Echoes Through Eternity [SE]

Once he might have flinched from contact he hadn't initiated, but he had come a long ways since those days. He smiled gratefully at the sympathy, but her advice was sound enough that he chuckled quietly. "I suspect it's a nightmare like Loren saw, not a true vision anyways," he decided with a slight shrug. "Though it might indicate my going to the dragon mountains, too..." He shrugged again, this time ruefully. "It could mean many things. I'll not let it worry me overmuch though, if you can promise the same for your mysterious furry-faced watcher."

He listened to her more in-depth explanation of her vision, nodding slowly in understanding of it. It made a little sense, though not a lot, still. Especially if the ravens could still travel between regions to carry messages somehow, as Neron had told him they did. "Have you already seen all there is to see, learned all there is to know, about the Greatwood and Halo and Torchline already?" he asked her teasingly. "I think there are plenty within the Hollowed Grounds who will never leave it. Quanil's family, many of the farmers... even Rory," he admitted with a quiet sigh. "He went to the Greatwood a few times but something terrible happened each time and he's been keeping mostly to the farm and his hunting ever since." Not everyone was unhappy with their lives, after all.

"As for me?" His smile was wry and pained as he began to wring the water from his hair. "Curiosity is in my nature. Of course I want to see more. And I'm opportunistic enough to take advantage of what's already been opened, even if I feel guilty about doing it. But... I have to consider whether my curiosity is more important, is worth more, than the lives of those who may get dragged into another war that seems to be brewing between the old gods and the new. Where the Ascended go, where they spread their worship of the Voice and recruit more soldiers to her cause to empower her with faith and worship, the conflict that has been contained to the Hollowed Grounds will follow." He could be a proper self-centered bastard at times, but dragging a world to war because of his own wandering feet? That was a bit much, even for him.

He'd always strain against the bars, of course. He'd never be content with being caged. But his lips quirked into a wry smile as he watched Maea, she who spoke for all people so easily. "And what will you do if all the storms fade and all the portals open? If the Voice gets her way, or the Old Gods relent? The world itself is a cage, just a bigger one than the bubble that encased the Hollowed Grounds. Where will you go when there is nothing new left to see on Caido?"

Hearing that Loren was helping to Heal her brought a pleased and satisfied expression to the bard's face, and he nodded gladly at the news. "You certainly look more robust," he teased. "I'm glad the illness is finally in remission!"

"I can try," Maea nodded, with a wry smile. No doubt the vision would linger in her mind for some time... but hopefully it would not distract her from more important things. A mystery to ponder on late nights only, to keep her from dwelling too much on her tangled romances.

Jigano's retorts made her twist where she sat, uncomfortably reminded that, no, she did not know all there was about the regions that had opened up. His continuation had the flavor of gentle rebuke too, repeating a line of thought that Maea dwelled on as well... whether her desire for more was selfish, if she should limit herself to spare others a potentially deadly future. It's why she had phrased her notes the way she had. Urging others to ask the same questions, to seek more answers before proceeding...

Still. The notion that even unlocking all the areas of the continent would still have her trapped made Maea stand up, something anguished in her eyes. A tightness clasping down on her chest, like she couldn't breathe... "I don't know," she replied, jaws tightening, working silently as she chewed on the question. Having no answer. "I just know that the thought of barriers and borders make me feel like I'm suffocating. Maybe there is no escaping that... maybe it's really a problem of my mind, of trying to escape something else... But what? I don't know."

Wrapping her arms around herself as she stepped around the scrying table he had made for her, she tried to walk off some of the restlessness. Light shimmered to life on her back as she summoned her wings, and they flared into existence, bright white feathers gleaming even under the fleeting, dappled sunlight filtering down through clouds and branches. The weight of them as they folded against her back brought some comfort. Like a promise of another point of view, if she just kept working, kept moving onwards...

"I just hope it stays gone," she mumbled, distracted even as she responded to his well wishes. "What about you? You look tired again, Jigano... working too hard? Or is something else bothering you?" Turning to face him, Maea wore a concerned little smile. "I can talk about things beyond myself, you know... If you want to confide in me, I would be more than happy to listen."

