No Good Deed

The lighting in the Temple was dim, but it was still a place where people came occasionally, needing to get away from the claustrophobic constraints of the Rathskeller with its fill of unwashed bodies and fear, spilled beer and constant susurrus of low, nervous voices. This had been a notable Long Night indeed, after all; the first for most of the Outlanders, filled with new terrors and lessons learned at great price. The naturals had likely never seen so many idiots opening doors or going outside amidst the monsters - or so many survivors of such foolish endeavors.

Jigano felt fractured, fragile still but-- recovering. Recovered enough, at least, for some of his ennui and fear to have faded and for his feet to grow restless in the confines of the Infirmary and Temple beyond, though not yet sturdy enough to face the sea of faces in the Rathskeller. So now he prowled the Temple's confines, tending to the few low candles that provided light for the daring few who braved the upstairs, and tidying the shrine for the future prayers of the faithful or the desperate.

His rounds took him near to the door, and he paused to check the locks again, against the chance that some other brave or mad fool had slipped out into the dark and left them unguarded once more.

Samuel

Sam had, after a long while of contented sleep and laying about in bed (an odd thing to do in the middle of a temple, almost blasphemous and yet he could not bring himself to feel guilty about it) left Remi, who wished to go speak to Isla and do his own things for a while. He was surprised in himself how independent he really could be in a relationship. He had always thought if he'd fallen in love he'd want to follow someone to the ends of the world but actually, time apart made meeting again all the sweeter (as long as that time apart wasn't spent scared Remi might be dead). He put on his shirt and stepped out into the main temple, looking about to the shrine and then -- his mouth opened in an 'o' of surprise as he saw Jigano stood at the doorway. He had not seen him at all so far in Longnight, had been convinced he was dead or cowering in a hole in the forest. "Jigano!" Sam called, walking as quickly as he could on still-stiff joints over to his friend. For the moment their disagreement pre-Longnight was forgotten in his sheer relief at seeing Jigano alive. "Are you a-alright? Where have you b-been?" His own appearance, dishevelled and with bandages on his hands, went forgotten as he approached. Samuel He took a step but then felt tired He said, I'll rest a little while But when he tried to walk again He wasn't a child

His name echoing through the stillness of the Temple had him hiding a wince as he turned, taking in Sam's appearance with a raised brow and no little concern on his haggard features. The pale man looked battered and in disarray, but with, somehow, less tension and anxiety in his posture than usual. Considering their circumstances, Jigano was dully surprised, though he had enough strength back now to manage a reassuring nod.

"Samuel," he said softly, checking the last lock and stepping away from the door to meet the bookmaker and walk them further away from the doors and whatever might be lurking outside them. "I am uninjured, by some twist of luck. Which is more than you can say. What happened to you? Why are your hands bandaged?" Pale brows rose as he looked from the timid Natural to the locked door in uncertainty. "Did you... did something happen to your house, that you had to run here for shelter?"

Jigano responded with his usual calm demeanour, which Sam found immensely comforting amidst all the terror of Longnight. He let himself be guided away from the door, happy to be walking with his friend as if it were all normal. "I...I c-came here with Remi. My boy-boyfriend. He wa..wanted to be w-with everyone else." He said Remi's title with the kind of pride one reserved for their best achievements. "So...I was n-never home." Sam hoped Mia was okay. He had left her with a mountain of food and water, locked all the doors and windows twice and put a blanket down. From their communications he'd found she was a solitary kind of mind, like him, and didn't mind being by herself. "My ha..hands....I went o-outside. And...Isla...um..." Sam decided to leave that for a moment so he could answer the question he was asked. "I fell over. And I was sc-scared, so I ran fast. But..I-I'll be okay. But...Jigano...d-do you know about...about Isla? What ha-happened to her? And...why are y-you here now?" Samuel He took a step but then felt tired He said, I'll rest a little while But when he tried to walk again He wasn't a child

He was too tired to deal with the romance between the reckless young pup and the bookmaker just yet, he decided, but as Sam seemed both proud and happy with the state of affairs he didn't particularly need to. They were both adults (though barely, he sometimes thought, when he was being uncharitably grumpy) and besides, some choices were none of his business. He simply inclined his head in acknowledgment at hearing that the pair had chosen the Rathskeller over Sam's quiet house, and was silently relieved that he hadn't sought shelter there after all, in the empty cold of a home that wasn't his.

