Jigano was so busy watching his friend that he almost missed Ludo's sudden... childlike... delight? as it focused on Isuma, who was, in turn, focused on Amalia. Again, Ludo answered her questions with a deftness the bard could only admire, but it was the little gryphon kit who seemed to call the young woman back to the world she had been so close to abandoning.
Ludo was right about the little one enjoying being fussed, but Amalia had her attention first, and Isuma took the gentle touch as an invitation to crawl into the young woman's lap. She explored while they spoke and rubbed her beak curiously against the antler she still held. Jigano looked from god to girl to gryphlet in bemusement, but some of the tension left him with a soft sigh of relief as Amalia turned away from the path of final sacrifice.
"She will probably chase a... ah. A piece of cloth, if you dangle it for her," he suggested softly to the kneeling god, uncertain whether he should fear for Isuma's safety or not with an icon of death about. But... Ludo had traded fairly with him before, as he had done just now with Amalia. Surely there had been enough deaths already on this longest of nights? And Amalia trusted them...
The unexpected task offered to him had Jigano blinking in surprise, looking to Ludo fully. He didn't answer immediately, turning the new information over in a brain that still felt sluggish from the fear and guilt of what had been done at the perch. But...
He was an Oracle, even though his powers had been taken from him, it did not change that it was part of the shape of his soul. Divinely touched... and given divine responsibilities to go with the powers the gods of his world had granted him. Abyssally cursed as well... but with luck he could avoid that, here. Looking back to Amalia, he dipped his head in agreement before turning back to Ludo. "I have served as psychopomp before, on my world," he said quietly. Ushering the souls of lingering ghosts to their next worlds, through grace or force, depending on their own inclination to violence. "It would be my honor to do so again. No one should be left to wander lost in this darkness if we can help them. How do we find them? And how do we bring them back to you?"
Isuma chose that moment to hop from Amalia's lap and scamper towards the blond goddess, cautiously curious at the new person who stirred such conflicting feelings in her bonded, but sensing no threat from her. The gryphon slowed as she approached, Reep?ing shyly as she fluffed her downy wings and tilted her head to look up at Ludo with the fearlessness of the very young.
Or the very feline.
Ludo was right about the little one enjoying being fussed, but Amalia had her attention first, and Isuma took the gentle touch as an invitation to crawl into the young woman's lap. She explored while they spoke and rubbed her beak curiously against the antler she still held. Jigano looked from god to girl to gryphlet in bemusement, but some of the tension left him with a soft sigh of relief as Amalia turned away from the path of final sacrifice.
"She will probably chase a... ah. A piece of cloth, if you dangle it for her," he suggested softly to the kneeling god, uncertain whether he should fear for Isuma's safety or not with an icon of death about. But... Ludo had traded fairly with him before, as he had done just now with Amalia. Surely there had been enough deaths already on this longest of nights? And Amalia trusted them...
The unexpected task offered to him had Jigano blinking in surprise, looking to Ludo fully. He didn't answer immediately, turning the new information over in a brain that still felt sluggish from the fear and guilt of what had been done at the perch. But...
He was an Oracle, even though his powers had been taken from him, it did not change that it was part of the shape of his soul. Divinely touched... and given divine responsibilities to go with the powers the gods of his world had granted him. Abyssally cursed as well... but with luck he could avoid that, here. Looking back to Amalia, he dipped his head in agreement before turning back to Ludo. "I have served as psychopomp before, on my world," he said quietly. Ushering the souls of lingering ghosts to their next worlds, through grace or force, depending on their own inclination to violence. "It would be my honor to do so again. No one should be left to wander lost in this darkness if we can help them. How do we find them? And how do we bring them back to you?"
Isuma chose that moment to hop from Amalia's lap and scamper towards the blond goddess, cautiously curious at the new person who stirred such conflicting feelings in her bonded, but sensing no threat from her. The gryphon slowed as she approached, Reep?ing shyly as she fluffed her downy wings and tilted her head to look up at Ludo with the fearlessness of the very young.
Or the very feline.
