrades? Some way to defend against them, or at least... at least to protect our blood from their fangs?" He raised his head to look to the soul guide, opening his mind and heart to Ludo so that it could see his memories and how easily he had been overcome by Wessex's biopulse and her use of Loren's copied summoning magic. Showed the masked god, too, the fear that coiled in him at having his own essence used against him by one such as Wessex.
Just because something had never been done before didn't mean it couldn't be done at all. But at the very least there was no simple, easy way for it to happen. So be it. Jigano wouldn't give up looking, but he would put most of his energies elsewhere for the moment.
"The Spire," Jigano repeated, the shame and anger at Wessex and the Voice twisting in his chest as he remembered how the Queen had disoriented him with her strange power, and the iron goddess had trapped and bound even his most powerful of shifts. "I tried to stop one of the Ascended, the one who was brought back after dying to the Spire Demon's claws, from going through the portal after she killed Rae's guardan serpent, but the Voice appeared and stopped me," he admitted, a growl rumbling in his chest. "And she gave her something, some light... some power, I think, as a reward for that murder. Is there some way to shut down or reduce the effects of their upgrades? Some way to defend against them, or at least... at least to protect our blood from their fangs?" He raised his head to look to the soul guide, opening his mind and heart to Ludo so that it could see his memories and how easily he had been overcome by Wessex's biopulse and her use of Loren's copied summoning magic. Showed the masked god, too, the fear that coiled in him at having his own essence used against him by one such as Wessex.
