Diamonds in the Rough

Ideas could be dangerous things, in the wrong minds. Jigano knew that better than anyone, and yet here he was, standing at the edge of a ruined city and looking out over the mix of damaged and fallen buildings, shattered roads, and gaping holes like wounds in the earth, leading to darker and even more dangerous places. He tucked his cloak more tightly about him as his eyes roamed the broken landscape, made even starker in the monochromatic shades of Deepfrost.

Certain resources weren’t easy to find in isolated Caido, though. Metals, raw or worked, didn’t grow on trees, and there were no mountains to bear ore deposits from deep within the earth. Metals had to be recycled from existing tools and weapons, or else scavenged from among the bones of the past, when there were both more people and fewer nightmares that walked the hollowed grounds. So here Jigano stood, keeping an eye out for trouble, but also trying to discern from the way certain foundations were laid out amidst the rubble if there had been a smithy or a forge there? A city guard garrison might also have scraps he could use, or a rich person’s manor, though he assumed those would have been the first picked over by survivors.

Then again, the locals had a funny way of being right about what places and things to fear. If they chose not to come here, it was probably for a good reason… But the lorekeeper had reasons of his own.

Isuma was safely tucked into a basket in the guildhall with Isla today, just in case trouble appeared where it was most expected, and Jigano had invited along a ‘bodyguard’ from the Monster Hunter’s Guild – just to be on the safe side. After all, Sam had made it clear that he wouldn’t forgive the bard if Jigano died now, so the Loreseeker provost waited patiently in the water sunlight of late morning for his friend to arrive so they could begin their search in earnest.

Edrei

“Met a friend of yours.” Called a sing-song voice from somewhere to Jigano’s left. If and when he turned, he’d spy Edy suitably dressed (somehow even with a bulky coat and leggings she still exuded sex despite the thick textiles draped about her), with Bobi flouncing playfully at her feet. Every now and then Edy would sort of do a stutter-step to throw the kitten off, who would flatten her ears and pounce for the teenager’s foot even as she hopped into the air to avoid the large clawed paws.

“This guy wanting to buy you some sausage for LongNight.” She cackled delightfully, her dark cheeks a warm rouge with her laugher and the chill in the air. “But he was very clear that you two weren’t together. So if you had your sights on any awkward red-heads, you might want to rethink your LongNight plans.” She added with a shit-eating grin and a wink.

Falling alongside him, Edy quirked a brow as she looked around, her gaze all but black in the fading light. Bobi however was all but glaring up at Jigano, her small nose scenting the air delicately around him. Emitting a small ft fffffft sound of disapproval, Edy glanced down and frown. ”Rude. Shut it, you.” She demanded, though there was affection in her words however stern they were.

Of course he turned to watch his friend approach, grinning at her usual cocky sensuality. "Oh?" he inquired curiously as she approached. He raised a brow at the little bobcat that dogged her heels, but knew better than to try and dissuade the wild teen from bringing her when she was already there. Sausage, was it? And a man? Except it couldn't possibly be Rory so therefore it had to be--

He chuckled at her description of Mr. Wordsworth, flashing her a cheerful grin. "Sam is sweet, but I believe he's taken up with young Remi," the bard offered the gossip with a wink, even if the mention of Remi's name caused a little tension behind his right eye. "Far be it from me to interrupt their night together!" And what a long night it would be, from all accounts, but being the gentleman that he was, he left that low-hanging fruit for his lovely companion to pluck at her leisure.

It wasn't yet noon, but the clouds moving in promised more snow before nightfall, and Jigano frowned, setting off into the ruined streets with care for the debris and holes hidden beneath the snow. Bobi's displeasure earned a raised brow and a wry grin, though, lightening his mood before it could truly dip. "You weren't so judgmental when you were playing with my hair last time," he teased. "Could it be you're jealous?"