The rush of words in answer to his question left him sucking in a sharp breath as he tried to piece events together. Sam went outside on Long Night? And Isla had as well, from the sounds of it. He held the breath a count of eight before letting it out just as slowly as he tightened his control over his emotions and repressed the urge to shake the gentle bookmaker into making more sense. It wouldn't work, and then he'd feel guilty and Sam would feel betrayed and rightly so. No, a gentler approach was needed with his first friend on Caido, and he gave a little shake of his head in answer. "No," he said quietly, settling his hip against a pew in the gathering space and looking at Sam with sharpening focus on dull blue eyes. "I don't. She's been missing from the Infirmary since I arrived. What happened? Is she..." He hesitated, unsure of what to ask. If she had been hurt, then she would have been in the Infirmary and he would have seen her already. If she'd been killed then surely Sam - her friend - would be far more upset than he was at the news. But what did that leave? 'Missing' didn't say much...

"Please, Sam, tell me about Isla and then I'll tell you where I've been. But don't leave me hanging like this!" There might have been the quietest edge of desperation in his voice at the end, distress breaking through the exhausted numbness as he gripped the pew with white-knuckled hands.

Jigano seemed grumpy, short and irritated. Which wasn't surprising, Sam supposed, given that it had been a very stressful Longnight for everybody, but he still took a half-step back as he saw the way Jigano's knuckles whitened and his eyes turned desperate. "Well..." He began, trying to think of how to phrase what happened to Isla in a succinct way. "Isla died." Not a good start. He quickly tried to continue, waving his hands in front of him: "B-but! Ludo...Ludo br-brought her back, be...because Remi we-went to find her. ...After tr-trapping me in here, but..." He shook his head. That was a story for another day when they had tea and time to chat about his boyfriends several issues. "..Anyway. Isla is...he-here, but..." There really was no way to say the next part of the story without looking insane. "She's a uni-unicorn now. I'm...n-not joking. That's...the f-f-form that Ludo gave her. So...she's...alive. But...different." With this information imparted he tried to give Jigano a moment to process, going to sit on the pew he was perched on and looking towards the infirmary doors, wondering if he was going to have to drag Isla out to prove his point. Samuel He took a step but then felt tired He said, I'll rest a little while But when he tried to walk again He wasn't a child

Isla.

Died.

The words fell like stones from a great height, echoing strangely in Jigano's ears as he tried to make sense of them. Isla, laughing, pragmatic, strong, smart, stubborn, bright, shining Isla, Isuma's godmother and his dear friend... dead? No, no, it couldn't be but--

Oh. Sam had continued, but that didn't mean his words made sense. Ludo brought her back? Well... alright. Jigano could deal with that. Ludo was a tricky god and there was no guessing what whim would catch his fancy, to help or to trick - or both at once.

Or to harm, floated like a warning in the back of his head. Remi had almost died at least twice due to the Masked God's games, after all. There was always a price...

Ah. A unicorn. Of course. Jigano nodded calm acceptance of the information, wondering if he was, in fact, still curled up in his foxform beside Rory and dreaming at least, a gift from Ludo. What a strange story for his mind to conjure up! Or was it Sam who had cracked from the stress of Long Night? "Sam," the bard said, voice almost conversational. "How did Isla... why did she... where did she die?" The word fought him, which was foolishness. He had seen many people die, friends and family alike. Friends dying... was nothing new. But Isla had been special to him, as Sam, and Rory, and Edy were special. As Amalia was becoming. But Isla... she, more than most, who had been partner and mentor and guildmate and friend, his equal in many ways - his better, in others - she was someone whose loss he could not accept so easily.

108 would call it foolish sentimentality, perhaps.

