Follow the Rainbow Over the Stream

Jigano felt tired, lately. His sleep was undisturbed by dreams and yet somehow... lacking. Less restful. It made it harder to be patient with others, and to focus on his studies in the Atheneum, but he didn't regret the choice he had made. He had, he hoped, helped one friend.

More than he had Samuel, at least. The previous night's delve into the underground had gone from a mission of hope to one of grim uncertainty. But tonight he had his own question to answer. A strange tree he'd found in the woods, that glowed at night in spite of how dead it looked in daylight. It was a mystery worthy of a Loreseeker - or two, preferably. He had called on Isla in the hopes that they could determine whether it was benign or not, with a mix of their experiences and knowledge.

And he had brought a luckpiece with him tonight, as he waited at the edge of the woods for his friend to arrive. He ran his fingers over the metal charm, imbuing it with some of his own warmth as the sun settled fully behind the horizon and left the sky to the moon and stars above. His grey-furred cloak was pulled warmly about him, but he left the hood off so his hair shone snow-silver in the moonlight as he leaned against a tree and sang softly to pass the time until his friend arrived.

The night fell and Isla felt as though she could breathe. More than breathe - she felt lighter than air, and her footsteps barely left a mark on the snow as she flitted out from the Infirmary and towards the Woodlands. She wore a coat of dusty grey that nearly made her blend into the night, though she left it unbuttoned, needing no protection from the cold.

With eyes flashing unnaturally in the darkness, piercing it with ease, she made her way to the tree Jigano had spoken about in no time at all. And as she grew close her keen hearing picked up on the rich beauty of his voice, too, Isla smiling and falling to a more natural pace.

Soon enough she came upon him and the tree both, glancing up and finding it disappointingly mute. "Good evening," she greeted warmly, resting her hands in her pockets. "I thought this tree was meant to glow? I think you may have been duped, my friend."

His singing trailed off slowly as Isla approached and he grinned at her in welcome before offering a gallant bow to the duchess of the infirmary. Tired he might be, but seeing his friend revitalized him a little, and eased a little of the heartache of the morning's confrontation. "And good evening to you!" He grinned up at the tree, then turned his gaze back to the lovely blonde with a theatrical gesture of elegant fingers. "This tree? It's merely outshone by you, my friend!" He winked, offering his arm and leading the way beneath the branches of the trees, further into the forest.

"But if you'll walk with me a ways, I'll take you to the curious place I found. But while we walk, please, tell me how you've been?" His free hand still held the charm, but for once his confidence faltered as he tried to find an opening to present it. "Any exciting new patients in the infirmary? Or adventures outside it?"

Isla grinned and dipped into an elegant curtsey in response to Jigano's greeting, though her eyes flicked up to the tree and back again soon enough. She felt a little foolish as she realised this was not the tree he had intended to show her, the medic approaching and slipping her arm easily into the bard's. "Well, it was a rather lovely tree, even if a bit plain," she remarked, smirking and shrugging to him.

"I have been quite well! The usual flurry of patients through the Infirmary, but nothing too bad. What about you? Forgive me for saying so, but you look a little tired..." She smiled softly, as if to invite him to talk if he wanted to.

For better or worse, though, she was unfortunately distracted as the tree - the tree, evidently - came into view. Even with the sun not quite down, it was already starting to pulse and glitter with light. Isla blinked, awed by its ethereal beauty, but also... drawn to it suddenly. Inexplicably. "This is her work," she murmured.

"Ah, a lovely tree, but a terrible conversationalist. I far prefer the company I have now," Jigano grinned, leading the way further into the woods. "And I'm glad to hear that your emergencies have been fewer and farther between lately." He cleared his throat self-consciously, smile turning a touch rueful. "I should have known I couldn't fool your eyes. I hadn't meant to worry anyone..." he trailed off as the glowing tree came into view, far more obvious and stunning at night than it was during the day.

He let his companion pull away if she wished, tilting his head at her curiously as she reacted with less curiosity than he had expected - and more familiarity. "She?" he repeated cautiously. "You mean the Iron Goddess who Ascended you?" He hummed thoughtfully, looking at the tree with narrowed eyes as he sought to pick out Her hand upon it. And... there, yes, were details that spoke of something inorganic, and in spite of the glow, nothing like the stones of the glade or the luxere that walked the winter woods.

"Well I'm very glad, because the feeling is mutual," Isla murmured, grinning and glancing up at the bard as they strolled together. She promised herself distantly, in the back of her head, that she would come back to the subject of his apparent fatigue, but for now in the light of the tree, Isla slid her arm out of his and began to meander towards the trunk. "The Voice, yes," she said to him over her shoulder, glancing back at him very briefly before falling to a halt in front of the glowing hollow.

"Is she here, I wonder..." Information, the Voice had told her once, was carried in the pulsing light that wreathed her. Did that mean she was in the trees? Silently, Isla called out to her patron. If nothing else, she wished to express her gratitude.

the VOICE In reality's shadow the blind see best "Bright one." The Voice greeted. She spoke into Isla's mind, her words a pulse through the organic circuitry of the ascended's body. Her form projected from the tree, childlike but ancient somehow, her eyes like static and the air suddenly smelling of petrichor. "I am always." She said, this time outloud for Jigano's benefit. Though it might have sounded like she was about to say I am always here, in response to Isla's question, instead her words halted behind a smile as she gazed upon the ascended. "Your strength has increased since I saw you last my bright one. How remarkable you truly are."