”Yeah, he was cute if you’re into that whole awkward as fuck would probably faint from a good jump scare sort of thing.” Edy said with an eager grin, which quickly disappeared at the mention of Remi. ”Wait, the alchemist? Eww.” She replied with an immediate sniff of disdain. Her only interactions with Remi had been him delivering stuff, asking after Loren, and other than being all together too polite. How boring.  Rather than picking up what Jigano was obviously putting down, Edy huffed. ”Ugh.” She scowled. ”I heard Vai ask Remi to hang out in the Rathskeller during LongNight, so if they’re together, guess that means I get to see Sir longing-stare and Prince Can’t Take a Joke, together. For a week.” She complained with a sideways and completely youthful slant to her lips.

”Ooohhhh jealous?” Edy purred down at the kitten grinning wickedly. Vaguely understanding something about the sentiment from their mental bond, Bobi looked up and hissed. ”Okay, fuck. Calm yourself I was just asking.” With a grin, she leaned down towards the kitten and dropped her voice to a stage whisper. “I like the long hair too, but can you imagine how long it takes him in the morning? Besides, he isn’t even a magic user and so...” Suddenly Edy trailed off. Launceleyn’s were only allowed to marry other high ranking magic users, and although she wasn’t actually considering her kitten banging or marrying Jigano, her mind had suitably jumped forward to make certain connections. ”Huh.” She mused to the kitten with a broad smile. ”Guess that’s one less thing to worry about.” She cooed before glancing back towards Jigano.

”So. Treasure? Monsters? Damsels? Princes? What’re we after today?”

"He's braver than he looks - or thinks he is," Jigano murmured with a smile, loyal in his honesty. "But yes. I second the 'ew'." Though if they truly made each other happy he supposed he'd get over it. Probably. Some day. "Reason enough to hide in the Infirmary, or somewhere else. Anywhere else," he added under his breath, almost glad for the distraction of the adorably peeved bobcat kitten. Almost. Those claws were still plenty sharp even if he was only pint-sized yet!

He assumed Bobi had caught Isuma's scent, but he wasn't so sure as he glanced back bemusedly at the interaction between firemage and feline. "Can you tell what he's got a burr up his fuzzy butt about?" Dropping back into earthier language took a bit of a mental switch, but Jigano made the effort for his 'maybe don't use that word yet' friend. He probably should have ignored the whispering, but he couldn't help but grin at the mention of his hair care routine. Edy wasn't wrong, after all, but at the mention of not being a magic user his expression fell into studiously neutral lines. "Ah. Well. Not anymore, no," he agreed, keeping his voice light and easy as he worked his way gracefully over a fallen pillar that might once have held statuary in a broad cross street.

He paused at the top to do a scan of the surroundings, frowning at the way the snow hid and softened much of the more broken rubble. There were still plenty of buildings standing though - if one was charitable at defining 'standing' as 'no roof, less than three walls, and no more than one story.' There had been some nicer buildings in the area he had wandered about with Bastien, but he was trying to find more of a tradesman's area. "Treasure," he called back absently. "Though if there's a monster guarding it, I thought you could fry it up for a Long Night delicacy for Vervain." He slid down, striking out at an angle from his previous path, leaving his long, narrow footprints in the snow. "I'm looking for a cache of metals," he explained. "Preferably refined but unworked. But beggars and choosers and all that."

He glanced back, giving her a wry grin. "So if you or the kitten notice anything shiny, sing out! Or anything toothy or fangy, for that matter."

Edy wasn't sure who was supposed to be braver than he looked. She assumed the red-head, but either way, it didn't much matter. With a grin Edy wiggled her fingers towards Jigano. "You learn how to set fingers yet? Maybe I'll have an accident and need a splint or something. Normally I only go to see the pretty doctor, but you'll do in a pinch I guess. Especially if those two idiots are going to be making eyes at each other for a solid week."

The teenager shrugged casually as she looked at the kitten. "Eh, feels like she's hungry I think. But she just ate—" This latter portion was clearly meant towards Bobi, who continued to fft fft ffftt in annoyance, but more or less left the bard alone. Glancing up with a grin on her lips, Edy cocked her head to the side. "Oh really? Well hot damn. Guess I could marry you after all...I'll be sure to keep that in mind." She cackled with a wink.