It was always so onesided. He asked questions about her, and Maea answered, and then... time ran out, or other topics came along, and she never got the chance to ask things in return. Not ones that actually mattered.

Maea

this too shall pass

Jigano nodded, knowing that all either of them could do was try not to let the visions - dreams? fantasies? predictions? - worry them too much, when they each had so little to go off of in interpreting them. The future would proceed from their choices and they'd face what it brought regardless of what they'd seen in the puddles, because what else could they do?

His opinions were often not popular, and his delivery not always the most tactful. As a wanderer in his former life he had only ever needed to flatter and entertain for a night or two, rarely needing to engage in deep philosophical discussions. Not since Unity's destruction and Cassandalee's rise, at least... and what had followed immediately after. Maea had asked for his opinions, though, and he gave them without holding back, even as he saw her squirm beneath the discomfort of his words.

What he hadn't expected was the sudden appearance of wings, looking much like Remi's but bleached white, and he raised a brow as she began to pace with them out. That was... unexpected, to say the least, but after Oliver had showed up as a fox he was harder to surprise than he used to be. "Have you Attuned, then?" he asked curiously at the manifestation. "Are congratulations in order?" Ludo, he suspected from what he knew of her. Not Frey, certainly, though Safrin... unlikely, but not impossible.

He shook his head wryly at her questions, offering a little shrug at her comment on how tired he looked. "Been sleeping better than I have since before we met, in fact. Though I suppose I still have a ways to recover from Safrin and Fiat Lux and losing Adam." Never a happy ending, only a brief respite between catastrophes... "For the moment, though, I'm better than I've been in a very long time." It was strangely... nice? Yes, that was the word. He smiled wryly, standing to stretch out his back and realizing ruefully that he wasn't getting any younger. "There's the newest Loreseeker to train, my work as Outlander Advisor to continue - though it's been quiet lately, only a few newcomers since summer that I've met - and helping Rory around the farm. I make it over to Torchline when I can spare a day to nose around and indulge my curiosity, and I train with the militia sometimes. Other than that?" He chuckled. "Tending to the Shrines in the Glade and Ludo's Woods and starting preparations for Deepfrost."

Jigano's question took her by surprise and she looked up from her brooding with a startled expression. "Attuned? Gods, no, I wish!" Maea glanced over a shoulder to the wings at her back, a wry smile twisting her lips. "This is just magic. Some illusion, perhaps... They don't actually work." Spreading the appendages wide, she beat them hard a few times in his direction. But for all that the feathers beant and quivered, for all that the movements were smooth, they raised no gust of wind to batter his face or stir his clothing. There but not there. "I think there's some missing component... perhaps I will understand more in time. For now, they just... make me feel better." Like a safety blanket to nuzzle her fears against, and alleviate the suffocating feeling of being trapped.

The man went on to tell her about some of the things he had been up to. It hardly sounded like he was taking it easy, but... by Provost standards, it was actually far less than usual. Maea smiled at him. "I'm glad to hear that you are feeling well. I don't mean to pry, it's just... our conversations so often feel one sided. I end up spilling all my problems over you, and I never really get a chance to return the favor, you know?" She rubbed her neck, pacing slowed to a halt. The accusations Sunjata hhad flung at her still stung like nettles at the back of her mind. Not so very hidden.

"Will you and Rory stay here for Deepfrost, then?" she asked him. "I'll probably leave... for Torchline, or remain in Halo. Depending on whether I've patched things up with Sunjata by then." She would be with him, if she could. And if she couldn't... then she would still stay as far away from the Hollowed Ground as possible.

Maea

this too shall pass

Her answer was not so much a disappointment as a chastisement of his own hopes for her, and the bard bowed his head in mute apology for his misassumption. Her curious new wings certainly looked real enough, but when she beat them against the air and no breeze resulted he blinked in surprise, then offered a rueful, lopsided smile. "Well, they're quite beautiful. And if they make you feel better then they're a boon, no matter what else they can or can't do."  Since Caido didn't have the same iconography of celestial and infernal beings as his world, they hopefully wouldn't cause any misconceptions or expectations that would weigh the lovelorn woman down farther than Sunjata already had.