Jigano sucked in a breath as an image of the young woman from the Underground shrine projected herself from the tree. As before he didn't step forward or move to interrupt, watching the play of light between the two women - one a god, the other a supplicant. And what was he? For the second time in less than twenty-four hours he was...

Apart.

There was a bittersweet familiarity to that feeling. His friend, his goddess, was beyond his reach now, and too young to her power to reach across worlds to him, here. Not that he had been brave enough to speak to her since her ascension, not with the weight that bowed his tarnished soul. But Isla, at least, had a goddess she had chosen, and one she reached out to with awe and wonder in her body language.

With a tilted smile on his lips, the bard found a nearby tree to lean against, to watch and listen to what passed in this unexpected meeting - and ready to step away if either woman or goddess desired privacy for their communion, unaware of how little either needed the conceit of audible speech to converse.

It was shameful but for a moment or so Isla utterly forgot that her friend was there. The Voice filled her mind, her very being, and it was so like and unlike their first meeting that she felt almost a homesickness for it. There was no pain to deal with this time, though, no surgery upon herself to crack her mind and break her body. No, there was just warmth, and her.

Smiling gently as the Voice echoed without as well as within, Isla blinked a few times and stepped back from the tree a few feet, glancing fleetingly to Jigano and offering him a small nod. They knew, at least, just what this strange tree was for now.

"Thank you," Isla murmured to the Voice, keeping her head respectfully bowed. "The improvements are entirely thanks to your assistance in my making," she said, finding it strangely easy to refer to herself so. A coping mechanism, perhaps?

"I did not know you were able to appear away from the Underground. Are there other places I might find you?"

the VOICE In reality's shadow the blind see best The bard was ignored, horrifyingly mundane attuned that he was. The Voice had only eyes for her creation. "Humbleness." The Voice murmured as if making a note of something. Perhaps something to get rid of later. "Your mind is nearly as bright a spark as you are my perfect one. I have merely ignited you, but it is you who shall burn and grow forever." "Other?" With a warm smile buzzing with potential, the Voice touched the 'bark' of the tree. Tendrils of electricity ran through and up it, revealing it not so much as a completely untouched organic growth, but a complicated creation, not unlike Isla herself. "Focus daughter. Focus, and feel." Reaching forward, the Voice would close Isla's lashes. As she did, the darkness of her mind would brighten and the world inside of the bubble would emerge like some sort of holographic map. "Feel me, Isla. Feel, and see." She encouraged, and indeed, the ascended would feel a buzzing in her bones, drawing her mind to the places that most strongly held a tie to the Voice.

Isla couldn't really say anything in response to that, so she gave the goddess before her a truly appreciative smile, nodding at her comments. Her lips parted in a quiet expression of awe as she watched the Voice reach up to ignite the tree with so much life and knowledge, and she closed her eyes willingly as she was directed. Focus and feel.

As though tiny threads connected her to the Voice and to the places where she might be found, Isla saw the Hollowed Ground as she had never seen it before, drawn here and there to the various shrines that were there - that had always been there - just dormant.

"I see," she said, half whispering the words, her body thrumming and pulling her in all those most wonderful of directions. "Some are yet hidden... I will visit them, and make sure they are in a good condition."

the VOICE In reality's shadow the blind see best The Voice hummed an electric note of agreement, before releasing Isla and floating backwards. "There is much knowledge you have yet to receive bright one." She said, lips unmoving as she smiled graciously at her creation. "Open yourself and focus inwards. Your mind is new to the wonders of perfection, but in time you will see the tapestry of which you are now a part." Her smile faltered just for a moment as her gaze flickered towards the bard, and then back to the medic. "This world belongs now to you and there is much I would show you Isla, though perhaps another time." The Voice's gaze crackled electrically as she smiled, her words now in Isla's mind, meant only for the ascended. There are those who would try to barter for what I know, who would stop your perfection from being fully realized. The idea of there being an us and a them subtly infused into her words, and she did not need to look in Jigano's direction to suggestion which side of the line Isla's company appeared on.

There seemed to be some manner of communication occurring beyond what his ears could hear. Isla's reactions to the Voice's instructions to turn inwards, to feel and see, left the bard feeling decidedly... blind. When the goddess looked at him and lost her eternal smile for a moment the confusion cleared up somewhat, replaced by a weary resignation. He had brought Isla to the tree - the shrine, as it now so clearly was - but that service, it would seem, meant little.

Perhaps another time the words rang like crystal in his ears, a pointed declaration that he was not wanted - and so long as he remained, his friend could not freely ask her questions or gain the answers they all sought. Though he heard no further speech, he didn't really need to. A good bard knew when it was time to exit the stage. And so, not interrupting, he gave Isla a rueful little smile if she looked back, and a slight shake of his head to let her know that it was alright. Bowing courteously to the goddess the lorekeeper turned and walked quietly away, following his footsteps back to the tree he had met his friend at, near the edge of the woods, to await her return when she had finished her prayers.

A soft frown flickered over Isla's face a she heard the words of her patron, both out loud and in her mind, and she glanced as well to Jigano as the Voice spoke her opinion of him (whether or not she had to actually use words to do so). She offered a weak but grateful smile to the bard as he took his leave, bowing her head for a moment as if to convey her thanks, before turning back to focus on the Voice.

"To barter for what you know... and to stop me? To stop us?" she echoed faintly. "What would it mean, to... to become fully realised?" she asked, sounding puzzled but as though she was trying to sift through rhyme and reason to understand. "Is there yet further we can go?"