"Ooohhh treasure huh." The teenager beamed, happily and athletically leaping from rubble-pile to the street and then back again. Her enthusiasm dipped a bit as he explained he was after unrefined metals, but with a bony shrug of her shoulders, she seemed to let her disappointment go. "As long as I get to set something on fire, I'm good to go." She chirped pleasantly, falling into step next to the bard.

"So what kinda magic did you have? Before?"

"I don't count as a pretty doctor?" he pouted, pressing a hand to his chest. "Madame, you wound me! But he was grinning as he said it, and waved a hand at her question. "As a matter of fact, I could already do that! Tell me, please: does the middle finger convey the same usefully insulting sentiments in Northaven as it does on my world? It would be just terrible if I had to splint that one up for you for, ah, medical reasons." His wink and grin were more playful than he usually let himself be around others - at least, when he wasn't in fox form and cheering up Rory - but Edy had a gleefully wicked edge to her that brought out the mischief in his foxy soul, and with no one else around to see or judge him for it, he was happy to run with it for a little while.

Hearing Edy tease the kitten had an entirely different feel now that he knew what it was like to share his mind and heart with a companion. Jigano grinned to himself as he scouted out a likely path and when he returned to the ground to lead the way he found himself laughing - mostly in humor and only a little bit of terror - along with Edy at the idea of them marrying. "Who needs marriage? I'm not sure I've even met a proper priest here who could perform such a ceremony," he mused, though he'd run into a number of locals in the settlement who seemed to keep up the tradition.

"Even if we don't run across something for you to fight, I'm sure we can find something to burn," he agreed cheerfully. He looked carefully into the fallen buildings that they passed, checking for signs of a forge that might indicate a smithy where stores of metal might still be found. He suspected that this close to the settlement things might be more picked over, but the further they headed into the ruins the more likely they would be to find caches still untouched.

The mention of his magic had him hiding a wince, and he managed a wry quirk of his lips in a grin instead. "A little divine, a little arcane," he said airily. "I'm a bard in my spare time, and bards are known for dabbling in a bit of everything. I could do a bit of healing, use my voice and music to bolster my comrades with a bit of mystic assistance to their strikes or tasks. Protect myself with shields made of force, or an illusion of multiple images so my enemies didn't know which one was me. I could use sound as a weapon, as well, like knives made of notes. Mostly, though I nudged Fate when it looked like things were going against someone." He shrugged, trying not to miss so badly what had been his strength and pride on his own world. "Aside from fire, what kind of magic was common in Northaven?"

"Oh you've upgraded yourself from Isla's assistant to doctor, huh?" Edy trilled in response, clearly pleased beyond words that Jigano had bothered to pull at this particular thread. Flashing him a dazzling white smile, Edy rolled her shoulders and raised a brow. "All I know is that there are much more fun things to do with fingers, middle or otherwise, than convey an insult." She cackled happily, her dark eyes alight with mischief and merriment.  She couldn't tell if she loved or hated it (that was a lie, she loved it) that Jigano had the mind to know when she tried to drudge him into the gutters with her, but the wit to somehow amusingly avoid it every time. Still, she vowed one day he'd tumble all the way with her. "Point made. I'll be sure to wound some uninteresting and unimportant part of me instead."

"Mmmm, another good point." She hummed thoughtfully. "I never really wanted to get married, but as a Launceleyn it was just the sort of thing you had to do. Usually it was arranged, hence the magic requirement." Her tone was cavalier, her expression vaguely uninterested. "Guess here I don't have to worry about that anymore. Which is great, cause—" Scooping the kitten up into her arms (Bobi yowling in unwelcome surprise), Edy flashed Jigano a smile. "—relationships seem like the worst."

"Whoa damn." The teenager purred, clearly awestruck. You didn't come from an impressive line of mages without having a healthy respect from the craft, and from what Jigano had just outlined, he'd been powerful as all fuck at one point. "And you don't have any of it anymore?" Jigano might have hid his wince, so Edy offered a comically pained expression on his behalf.

