"Thanks. I admit, it's coming in useful at times," Jigano replied with a crooked smile. The power hadn't been sought, nor was it a gift. It was a curse if anything, though possibly just an accident of an angry goddess. Why his magic had blossomed with such vigor when others seemed to take so much longer was a mystery to him, and not one he could exactly ask Safrin about. But he didn't have the hangups about it that so many naturals did, and he saw no harm in using it now that it had awoken in him. Anything he could do to make things better for his friends and his adopted home, he would.
He wished he could see Sam's recently developed backbone when it applied to anything other than doing the Voice's bidding, Jigano thought with a painful twist in his chest. "Not the blight again, perhaps. She's already weakened the Greatwood, Safrin, and killed one of the old gods' most powerful devotees with it," he acknowledged bitterly. "But can you promise she won't do something else? Something different but potentially just as harmful? You said the blight was an 'accident' after all... what's to stop another 'accident' from happening?" Something else that would attack non-Ascended, weakening the Attuned and Abandoned who might stand against her and threatening or bribing Accepted to choosing Ascension if they wanted to survive...
He sighed, turning away from the bookmaker and pushing his focus back into growing the rough pillar skywards another ten feet. "I don't know, Sam," he said softly. "But it will depend on the Voice and the other Ascended. Our task is to ensure the portals are not used for ill this time... as they were in the past. Should large numbers of Ascended start popping up, threatening to become another army for the Voice, or should she unleash another plague upon a new region... well. We will have our duty, just as you have chosen yours," he finished, voice gentle in spite of the iron underlying the unhappiness of his words.
He wished he could see Sam's recently developed backbone when it applied to anything other than doing the Voice's bidding, Jigano thought with a painful twist in his chest. "Not the blight again, perhaps. She's already weakened the Greatwood, Safrin, and killed one of the old gods' most powerful devotees with it," he acknowledged bitterly. "But can you promise she won't do something else? Something different but potentially just as harmful? You said the blight was an 'accident' after all... what's to stop another 'accident' from happening?" Something else that would attack non-Ascended, weakening the Attuned and Abandoned who might stand against her and threatening or bribing Accepted to choosing Ascension if they wanted to survive...
He sighed, turning away from the bookmaker and pushing his focus back into growing the rough pillar skywards another ten feet. "I don't know, Sam," he said softly. "But it will depend on the Voice and the other Ascended. Our task is to ensure the portals are not used for ill this time... as they were in the past. Should large numbers of Ascended start popping up, threatening to become another army for the Voice, or should she unleash another plague upon a new region... well. We will have our duty, just as you have chosen yours," he finished, voice gentle in spite of the iron underlying the unhappiness of his words.
