Reading is fundamental (OPEN)

R E M I Indeed, the alchemist nodded dutifully, though the rueful smile on his lips indicated that he still felt owed nothing at all. But that particular symptom of his personality would likely never be cured. Remi chuckled. "Funny that you would phrase it that way.." Picking up the feather once again, Remi twirled it between his fingers as he took a breath. Though these memories were unpleasant to remember as well, the alchemist's last encounter with Ludo had left him...a bit befuddled. The god was still a divine pest, but something had changed. It probably had to do with the snowball. "The first time I encountered Ludo it was in the Woodlands. Only it was not Ludo that I thought I saw, but my mother." Punctuating his words gently with the feather, Remi shook his head sadly at his own naive stupidity. "But she had been dead for years you see, died when I was only 6. But I thought ... well. I do not know what I thought truly. Only that if we were all here somehow, that perhaps it could be here. And so she beckoned me to follow and I did. She led me into a swamp and eventually it became clear that she wanted me to kill myself there. To be with her—" Remi's pale gaze flashed upwards for a moment, looking across to Jigano through dark lashes. "That was when the lion made its first appearance." Swallowing Remi's lips forced a smile as he took a steadying breath. "It was then that Ludo revealed itself. It was all black cloth and a shockingly white mask. It was disappointed that I evaded death, but it gave me the magic that I now possess—" To emphasize this, the feather gently floated upwards from his hand, sketched a signature in the air, before slowly falling back down. "The second time I am ashamed to say very much the same thing happened. I believed I saw an old friend by the barrier. He said he had found a way through it, but it was merely Ludo's attempt to make my kill myself once again by remaining too close to the barrier for too long. That time though...it offered me a gift in exchange for one of my memories. And once it had the memory it became the woman who the memory was focused around. And the gift it gave me was its mask. I have not put it on of course. I cannot even imagine what would happen if I did."