Kicking a rock (which Bobi scrambled out of her arms to pounce on), Edy shrugged. "Uhh, things like illusion or destruction—I was a destructionist—annddd...mystics, healers, summoners, conjurers...Other than your thing about nudging fate, it seems pretty similar. Only like..if you were a dark magic user, you could never do light magic stuff and vice-versa." Holding out her hand for the bard to see, there was an ugly and jagged scar on her wrist. "When you master a dark art, like destruction, you stop being able to be healed at all." Youthfully her shoulders rose and fell quickly, no longer burdened by this limitation

"Shh, don't tell her," he grinned back at Edy's trill. "I'll be washing bandages for a month if she finds out!" But of course Edy had ideas for what to do with fingers that didn't involve communicating - or at least, not quite in the way Jigano meant! Still, he put on his most innocent and saintly expression just for her, even if it was a little ruined by the sly wink he gave her. "How right you are, of course. I apologize for my crudeness. When I think of the music I could be making instead with those fingers, I am ashamed to think I would use them so mean-spiritedly instead." He even made it to the end before he lost his straight face and hide to duck his head to hide his laughter.

He might have protested her having any 'unimportant' parts, but he could almost see her scowling if he tried, so he simply raised a silver brow at her for a brief moment before going back to his search of the ruined buildings. The sunlight had faded under the onslaught of the clouds, and he looked up worriedly for a moment before increasing his pace as much as he felt he safely could over the treacherous ground. He caught her smile, though, and returned it with a wry grin. "I'm glad you're free of that particular shackle, at least. I suppose a relationship might be nice if you choose it for yourself but... who has the time?" Running a guild, doing his own research, performing at the Rathskeller, raising a baby gryphon... he would have been exhausted even if Ludo hadn't taken his dreams. So perhaps it wasn't such a bad trade, really. What did he need with sleep these days?

Aside from working harder to disguise the circles under his eyes, or his increasing habit of falling asleep over his books in the Atheneum.

Luckily he didn't need to worry about that at the moment, not with how dangerous the ruins reportedly were. He hummed acknowledgment of Edy's awe, lips twisting into a lopsided smile that held a shadow of pain along with the old pride he was still unlearning. "I was... best, when I had a team to support, and to protect me," he acknowledged quietly. "But when I came to Caido I lost even the power of my song." Such a small thing, and yet it had been so intrinsic to him for so long...

He glanced back in startlement at the sound of the rock, then relaxed when he saw Bobi chasing it. "Yes, actually," he agreed, pleased at the similarities. "Dark magic being averse to light though... I suppose it makes a certain kind of sense..." He frowned, then gave a little shrug. "I could heal and harm, both, though, so that sounds unique to your world. " The scar was certainly worse than he was used to seeing from anyone who had access to healing magic. He grimaced in sympathy, glancing at her shrug with a raised brow. "Then it must have been someone either very brave or very determined to master destruction," he observed, no little respect in his own voice.

“Making music mmmm?” Edy purred salaciously, her eyebrows bobbing just as buoyantly as her steps. “Yeah I’ve heard it called that before too.” She added with a grin, matching his wink happily.

“Right? A whole new world to discover and already some of these idiots are shacking up and professing their love like it’s the damn end of days. “ Scowling Edy shook her head, sending her impressive mane of hair waving around her. “Even if things were calm and steady, relationships seem lame.” The brief flickering of the former Overseer flashed into her mind, making Edy’s jaw clench. Case in fucking point and that hadn’t even been anything. If the potential of something was enough to annoy her now, imagine what a full on relationship could do?

Nope, nope nope. Fuck that.

“Mmmm, shitty deal.” Edy offered crassly, though the genuine nature of her concern was evident despite the bawdy nature of her words. She nibbled the inside of her lip glancing over at the bard, twitching her mouth slightly at the rather unhappy tilt of his jaw. But Edy was not one especially well practiced in comforting others (unless it was through a spar, or fucking them), so she merely diverted her gaze to where Bobi had picked up the stone like it was some small hardened rodent she’d killed. “You’re fooling no one.” Edy chuckled at the kitten, who promptly dropped the rock as casually as she could.