But... would her soul have been one of those he was being sent to recover, when Long Night ended?

A shudder ran through him and he squeezed his eyes closed for a moment, sucking in a slow, deep breath. After he exhaled he looked at Samuel again, this time with eyes that were sharper and more focused. "Start at the beginning, please," he requested quietly, though he remained standing, too tense to sit. "As though you were writing in the chronicle book. Slowly. Take breaks if you need them."

Jigano requested that he speak as if he was writing in the chronicles book (a project that, given the sudden chaos of Longnight, he was yet to start). From the beginning. He wasn't sure if he meant the beginning of Sam's Longnight or of Isla's death... but to be sure,  Sam started as early as he could. "Well. I d-didn't see Isla when I f-first arrived. I know...Remi went t-to see her. We had a fi-fight because she...she bit him." The argument was forgiven now,  in the past, but a little bit of hurt still came through his words. "Then....it was c-calm. For a while." His version of this story was incomplete, but he could only give his version. Sam didn't know enough of the magical stone Remi had given Isla to mention it, didn't know of the histories all his friends had with Ludo. "Then...I...a-and some others. Left. B-because a Luxere came to the window. It n-needed help. There was a hu-hurt one." Sam shut his eyes and tightened his hands into fists,  hating this memory. "Isla...sh-she went to help it. But...a monster... like a worm.  C-c-came out and into her...mouth. And..." Tears began to fall down Sam's face,  the first proper indication of distress about the events. "I saw it eat...her. From in-inside. It was...I...I wish I had not seen it. But then.. then I ran. P-please don't think ba..badly of me. But I could tell she was dead and I...I was sc-scared." He looked towards the alcove where his and Remi's blanket pile was then to the door. "I t-told Remi she was dead and not to go...but... but he tr-tricked me and trapped me in here and went f-for her. But maybe it w...was good. Because he br-brought her back. As....a unicorn. ...I think it's pr-probably her, but I don't enti-entirely trust it yet. " With the story told he sat back against the bench and hoped he wouldn't be judged for running or told his story was incomplete again. Samuel He took a step but then felt tired He said, I'll rest a little while But when he tried to walk again He wasn't a child

Isla bit Remi? A silver brow arched in surprise, a faint frown creasing his forehead. Hadn't Sam said something about the bite causing feelings of lust? But Remi and Sam were... a conundrum for later, unfortunately, as Jigano followed the story as it unrolled - this time with at least a little more structure and sanity behind it. He wasn't given a chance to relax, though, his brow furrowing further at the unexpected revelation that Samuel - native-born, cautious, fearful, obedient Sam - had left the shelter of the Temple, the locked doors, the moss-packed-windows and gone out into the night for... a single creature? A deer that may well have been pulled down by hungry wolves or feral dogs in the natural course of things?

The luxere were a little different, of course. They were protectors, but still, was the life of one worth the risk to so many? But before the bard could ask, Sam went tense and upset, and Jigano bit back his comments to listen in silence and wait as long as his friend needed to make it through the nightmare story he related. If he thought of it that way - as a ghost story, a fictional tale - it was easier to hear. His frown smoothed away, but it was to a carefully controlled neutral expression, almost blank as his eyes found a point above Sam's head and stayed there, unseeing, while images conjured by the bookmaker's words played the tale out in his head.

If only he had made it to the Infirmary before night had fallen, he would have been here. He might have been able to stop Isla.

But... if he had, would he have gone out to investigate the destruction of the perch? Would they have been able to get the rope threaded through the top ring so the crossbeam could be raised without him? And even if they had, would there have been anyone able to get an antler to Rory during that last final, horrible push of violence and victory, when Edy had grabbed Amalia and run, leaving the hunter behind?

What if, what might have been, what could have been, what should have been...

What was. Unchangeable. Lost or broken of left undone or unsaid... and never to be recovered the way it had been before. Cold, hard truths that a lorekeeper accepted and collected no less than those that brought aid and happiness.