He chuckled at the notion that their conversations were lopsided, and his own smile turned wry. "Oh, it's not that I don't have problems, but many of them need time and patience to overcome, and rushing only makes things worse. I'm not great at reaching out for help, either," he admitted ruefully. "And I know I have a tendency to keep such problems close." He tilted his head at her, pushing damp tresses back behind his ears as his smile faded a bit. "Though no small part of that is knowing that people seem to look to me as a source of stability. Showing weakness by admitting I need help... well. If it causes distress for those that depend on me, it's better for everyone if I keep things discrete unless I have no other option." He took a last, grim look at the mirrored sky in the now-still birdbaths and then turned back to Maea with a sharper smile, more fox than man at the mention of LongNight.

"I'll be here," he promised. "Rory won't leave the Hollowed Grounds, so neither will I. But it will be a relief to know you're somewhere safer for the week. The monsters have a taste for Ascended technology and magical items, we've learned. And they'll stop at nothing to get them."

She actually blushed at the compliment. Not used to receiving any, and happy to hear that someone other than herself liked them. In many ways, Maea was still timid enough to shy from drawing attention to herself, and the wings were very visible. A bit ostentatious, almost. But Jigano was right that it didn't matter much what they did... though of course she would love if they could actually carry her weight someday.

Her smile faded a bit when his own did, and she cocked her head at the explanation why he kept his own problems close. "Is it your job to keep people at ease?" she asked, with perhaps more forwardness than tact dictated. "I think it's very thoughtful of you, but... don't you think you're keeping people from growing, too? If you aren't there to buffer them, perhaps they will find that they're actually strong enough to handle things on their own. And just maybe, they'll be able to help you instead." Her expression was kind, if not a little pointed. It sounded like the kind of thinking that would keep her from going off to Halo, sparing her from the painful learning experience it still might turn out to be.

The fox in him showed through, to Maea's delight, and her own smile was almost feline in return. Feral, and a bit hungry... "If you ever need help, I'm sure you can find a way to reach me," she offered. "If the monsters still stay in the Grounds, it shouldn't be a problem to come back." She thought of something Sunjata had said. "I heard you've found some clues about their identity? That they... don't have heartbeats?"

Maea

this too shall pass

He chuckled at her words, taking no offense but merely arching a brow. "By that logic, I should be handling things on my own as well, so that I, too, can continue to grow," he pointed out with a grin. "And it became my job first when I decided to form a Guild that would rely on my leadership, and then again when I became the Outlander Advisor. Keeping up the appearance of calm confidence - both when it's true and when it's not - is part of the job of leading by example." That, and his problems didn't exist to be teaching moments for others. He tried to be helpful, but he wasn't so selfless as to place his pain and weakness on the Noticeboard for all to see and learn from.

He hadn't seen the wildness in her before this, and he found it an intriguing development. "Anytime up to LongNight, yes," he agreed. "Once the dark descends it will be harder. There's a lot of ground to cover between the Sanctuary and the Spire, and some of the bastards can fly." As he and Kiada had learned to their dismay. He nodded at her new knowledge, confirming it. "The LongNight monsters are related to the Ascended. Failed former experiments of the Voice that have gone rogue. They don't have heartbeats but they very much have sentience still - or at least, some of them do. Various people were able to talk to them last year, for what good it did. They seem to just want Ascended upgrades and magic items to make themselves stronger, but they'll kill any living human they can get their claws in. The Fae said they didn't make it to Sidhe Village last year, though whether that's because they didn't try to leave the Grounds, or because the Wildwood confounded them we don't know."