”Ehh, more like forced. Us Launceleyns were raised in a compound with just our own. As soon as our magical abilities developed as kids, we were immediately trained in them. Most of us had mastered at least one arcane ability by the time we were about 16 or so..” Edy’s tone and posture indicated both that she had simply accepted this practice, but also that she’d left it behind. ”But I get it. Sorta..” She said, eyes low and lips switching back and forth. “Destruction magic was ... limitless, really. I could do anything, so long as the goal was destruction. Ice, fire, explosions, disintegration...” Her smile was sad and lasted only a moment. ”So the fire is good and all, but it isn’t like how it was before. I mean, at least I have it though. Sucks that yours is all gone.” She concluded, her awkward attempt at comraderie clearly not something she was used to.

"Well, yes," he agreed, pulling his actor's mask of respectability back into place with a determined effort, even though he was in danger of pulling a muscle from holding back his laughter. "I really should play my flute for you, sometime. Now that I know what a music-lover you are, I'm sure you can appreciate the tricky fingering better than most would." Oh, gods most fortunate, he had missed bantering like this. He could forgive the wild child a multitude of sins for making him laugh so hard, though he was letting himself get distracted from his task.

"Ah well, I don't blame them for finding someone that makes them happy," he temporized, still grinning. "Better to have fun and find pleasure in each other while the winter snows cover the ground. Unless you have a better idea for keeping warm - aside from your formidable fire, that is!" He turned back to tip her a grin and caught the tightening of her expression. The bard paused in his teasing, some of his humor falling away in concern, though Edy didn't seem ready or willing to talk about what had caused that tension. A romance gone bad? An ex who had broken her heart? Not that she'd ever admit to such a thing, he thought ruefully, but it would explain some of her wariness towards others.

The conversation turned more sobering after that, especially for Jigano as his lack of magic was brought up and lingered over. He offered a wistful shrug at her comment, agreeing whole-heartedly. It was a shitty deal, but... it could have been worse. Bobi provided a welcome distraction to them both for a moment, and he found his lips quirking into a small grin as the rock clattered back to the ground, the kitten managing an impressive haughteur for his size.

Jigano's steps slowed as he thought he saw something promising. Most of the building's walls were only a few feet tall now, but two were over head height, with a corner of roof surviving between them, but most importantly there was a nearly-intact chimney, broader and thicker than a home would need. It could be a baker's oven... but the shape was reminiscent of the forge he'd seen in the old smith's workshop, though much larger. Still, he glanced behind with a brow raised in surprise at the harshness of Edy's former world, even though he'd heard some of it before. The retelling didn't make it any less pleasant to hear, and it must have been far worse to live. Which made her almost abrupt compassion at the end - rough-edged though it was - even more surprising. And welcome, Jigano finding an honest smile for his young friend. "Nothing is like how it was before, for any of us. I suppose that makes it a little easier, in some ways. There's always someone who has it worse than us." Not, perhaps, the most charitable sentiment, but sometimes a little selfishness was healthy.

He stepped through what might have once been a door, or was maybe just a particularly damaged part of the foundation, finding the snow a little shallower the further into the building he walked as the taller walls had blocked the drifting snow. There was stone underneath his feet, it felt like, so he retraced his steps and nodded at his friend with a wry smile. "Speaking of fire, though, would you be kind enough to melt that mess in there so we can get a better look at what we've got here?"

He said tricky fingering, which of course left the innuendo about the flute in the dust, and Edy thought that somewhere behind that shampoo-commercial hair and perfect skin was probably the best damn mind she'd met here. Hell, met period. With no act to maintain, Edy's laughter was wild and peeled easily off her lips as she flashed Jigano and mega-watt smile both of amusement as well as appreciation. As one could well imagine, the Edy's of the world were often being told to change, to simmer down, to cut it out. Playful banter might just be that, but for the Launceleyn girl it was like a balm to the chapped parts of her, worn rough by the world trying to slot her into a mold she'd never fit.