Taking a shuddering breath, the Lorekeeper came back to himself, looking at Samuel and seeing him again. Blue eyes were unreadable, shadowed with conflicting emotions, but he bowed his head with a flicker of his old graciousness. "Thank you, Sam. So, to be sure I am clear on this: you and Isla and some others went to help a hurt luxere. But the luxere was a trap, and the monster inside attacked and killed Isla. When you came back and told Remi he went out after her and somehow... he found a way to have her resurrected, but as a unicorn rather than a woman? Do you know... is she still her own person or..." he hesitated, thinking of Isuma, of Bobi, of Sugar and of the books Isla had found for him to read up on companions. "Is her heart bound to his, now?"

If Sam was telling the truth - and Jigano believed that Sam thought it was the truth, but that didn't make it easier to wrap his head around just yet - then his friend of the laughing blue eyes and golden hair... might have survived, but their friendship might not. He felt Isuma's emotions, after all, and they affected him, as his could do to her. Remi's antipathy towards him, his belief that the bard was cruel and manipulative... would that eventually color Isla's opinion of him? Would he lose her still, due to a twist of mocking fate and a young man whose humility was so intense that it curved right back around again to arrogance?

He exhaled, weariness layered on fear layered on physical exhaustion and mental strain. Feeling far older than his twenty-seven years he settled into the pew at last, his mind picking up on a stray thought, utterly out of place. "I wonder if she will still want to be part of our guild," he murmured softly. "If she cannot speak to us or turn pages anymore..."

Jigano seemed lost, beside himself at the news. Sam had become so emotionally dead, so used to it in the last few hours that Jigano's clear shock came as a bit of a surprise. He was relieved when Jigano returned back to something approaching normalcy with a big breath and a summary of what he'd just said, which Sam nodded along with. His nodding abruptly stopped at "Is her heart bound to his, now?" Sam's confusion and sudden icy shock would be clear on his face, the idea a troubling one indeed. He had considered his relationship now safe from interference by Isla, but....bound hearts?! That sounded distinctly romantic, or at least intimate. "...I...d-don't...know. He didn't...mention that to me." Sam would have liked to have thought Remi would have informed him about his binding his heart to someone else. "...She...she mi-might want to be in the guild. I think she can still...th...think. M-maybe we could find a way for her to communicate." But honestly, Sam was a little tired of speaking about Isla. "No-now, can you please t-tell me where you were?" Samuel He took a step but then felt tired He said, I'll rest a little while But when he tried to walk again He wasn't a child

"Well... perhaps they didn't form a companion bond?" Jigano said, a little hesitant, but too tired to be truly hopeful. Samuel seemed to be frozen for a moment, but he shook himself out of it quickly enough and offered an endearingly optimistic spin on Isla remaining with them, as far as the guild went. Too tired to smile, Jigano simply nodded with a slow blink. The demand for his whereabouts earned a grimace, and he reached up to rake long hair back from his face - even though it fell right back a moment later.

"I was supposed to be here, helping Isla in the Infirmary," he said quietly, wincing as he fought back against the clamoring weight of 'might have been's again. "But... I was out doing some last minute gathering and didn't time things quite right. I took shelter in a friend's barn. It would have been a rough week, but I made it a day or two in before we heard the destruction coming from the Settlement." He paused, swallowing as he remembered the fear that had thrummed through him as Rory and Amalia had come rushing out of the house into the night, protected only by the luxere.

"I didn't know, at the time, but Amalia guessed that it was the spark bird perch. She and Rory were going, and I couldn't let them go alone. We made it safely into town but... the perch had been knocked apart." He swallowed again, flinching at the memory. The world lit only by Amalia's blood-red luxere antlers, Edy throwing fire, Rory hitting the ground, the rage Rage RAGE that had boiled up inside him and found outlet in tearing, bloody teeth...

"Edy was there, too, for some reason. We... managed to repair it. Eventually. But Rory and Amalia were... hurt. Badly. So we sought shelter in the Temple, then. I... am sorry, Sam. I thought you were at your home. It didn't occur to me to look for you here. And... I have not had much heart for talking."

