Jigano smiled at Ingrid's eagerness, though his expression had a tinge of sadness at the end. "Deimos is the General of the Hollowed Grounds, and has been here longer than I. Hotaru and her daughter Cassie arrived but recently. Kiada and Rex have been here nearly as long as Deimos, though. Rex... chose to become Ascended, alongside her husband," he tried to explain delicately. "It... has been a source of some friction in our friendship on my part, I'm sorry to say." It was an admission he made reluctantly, but it was true. He had not made it easy on her the last few times they'd spoken, though he'd helped to put her back together after she'd been attacked by monsters, and rescued her from the fire of the Monster Hunter's Guild when she had been blind.
"Cera... died during LongNight, to the monsters' talons." The news passed his lips on a sigh; a new friend, a potential guildmate, lost to the darkness, like so many others.
"But the others I can help you find," he finished, his voice gentle as he made a show of scooping up Isuma and tickling her back feet so he could pretend not to see her wiping her eyes. "Some of them are especially friends of Isuma's!"
Her suggestion surprised a chuckle from him and he looked up again to raise a brow in mock challenge. "Find me an eggplant seed and I will do just that," he promised with faux solemnity. "They're rather bland, though, don't you think?" An innocent question that could be taken so many terrible ways, and the twinkle in his eye might have revealed that he was well aware of that.
Her question for him was well worth the asking, and his grin returned as he freed Isuma, who proceeded to pounce on his fingers and pretend to ferociously nibble them. "Well, you're talking to the man who founded it, for starters. When I first arrived there was a great big hole in the side of the Atheneum upstairs, and no real rhyme or reason to the shelving. Illiteracy isn't uncommon here, either, so if someone has a question it can be hard to get an answer in a timely fashion. Either finding the right book amidst all those thousands above us, or hoping you can talk to someone who might know someone who has a cousin whose in-law thinks they might know your answer. Also the Sentient Books were getting a bit lonely and we had one running around eating people and not letting them go," he added after a moment's thoughtful consideration. "So I decided to see if I could gather some like-minded friends and colleagues to help put those things to rights. We cleaned the paper wasps out of here and got it fixed up, and the vault makes a good place to store the more dangerous Sentient Books," he nodded towards the heavy metal door towards the back of the room, on the north side of the hall. "We've been keeping journals and chronicles of history for the past year, and gathering books on useful topics for people who need them. We pulled together with our friends and some townsfolk we'd rescued to repair the building, and we offer reading lessons, along with undertaking explorations of unmapped areas to broaden the knowledge of the people here and provide an easy place for people to come with questions. Since we're here a lot, we've developed a sense for where things are shelved," he grinned wryly. "So it's faster for us to pull books if people don't want to take the time to browse themselves." He gestured to Ingrid and then off to the north in a more general manner. "Though the people of Halo are welcome to make use of our talents as well, as long as our two peoples remain at peace. The Fae are welcome here, too... but the Queen has currently forbidden them passage into our land," he admitted with a grimace. "So until that gets sorted out you likely won't meet one." Not least because there wasn't an easy way to tell the Hollowed Grounders and the Halovians apart, and the Fae weren't likely to be picky about who they threw in the Pit in the meantime.
"Cera... died during LongNight, to the monsters' talons." The news passed his lips on a sigh; a new friend, a potential guildmate, lost to the darkness, like so many others.
"But the others I can help you find," he finished, his voice gentle as he made a show of scooping up Isuma and tickling her back feet so he could pretend not to see her wiping her eyes. "Some of them are especially friends of Isuma's!"
Her suggestion surprised a chuckle from him and he looked up again to raise a brow in mock challenge. "Find me an eggplant seed and I will do just that," he promised with faux solemnity. "They're rather bland, though, don't you think?" An innocent question that could be taken so many terrible ways, and the twinkle in his eye might have revealed that he was well aware of that.
Her question for him was well worth the asking, and his grin returned as he freed Isuma, who proceeded to pounce on his fingers and pretend to ferociously nibble them. "Well, you're talking to the man who founded it, for starters. When I first arrived there was a great big hole in the side of the Atheneum upstairs, and no real rhyme or reason to the shelving. Illiteracy isn't uncommon here, either, so if someone has a question it can be hard to get an answer in a timely fashion. Either finding the right book amidst all those thousands above us, or hoping you can talk to someone who might know someone who has a cousin whose in-law thinks they might know your answer. Also the Sentient Books were getting a bit lonely and we had one running around eating people and not letting them go," he added after a moment's thoughtful consideration. "So I decided to see if I could gather some like-minded friends and colleagues to help put those things to rights. We cleaned the paper wasps out of here and got it fixed up, and the vault makes a good place to store the more dangerous Sentient Books," he nodded towards the heavy metal door towards the back of the room, on the north side of the hall. "We've been keeping journals and chronicles of history for the past year, and gathering books on useful topics for people who need them. We pulled together with our friends and some townsfolk we'd rescued to repair the building, and we offer reading lessons, along with undertaking explorations of unmapped areas to broaden the knowledge of the people here and provide an easy place for people to come with questions. Since we're here a lot, we've developed a sense for where things are shelved," he grinned wryly. "So it's faster for us to pull books if people don't want to take the time to browse themselves." He gestured to Ingrid and then off to the north in a more general manner. "Though the people of Halo are welcome to make use of our talents as well, as long as our two peoples remain at peace. The Fae are welcome here, too... but the Queen has currently forbidden them passage into our land," he admitted with a grimace. "So until that gets sorted out you likely won't meet one." Not least because there wasn't an easy way to tell the Hollowed Grounders and the Halovians apart, and the Fae weren't likely to be picky about who they threw in the Pit in the meantime.
