She didn't like Torchline, Jigano thought back, tone cold. She said the sun here hurt her. That she felt trapped here. She only felt free in Halo... Can you really say that you weren't the reason she was here when she... when she went on that final venture? On her way to see you when she stopped to help others? No, she didn't lose her friendships the first time she came to visit Sunjata, or even the second. But all that mattered was the last time. And all the friendships left broken in the wake of the ghostwhale that had swallowed her.
Hardly the first time she did so. There was more steel in her than that. Jigano glanced over at the glaring sneer, the fear and fury in it, and he fought the dragon's instincts with the control Remi had helped him find. It was a form that lent itself to temper and violence and righteous fury, and there was a cruelty in playing on Sunjata's fears that he didn't care for in himself. With rumbling growl of frustration that changed pitch to a rough croak he rose and started to stretch his wings even as scales shrank and feathered, leaving a white raven fluttering up to perch high in a tree branch, glaring at the gulls.
But yes. I suppose we do. There were other alternatives, of course, but Maea wouldn't thank either of them for pursuing those paths.
She'd be annoyed enough that they'd gone down this one.
It was just as well that ravens couldn't snort, but they could certainly scoff. I was at that wedding. You had ample opportunity to just walk away. Phoebe was practically clinging to Harper while Hotaru was laying her mark on you. The only one who forced you to that altar was you, Flood. And the same went for her. But you were the one who chose to end things by hurting her. Though from what he'd heard, her rampage in the VlamVloed afterwards had been a petty tantrum, too. Neither of them were saints in that fiasco, but it was in the past now - or it should have been, if Sunjata hadn't moved on so swiftly to Maea and twisted her up into such knots as he had Phoebe.
Did you know? he asked, mental voice gone quiet as he cast back to looking at Wonder Puddles in the Greatwood. That she felt as though her life, her choices... they were all pointless, without you? That she was afraid that she had done things you wouldn't forgive her for?
Hardly the first time she did so. There was more steel in her than that. Jigano glanced over at the glaring sneer, the fear and fury in it, and he fought the dragon's instincts with the control Remi had helped him find. It was a form that lent itself to temper and violence and righteous fury, and there was a cruelty in playing on Sunjata's fears that he didn't care for in himself. With rumbling growl of frustration that changed pitch to a rough croak he rose and started to stretch his wings even as scales shrank and feathered, leaving a white raven fluttering up to perch high in a tree branch, glaring at the gulls.
But yes. I suppose we do. There were other alternatives, of course, but Maea wouldn't thank either of them for pursuing those paths.
She'd be annoyed enough that they'd gone down this one.
It was just as well that ravens couldn't snort, but they could certainly scoff. I was at that wedding. You had ample opportunity to just walk away. Phoebe was practically clinging to Harper while Hotaru was laying her mark on you. The only one who forced you to that altar was you, Flood. And the same went for her. But you were the one who chose to end things by hurting her. Though from what he'd heard, her rampage in the VlamVloed afterwards had been a petty tantrum, too. Neither of them were saints in that fiasco, but it was in the past now - or it should have been, if Sunjata hadn't moved on so swiftly to Maea and twisted her up into such knots as he had Phoebe.
Did you know? he asked, mental voice gone quiet as he cast back to looking at Wonder Puddles in the Greatwood. That she felt as though her life, her choices... they were all pointless, without you? That she was afraid that she had done things you wouldn't forgive her for?