"Mmm." Sam mumbled, hoping Jigano was right but suddenly not being very hopeful about it. Why wouldn't Remi have bonded with Isla? They were close and he knew Remi would have wanted to let Isla express herself somehow, even if that meant giving away a piece of himself. ...Did that mean Isla was looking through Remi's eyes every time they kissed or embraced? The thought was so strange it didn't bear thinking about. "A...b-barn?!" From what Sam knew of Jigano, he did not seem like the kind of person who would enjoy spending time in a barn. He seemed refined, elegant, more suited to polished palaces than mucking about in hay. He also didn't know Jigano had cared so much about the perch. The Sparkbird was something most naturals didn't even think about that much, so it was odd for an Outlander to care massively about it. But he didn't comment on that, listening and wondering just how much he'd missed while he'd been wrapped up in his own personal dramas. "Th...that's alright. I'm j-just glad you're ok. I left...my d-door unlocked and some things in my home for you. If...you needed them. B-but I suppose you didn't." Sam hoped that monsters didn't try to get into houses unless they heard a noise inside. Ideally he wouldn't return to a home turned upside down and scratched up by beasts. "...Are...Ro-roy and Amalia...alright? I d-don't know Rory. Who is he?" Samuel He took a step but then felt tired He said, I'll rest a little while But when he tried to walk again He wasn't a child

"It wasn't my first choice," Jigano said dryly, catching a hint of Sam's disbelief from his tone. "The light was almost gone and I was more concerned with having a door between me and whatever was coming than the quality of the accommodations. Given what started scratching and gibbering outside as soon as the darkness fell, I'm glad I did." He gave a little shrug. "Besides, there was plenty of water for the animals that served as well for me, and they kept the building warm with their body heat. It could have been worse."

He could have been outside when the sun set, after all.

At first Jigano hadn't cared about the perch - but, as he'd told Sam, he also hadn't known that the perch was what had been attacked. It could very well have been the bookmaker's house that had come crashing and splintering down in the dark, with the bookmaker still inside. That thought hadn't crossed his mind until he was clinging with all four paws to the back of Talys, however. No, what had brought him out into the night wasn't the perch, but fear for his friends, who did care about it, having worked so hard to build it, and his support of their mission.

At hearing that Sam had, indeed, left his door unlocked in case Jigano had come by, a little warmth seeped back into the bard's wounded heart. His expression softened a little, and he bowed his head in gratitude. "I still would have sought shelter there," he admitted, "and been grateful for your care of me, if we hadn't needed a healer so desperately." He exhaled slowly, trying to decide how to answer his friend's question. Was Amalia alright? Since their encounter with Ludo... she might yet be, someday.

"Amalia is... recovering," he temporized. "She will be alright eventually, I think, but all wounds take time to heal. The ones of the spirit take longer than most." He sighed, heart aching for both of his friends and what they had been through - at his and Edy's hands, as much as the monsters' madness. "I might say the same for Rory. He is a leatherworker, a hunter, who lives on a farm in the outskirts. Some of the leather for your book covers might even come from the hides he has worked," he added, trying to find a connection that might let Samuel recognize his fellow natural.

"...I suppose." If Jigano had simply wanted four walls Sam wondered what had been so wrong with the offer of his own house. Surely with it's comfortable chairs, candles, bed and fire it was better than a barn..? Or even the Rathskellar would have made more sense, with its security in numbers and comfort. Jigano had made some very odd choices indeed, he thought. Was he a healer...? He thought Jigano was just an...adventurer smart person. Sam was far too tired to question all of these things right now but his confusion showed on his face with the furrowing of his brow and chewing on his lip. "A l-leatherworker...? Oh. I do know h-him. He used to...to date my s-sister." Sam mentioned conversationally, a slight distaste evident in his tone. "..Did...d-did you get hurt? Vervain has been he-helping people heal instead of Isla. Or...I helped s-someone with a dislocated shoulder." Samuel He took a step but then felt tired He said, I'll rest a little while But when he tried to walk again He wasn't a child