"Was Lucas voluntary? Was Amun? Or any Outlander her portals bring in and change to fit the mold of her creations? At least one who arrives as an Attuned can choose to ignore or avoid the old gods if they wish. As you pointed out to me at LongNight, Ascended must drink from the Voice. They have no choice if they wish to survive." He shook his head with a sigh. His voice was quiet, more pained than accusing, for the words hurt to speak as he considered the friendships that would never again be the same, and others that would likely never even begin.
"Would Rexanna have gone to her if Bastien had not seduced her to it, and Zariah not put her in the position where she was desperate to be rid of her magic? Was it a choice she still would have made without either of those two forces in her life? Both working for the Voice, we now know. The carrot and the stick. I suspect if you look at those who have chosen to Ascend, Sam, you'll find that most of them didn't choose to do it on their own. There was likely an Ascended pushing or coaxing them along, with sweet words and manipulations of love or lust. Or bribes of power or eternal life, two things so often craved by mortal men and women." And once there, there could be no turning back. Ah, but that part was generally left out, wasn't it? ”Why does the Voice need to tell her children to do what they are already doing?”
He knew he was driving the wedge between them deeper with every word, but he was so frustrated that Sam couldn’t see how people had been hurt – even killed – by the Voice’s blight and her push to reopen the portals. Mostly Fae lives so far, but that didn’t make them worth any less than human ones, and humans had been hurt aplenty, too. He didn’t understand how the gentle-hearted bookmaker he had met a year and a half ago had come to lose so much of the empathy he had once had for others.
He turned to see the other man turned away from him, arms crossed and clearly unhappy, and Jigano bit back another sigh of exasperation at the sight. ”I was, in fact,” he growled, remembering Wessex’s strange, sickening pulse and the feel of her fist striking his head. That had been bad enough, even before she summoned the giant which had struck him down until he rose clad in silver scales and seeing red from rage at the sight of the murdered serpent. ”Though it could have been worse. I could have been dead, like the other portal Guardians that have been murdered recently.” A reminder of what the Ascended had been doing to portal guardians of late, and that Jigano now knew firsthand what it was to be attacked by the Voice’s ‘children.’
Sam’s apology was vague, but appreciated nonetheless. The bard sighed and started heading towards a building that was still half-intact, at least with enough roof to protect them from the rain that he could see sweeping in from the west. Distant sparks flickered in the clouds, reassuring him that a proper storm was blowing over the Hollowed Grounds. ”You mean a great deal to me, Sam,” he said softly. ”But… you have changed since you started going to the Voice more often. The increase in your confidence has been a joy to see. But the decrease in your empathy for others… it’s a hell of a price for power, my friend. How many have already been killed for your goddess’s portals to open? And now one leads to Halo, beyond the elemental storms. Halo must trade with other parts of the world for food and goods they can’t make in the ice. The routes may not be easy, but they must exist, and we can now travel them along with the other people of the world. Is it really worth opening more portals – especially if it’s at the cost of more lives – when the only thing they will bring now is convenience? What price the Voice's hubris?”
"Would Rexanna have gone to her if Bastien had not seduced her to it, and Zariah not put her in the position where she was desperate to be rid of her magic? Was it a choice she still would have made without either of those two forces in her life? Both working for the Voice, we now know. The carrot and the stick. I suspect if you look at those who have chosen to Ascend, Sam, you'll find that most of them didn't choose to do it on their own. There was likely an Ascended pushing or coaxing them along, with sweet words and manipulations of love or lust. Or bribes of power or eternal life, two things so often craved by mortal men and women." And once there, there could be no turning back. Ah, but that part was generally left out, wasn't it? ”Why does the Voice need to tell her children to do what they are already doing?”
He knew he was driving the wedge between them deeper with every word, but he was so frustrated that Sam couldn’t see how people had been hurt – even killed – by the Voice’s blight and her push to reopen the portals. Mostly Fae lives so far, but that didn’t make them worth any less than human ones, and humans had been hurt aplenty, too. He didn’t understand how the gentle-hearted bookmaker he had met a year and a half ago had come to lose so much of the empathy he had once had for others.
He turned to see the other man turned away from him, arms crossed and clearly unhappy, and Jigano bit back another sigh of exasperation at the sight. ”I was, in fact,” he growled, remembering Wessex’s strange, sickening pulse and the feel of her fist striking his head. That had been bad enough, even before she summoned the giant which had struck him down until he rose clad in silver scales and seeing red from rage at the sight of the murdered serpent. ”Though it could have been worse. I could have been dead, like the other portal Guardians that have been murdered recently.” A reminder of what the Ascended had been doing to portal guardians of late, and that Jigano now knew firsthand what it was to be attacked by the Voice’s ‘children.’
Sam’s apology was vague, but appreciated nonetheless. The bard sighed and started heading towards a building that was still half-intact, at least with enough roof to protect them from the rain that he could see sweeping in from the west. Distant sparks flickered in the clouds, reassuring him that a proper storm was blowing over the Hollowed Grounds. ”You mean a great deal to me, Sam,” he said softly. ”But… you have changed since you started going to the Voice more often. The increase in your confidence has been a joy to see. But the decrease in your empathy for others… it’s a hell of a price for power, my friend. How many have already been killed for your goddess’s portals to open? And now one leads to Halo, beyond the elemental storms. Halo must trade with other parts of the world for food and goods they can’t make in the ice. The routes may not be easy, but they must exist, and we can now travel them along with the other people of the world. Is it really worth opening more portals – especially if it’s at the cost of more lives – when the only thing they will bring now is convenience? What price the Voice's hubris?”
