The sight of the door — and its armored appearance, had Rance’s brows rising again. Even if they were open now, had this once been a place that saw trouble? Did it still see trouble? Questions for later, as he was distracted by the mention of baked goods, something he didn’t often indulge in. ‘Fruit’ could potentially be more familiar, but…. “Depends if we all call the same things ‘fruit’, I think.”
He hadn’t expected to go down any stairs and was even more surprised to find the large welcoming rooms below, still lit with sunlight. The place had been built to comfortably suit the needs of many and was far from any cold observatory he might have imagined. He tracked Isuma’s path to the table, then what was obviously her nest, unable help the softness that touched his smile. His attention was swiftly drawn back Jigano, his smile dropping on hearing Maea’s current status. He pulled his pack and jacket from his shoulder, resting the first on the table and draping the latter over it. ‘Truth as she sees it’ had his stomach tensing, dreading what would come next. And the first confirmation sank like a stone in his gut. Never going home? Though, as Maea described it, there wasn’t a home for him to return to. The rest of what Jigano said only expanded on the lead and Rance reached up to drag both hands through tousled, dark red hair, jaw tight. He’d dropped them again by the time Jigano continued, resting both on the edge of the table and sucking in a deep breath.
No worse than flying to a new town, right?
“The last to start then. There’s the humans and there’s the Hidden. Humans don’t have magic, as far as I know, but the Hidden, well,” Rance hesitated, glanced up at the gryphon, remembered the way he’d seen Jigano change into a dragon of all things, and continued, “we’re fae, skinshifters, nature spirits, the Sidhe courts. We’re the tales humans whisper to the their children at night, or the warnings as they walk around odd circles of stones.” The last made the corner of his mouth kick up. As a child, he’d set up more than one ‘magic circle’ or ‘mysterious rune’ just to watch humans from above as they gave him and the mark wide berth. “There’s kings and queens of both the humans and the Hidden, but the closest I’ve come to even minor ‘nobility’ are the faces stamped on human coins.”
He hadn’t expected to go down any stairs and was even more surprised to find the large welcoming rooms below, still lit with sunlight. The place had been built to comfortably suit the needs of many and was far from any cold observatory he might have imagined. He tracked Isuma’s path to the table, then what was obviously her nest, unable help the softness that touched his smile. His attention was swiftly drawn back Jigano, his smile dropping on hearing Maea’s current status. He pulled his pack and jacket from his shoulder, resting the first on the table and draping the latter over it. ‘Truth as she sees it’ had his stomach tensing, dreading what would come next. And the first confirmation sank like a stone in his gut. Never going home? Though, as Maea described it, there wasn’t a home for him to return to. The rest of what Jigano said only expanded on the lead and Rance reached up to drag both hands through tousled, dark red hair, jaw tight. He’d dropped them again by the time Jigano continued, resting both on the edge of the table and sucking in a deep breath.
No worse than flying to a new town, right?
“The last to start then. There’s the humans and there’s the Hidden. Humans don’t have magic, as far as I know, but the Hidden, well,” Rance hesitated, glanced up at the gryphon, remembered the way he’d seen Jigano change into a dragon of all things, and continued, “we’re fae, skinshifters, nature spirits, the Sidhe courts. We’re the tales humans whisper to the their children at night, or the warnings as they walk around odd circles of stones.” The last made the corner of his mouth kick up. As a child, he’d set up more than one ‘magic circle’ or ‘mysterious rune’ just to watch humans from above as they gave him and the mark wide berth. “There’s kings and queens of both the humans and the Hidden, but the closest I’ve come to even minor ‘nobility’ are the faces stamped on human coins.”