As always, his arguments were well phrased, and she couldn't find any weak spots in them. The urge was there, to pick apart his words and see how far she could push her arguments, make a discussion out of it... but perhaps it wasn't the right kind of topic for that. Maea shrugged with a smile, uncomitted. "I suppose that just solidifies the fact that I'm not suited for leadership," she commented dryly. "I usually can't hide my emotions, even when I try to. Only solution I have is to not feel at all, and that's... probably not a good look either."

She listened with grim interest to the retelling of the finds. Jigano confirmed other things she'd heard about as well, like the relation to the Ascended. Another reason to dislike The Voice, if she had needed any. "Let us hope that they don't have a wish to go anywhere else," she said, a light frown darkening her features. "It's a scourge I don't wish upon anyone... but in case they do spread out, perhaps it'd be better to assume that no region is safe. And perhaps someone should keep an eye on the Portals, just in case they try to cross to Halo or Torchline." The thought of these monsters wreaking havoc on regions previously spared, whose safety precautions might not be as stringent as the Hollowed Ground's, was quite horrific indeed.

"Maybe I should stay after all," she worried, "and make myself useful. There's no point in acquiring all this power if I don't use it for something good..."

Maea

this too shall pass

"It's a balance," he said with a small shrug. "And not one that I always manage to find, either, admittedly. But I can assure that 'not feeling at all' would make you a far worse leader than feeling too much." Indeed, shadows of Zariah turned his expression to a slight frown before he banished it to focus on the other breed of monsters that called the Hollowed Grounds home.

"They may not be able to make use of the portals," he mused thoughtfully. "That would be the best scenario. But you're right, we have no proof yet. I suspect that since their interest is in stripping upgrades from their younger cousins, they'll remain where the largest gathering of Ascended are. If the Ascended all move to, say, Halo for LongNight... the monsters may well try to follow. This first year, at least, we should definitely set guards on the portals." He gave her a rueful smile. "That might be a good use of your power, in fact. If you choose to spent the week in Torchline or Halo, whichever one, set yourself up as a guard over the portal. Both to make sure no monsters come through from the Grounds, and to prevent the locals on that side from trying to get to the Grounds. Either because they don't know about the monsters, or because they don't believe in them."

He looked at her soberly. "Last year a group of us - the strongest, mostly, the fighters and those willing to take a chance - stayed in the Monster Hunter's Guild. We intended to help anyone who was caught out in the dark. We set up an antechamber at the door, so that anyone that came in from outside had to go through two doors to come into the building. We took precautions..." He sighed. "Still the monsters slipped in. In shadows and stolen moments. Not in a flurry of battle, but sneaking in unseen until there were enough of them inside to set the building ablaze and chase us out into the night, protected only by the luxere herd. Not all our power combined could stop them." He smiled wryly. "Not that I'm sure some of us won't try again this year. But power alone isn't always enough. And that power may be needed in places that have no idea what they're up against, if I'm guessing wrong about the portals stopping them." There were pros and cons to her going elsewhere and to her staying put. He offered the lessons learned the hard way last year, but in the end it would be up to her what she did.

"Oh, I haven't had much luck with it either," she admitted, "especially not as of late. All's well then; no places to 'save' and no trouble to stick my nose into." Her smile was self-deprecating, but with enough humor glittering in her eyes as she poked fun of her past endeavors to show she wasn't seriously down about it.

Maea listened without comment until Jigano had finished, mulling over what he said, his suggestion. It didn't sound half bad, to be honest. And it would give her a purpose, regardless of which side of the portal she chose to spend her LongNight. "Well, I've definitely not come so far in my studies that I'll pretend to be a match for all the powers of the Ground combined," she noted, deeply amused at the arrogance that kind of hubris would require. "It sounds like a good compromise. Perhaps I'll see if some others will join me in the task, when I know where I'll be staying. I'll keep you informed," she promised. Already her mind whirred with ideas, thoughts of recruitment and structure planning and accommodations shattering the gloom far more efficiently than any consolations ever could.