Edy continued to wrinkle her nose at the thought. Homophobic she was not, there was just something all together, just...blashahhhhhhhhhh about the thought of sad-eyes and stutter-lips making googly eyes at each other all LongNight. Would they even fuck? Or would they just fucking cuddle and swap stories about when they'd out-niced someone?

Tilting her head to the side as if physically trying to catch his words with her ear, for a moment the teenager silently pondered. "True that." She trilled after a moment, her chin nodding a decided yes of agreement. "Does that mean you've basically given up on ever getting back? Seems like the general consensus is that it'll never happen." She asked with a casual curiosity.

As Jigano entered the 'building', Edy stayed on the street. She thought he was probably just going to have a look around, tell her some bard-ly shit about masonry or something that would sound dull but, knowing Jigano, would end up being cool as tits. The mention of fire however immediately caught her attention, and in swung the teenager with flames already licking at her palms. "Why I thought you'd never ask." She purred with utter delight.

For all her wild ways, Edy's control of the fire was truthfully quite masterful, not just in her ability but also in the fact that, contrary to what one might expect, she did not simply blast the area with flame and hope for the best (much as she might have wanted to). Instead, her assault was calculated and efficient, and the heat from her flames were a welcome side-effect as well.

---

HNNNNNN shit post sorry >.<

Jigano just grinned at Edy's continued uncertainty over the Sam-Remi... thing that had happened. He felt like wrinkling his nose at it, too, though perhaps for different reasons. And he did not want to think about them having sex, thank you very much. He'd meant his comment to be more broad, though he supposed that theirs was the only romance that he'd actually heard of lately.

He glanced back at her question as he finished his brief inspection of the shell of a building, and gave a little shrug, a rueful smile curving his lips. "As much as I'm not fond of being trapped in this barrier - I'm not a fan of putting people in cages, especially for things they can't control - I'm in no particular hurry to go home, either." He scuffed a boot down through the snow to the hard stone beneath, then began his exit. "I was a wanderer there. Still am, really. And I don't really have anything to back to even if the opportunity was offered." He'd made more real friends here on Caido in recent months than in the past three years he'd been walking the Northlands. Isuma and Hiraku were still alive, but... he couldn't face them, and hadn't intended to, ever again.

Nostalgia was brushed away in favor of cleansing fire, a task he hoped would distract his young friend and cheer her up. He wasn't wrong, and he grinned as she stepped forward with confidence in every line, fire flickering over her fingers and racing into the once-forge with a control that Jigano openly admired. "I knew I picked the best woman for the job," he murmured, grinning as the snow melted swiftly away to reveal a sturdy flagstone floor, broken stone from the walls, a block where an anvil had once stood--

And a pile of rubble in the corner that shifted ominously as the heat from the toasty fire warmed its granite bones and woke it from its winter slumber. The stone golem groaned as it rose - or perhaps that was simply the grinding of its rocky joints - in the shadow of the remaining roof, and turned towards Edy and Jigano to blink glowing amber coals at the pair. It was small for a golem, and looked badly worn, with its stony 'skin' covered in  cracks and crumbling in places. One arm ended at the elbow, but that didn't seem to slow it down as it took in the thick clouds overhead and then took a rumbling step forward, out of the safety of the shadows and heading for the fire mage.

{{Stone Golem used with permission from Honey}}

Edy just shrugged by way of agreement. She probably wouldn't go back either. There were plenty of things to go back to but...what was the point? She'd been trained to be a soldier, loyal to a crown she wasn't 100% behind under threat of death from a magical curse, and now that she was free of all that? Who the fuck would want to return?

"Mmmhmmmm." The teenager cackled her agreement, basking in the power and heat radiating from her hands until a shadow tried to overtake her light. Glancing to the side, the flames abruptly stopped as the golem lumbered her way. "Uhh. This is me singing out at having found something. It ain't toothy or fangy, more slammy I'd guess, but...." Edy backed up, hands raised defensively.

"You want this thing or can I make it ash?" Edy said, ever light on her feet and ready to dodge until the moment Jigano gave the word that she could burn it to shit.