"No... but did you do anything to help Rex free herself when she made it clear she didn't want to go through with it?" Jigano asked coolly. Rexanna had been the one who had protested, fought, run so she wouldn't be abused in such a way. Perhaps she would have chosen Ascension someday for Bastien's sake anyways, but Zariah had forced her to make that choice much sooner and under far greater pressure than she would have done otherwise. And from what he'd heard from Rex, Peter had been unhappy... but had been willing to go along with it, to drag her into his misery rather than stand up to the Tyrant's bullying demands.
But at least he hadn't been an active force for cruelty. Loren had risen above his name, so perhaps Peter could as well. Jigano didn't know him well enough yet to see if there was steel beneath that quiet exterior, a core of something sturdy enough to survive the undertow of Zariah's personality...
Or if he'd be pulled out into the depths and drowned beneath her ambitions, as had happened to so many others in Northhaven.
So though a distance came between them, Jigano did not turn the would-be Launceleyn away. He continued to talk to him, though his answers were terser than they had been, and his joy in the day was clearly diminished. "Everyone is studying that," the bard agreed gravely. "It's a truth everyone wants to know. The old gods have their side of things, and the Voice has hers, but it's likely the truth is somewhere in between. I don't trust the Voice... but the old gods are hardly unbiased in this matter. So we gather scraps of what we learn from both sides and try to piece a coherent tale together from them."
It was a damn shame that Zariah had her talons in the man, Jigano thought with a frustration he tried not to show as they shoveled and magicked the earth to contain the Memory Mud. He would have liked to invite Peter to the guild, finding the quiet man's curiosity refreshing... but he couldn't risk Zariah slipping a spy within his members so easily. If Peter would have married Rex because the Tyrant told him to, something as simple as stealing journals and some of their more precious and unique books might make the newest Launceleyn feel guilty, but it would hardly give him greater pause than being forced to marry a stranger.
Damn the woman anyways. A pity Caido didn't have a hell he could see her in.
The Undine's Song had been enough of a distraction that the bard hadn't noticed the strangers gathered, too focused on her and how to ease her pain. He slanted Peter a questioning glance at hearing that he hadn't heard about the Ascended's part in spreading the Blight, given that it had been the talk of the town for a season's span, but simply nodded an affirmative to the information.
He tilted his head thoughtfully, wondering if Peter would take the chance even if it was offered to him, or if he preferred the supposed safety of Zariah's steely fingers around his throat. Some men were like that, though Jigano had difficulty trying to see things from that angle. He had always fought; first, his father's plans to make him a smith, then the town's uneasiness with the star-fallen technology he had loved to scrounge as he explored around Torch, and then, of course, against the Technic League, the Black Sovereign, and the iron god Unity itself.
But that was his way, not Peter's, and he simply offered an encouraging smile and a nod, hoping that the seed he had planted might yet grow into a flower of freedom for the scholar at his side.
"I'll keep you in mind," he assured the Launceleyn, though he made no promises to recruit him for more assistance in the future. For now he'd watch and wait, and see what he would make of himself and his newfound family ties. If he was one such as Loren, then there would be no problem. But if he truly was Zariah's pet...
Well. Cross that bridge when they came to it.
Tools put away and barrels of mud headed out of town, Jigano turned to jog back to catch up with the wagon, determined to see this project through to the messy, muddy end. But at least the mud would be outside of the Atheneum and away from their precious books!
{Finish}
But at least he hadn't been an active force for cruelty. Loren had risen above his name, so perhaps Peter could as well. Jigano didn't know him well enough yet to see if there was steel beneath that quiet exterior, a core of something sturdy enough to survive the undertow of Zariah's personality...
Or if he'd be pulled out into the depths and drowned beneath her ambitions, as had happened to so many others in Northhaven.
So though a distance came between them, Jigano did not turn the would-be Launceleyn away. He continued to talk to him, though his answers were terser than they had been, and his joy in the day was clearly diminished. "Everyone is studying that," the bard agreed gravely. "It's a truth everyone wants to know. The old gods have their side of things, and the Voice has hers, but it's likely the truth is somewhere in between. I don't trust the Voice... but the old gods are hardly unbiased in this matter. So we gather scraps of what we learn from both sides and try to piece a coherent tale together from them."
It was a damn shame that Zariah had her talons in the man, Jigano thought with a frustration he tried not to show as they shoveled and magicked the earth to contain the Memory Mud. He would have liked to invite Peter to the guild, finding the quiet man's curiosity refreshing... but he couldn't risk Zariah slipping a spy within his members so easily. If Peter would have married Rex because the Tyrant told him to, something as simple as stealing journals and some of their more precious and unique books might make the newest Launceleyn feel guilty, but it would hardly give him greater pause than being forced to marry a stranger.
Damn the woman anyways. A pity Caido didn't have a hell he could see her in.
The Undine's Song had been enough of a distraction that the bard hadn't noticed the strangers gathered, too focused on her and how to ease her pain. He slanted Peter a questioning glance at hearing that he hadn't heard about the Ascended's part in spreading the Blight, given that it had been the talk of the town for a season's span, but simply nodded an affirmative to the information.
He tilted his head thoughtfully, wondering if Peter would take the chance even if it was offered to him, or if he preferred the supposed safety of Zariah's steely fingers around his throat. Some men were like that, though Jigano had difficulty trying to see things from that angle. He had always fought; first, his father's plans to make him a smith, then the town's uneasiness with the star-fallen technology he had loved to scrounge as he explored around Torch, and then, of course, against the Technic League, the Black Sovereign, and the iron god Unity itself.
But that was his way, not Peter's, and he simply offered an encouraging smile and a nod, hoping that the seed he had planted might yet grow into a flower of freedom for the scholar at his side.
"I'll keep you in mind," he assured the Launceleyn, though he made no promises to recruit him for more assistance in the future. For now he'd watch and wait, and see what he would make of himself and his newfound family ties. If he was one such as Loren, then there would be no problem. But if he truly was Zariah's pet...
Well. Cross that bridge when they came to it.
Tools put away and barrels of mud headed out of town, Jigano turned to jog back to catch up with the wagon, determined to see this project through to the messy, muddy end. But at least the mud would be outside of the Atheneum and away from their precious books!
{Finish}