Sensing her brightened mood, Shii came zooming back, and made loops around her head like an oversized firefly. It reminded her of something she'd wanted to ask, and Maea turned back to Jigano. Pointing a finger at her glowing companion. "Speaking of monsters, how much do you know about will-o-wisps?" she asked the Provost. "Because I've only the barest understanding of them. That they live in the Greatwood, they're creatures of nature, and they don't have mouths... and like to play pranks on people, to lead them astray." Hardly enough to keep her new friend alive with, should it ever have trouble.

Maea

this too shall pass

"It sounds as though Sunjata is giving you more than enough trouble to keep you busy at the moment anyways." His tone was light but his smile was gentle and a little sad as he watched his friend fondly. Matters of the heart were always tempestuous and hard to navigate, and in the throes of her first love Maea had enough on her plate to juggle.

"Mm. Now that you've got me thinking about it, it would be good to have at least three guards on the other side of each portal, so they can sleep in shifts and one can run for help if anything happens," he mused. "I'll leave that to you, then, if you decide to go to Halo or Torchline. Perhaps on this side we can find a way to block the Spire basement for a week, to keep them contained." The Voice's threat hung cold as ice in his mind, but if she wasn't going to rein in her old discarded toys, he wasn't sure what other choices they had.

Jigano chuckled as Shii came zipping back to dance and bob around, and the bard began to head back into the Woods before Maea asked another question and he paused. "Not much more than you do, I'm afraid," he admitted frankly. "On my world they were, ah... sorry, Shii, but they were essentially cruel creatures, intelligent and able to speak the common tongue, who fed on the fear of their victims. They tricked travelers into slow deaths so they could feast for hours or days on that fear before watching them die. But the Will-o-wisps here don't speak, and likely have other differences. That said, they might still feed on emotions rather than anything physical," he added thoughtfully. "Hopefully not fear, though. Or not just fear. The Fae might be able to offer more advice on the matter?"

And wasn't that the truth of the day. "At this rate, I might be tempted to start trouble just to get something else to think about," she agreed, with an ironic roll of the eyes. But at least the worst of the gloom had lifted for now. It really did help to talk about it, and it felt good to know she had people to confide in when she needed it.

Maea nodded agreement to his musings of keeping guard and blocking the portals during LongNight. It was a sensible plan, one she could fully get behind, and would aid in however she could. "I hope it won't be needed," she said, "but I'd rather overprepare than risk lives needlessly."

She realized that Jigano was on his way to leave, and quickly got to her feet. His reply on wisps wasn't very helpful, but Maea didn't mind; she was just sad to see him go already. "I'll give it a try," she promised, "it's good advice. As always. Are you... going back already?" The girl sounded a little lonely, though she tried to keep her expression from showing it.

She was the one who had distanced herself from him, in the end. Didn't really have a right to complain.

Maea

this too shall pass

"Careful what you wish for," the bard murmured, half teasing but half cautionary as well. "You never know when the gods are listening... or what sort of mood they're in." Ludo might favor the pale woman, but he shuddered inwardly to think of what Frey would do if given such an opening with an Abandoned.

He nodded fervent agreement at being overprepared for LongNight. If the last two years had taught him anything, it was that there was no such thing as too much preparation, and Maea knew that even more deeply in her bones than he did.

He paused to look back, a wry smile on his face, though he was genuinely touched at her wistfulness. "It's a long walk back," he pointed out gently. "I could fly to make it go faster... but then you couldn't walk with me." He arched a silver brow in invitation, but if she demurred he was content to go on his own as well.

The woman shrugged, as if to suggest she wouldn't mind even divine interference at this point, but did not say it aloud. She was devout enough to share his caution, and there were gods she would rather avoid.

At Jigano's invitation to join him on the journey back, Maea's expression brightened. She still had no intention of going back to the Grounds, but she could accompany him to the Mathair at least.

"Good point," she said happily and bounded up to him, to walk by his side. "I suppose it would be a bit much to ask for a ride too... did I tell you how Loren let me fly on one of his summoned dragons? It was incredible!" But as he said, they wouldn't be able to talk like that, and Maea felt there was a difference between riding a mindless summon and doing the same with a friend.

Maea

this too shall pass