Seren
Listening with rapt attention, the girl barely paid attention to where she was going. The landscape around them was lost in the hazy of memory, in images conjured up by Deimos' sparse recounting of the lost healer's attributes.
"Mhm, I did. Twice, when I was still very little." Her tone turned soft - not the same kind of soft that Sah inspired, or her mother, but rather a tone of warm introspection and nostalgia. "The first time I was playing by the lighthouse - at Aumakua - and I stumbled. Scraped my knee... and he showed up right on time, and healed me. It was the first time I ever saw the usual kind of magic up close." An enchanting first encounter, gentle and kind - it had shaped much of her opinions on magic in general. "We chatted for a bit - I think I tried to make him play games with me - but then Sunjata showed up. We were neighbors, so he sometimes kept an eye on me, you know? And for some reason seeing Loren made him very upset. They said something about him hurting my fathers... and I remember being very upset by that, and sent back home without being allowed to say goodbye." The memory was both hazy and clear, remembered vividly as though it was yesterday but distorted, as memories were wont to do.
"The second time... was when Apopo erupted. Father brought me into the city so that we would be safe, and I was sitting on the doorstep, watching the ash fall from the sky. I was so scared... but suddenly Loren was there again. He did tricks with ice magic, and talked to me... and I forgot to be afraid for a while. I wish - I would like to meet him again, someday. And thank him for that."
Small acts of kindness... they outweighed by far the recollection of Remi running after the man in a towering rage, at a nightly festival full of lanterns and light.
"Mhm, I did. Twice, when I was still very little." Her tone turned soft - not the same kind of soft that Sah inspired, or her mother, but rather a tone of warm introspection and nostalgia. "The first time I was playing by the lighthouse - at Aumakua - and I stumbled. Scraped my knee... and he showed up right on time, and healed me. It was the first time I ever saw the usual kind of magic up close." An enchanting first encounter, gentle and kind - it had shaped much of her opinions on magic in general. "We chatted for a bit - I think I tried to make him play games with me - but then Sunjata showed up. We were neighbors, so he sometimes kept an eye on me, you know? And for some reason seeing Loren made him very upset. They said something about him hurting my fathers... and I remember being very upset by that, and sent back home without being allowed to say goodbye." The memory was both hazy and clear, remembered vividly as though it was yesterday but distorted, as memories were wont to do.
"The second time... was when Apopo erupted. Father brought me into the city so that we would be safe, and I was sitting on the doorstep, watching the ash fall from the sky. I was so scared... but suddenly Loren was there again. He did tricks with ice magic, and talked to me... and I forgot to be afraid for a while. I wish - I would like to meet him again, someday. And thank him for that."
Small acts of kindness... they outweighed by far the recollection of Remi running after the man in a towering rage, at a nightly festival full of lanterns and light.
Battle born they send us
Covered in our noble blood
Covered in our noble blood
