Curiosity killed the cat...
...but satisfaction brought him back
Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
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#1
He had finished taking notes of the knowledge Safrin had shared with Amalia and him at last, and as he went through them one thing had stood out: though Safrin had mentioned Rae and Vi and Mort, though she had explained her own origins and those of Frey, one name had been conspicuously absent.

Ludo.

The guider and keeper of souls until the day the barrier came down and the dead could be handed to Mort. The first of the gods to speak to him... but also the one who had tormented and punished Remi. The dreameater was a mystery, and Jigano glanced up from his desk to the shelf of books half-filled on the far wall. Knickknacks were placed carefully upon its shelves: an elaborate dagger, a mechanical eye with its parts fused together, a dried stick of wood, an oddly organic chunk of crystal, and a metal amulet on what might almost have been a stylized keyboard.

Memories... shadows from another world, holding the ghosts of those who had been lost, in one way or another.

And in the corner of the room, tucked behind the book shelf, a little table sat. Three noseless masks hung on the walls above it - a smiling face in gold, a mournful face in silver, and a neutral face in platinum. A candle sat unlit on a little plate upon the table, held in place by dribbled wax. A private shrine, though one the loreseeker had been hesitant to use until the night of the new moon arrived and he fulfilled his bargain with the death god's emissary.

Isuma had rolled into her side in her basket, sleeping peacefully as Jigano frowned and opened the book of the divine with a touch somewhere between reverent and hesitant. Curiosity had killed the cat, they said, but still it seemed so strange for Safrin to leave out mentioning her counterpart, and the lorekeeper had a bad habit of tugging at threads left unraveled.

The words were still incomprehensible to him, but the spectacles in his pocket could supposedly sometimes read unusual texts. This would certainly qualify, but he tried not to get his hopes up too high. If he tried and failed he lost nothing, but if he tried and succeeded... well. He wouldn't know until he tried, would he? First he closed and locked the door to his office, though the Hall was empty of his guildmates at this time of night. Slipping the glasses from their protective case he hooked their stems over his ears and looked down at the book, hoping to swiftly find the pages on Ludo's origins and relationships with Mort and Safrin.
Spooky Rags


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#2
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

"You would think that having your dreams eaten would teach you to leave well enough alone."

The voice did not seem to come from anywhere in particular, but as Jigano glanced down at the pages, he would see the ink crawling across the page, forming the very words spoken to him. They continued, moving at a pace easy enough for the bard to read. Though if he didn't care to read them, the voice would whisper them into his ear.

"You trespass, bard. Do you want to know so badly? Very well. Let me tell you a story."

Ink bled, black and glistening, across the pages of the book, until it was saturated completely. And from within that blackness tendrils of fabric snaked out, snatching about Jigano's wrists and neck, wrapping about his mouth, and dragging him head over heels into the text.

He would fall.

And fall.

Endlessly, until the ground came up to meet him in a strange, soft whump.

Snow. It was snowing, and it was pitch dark. Around Jigano an ancient street would appear, the architecture utterly foreign, impossible to place.

"Walk."

Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
Played by: Cirago Offline
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Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#3
The voice echoed strangely in his ears and in his head - and in his eyes, the text writhing like something living, the ink unbinding from the page and running free and liquid once more across the paper. There was no doubt of who it belonged to, not when he had heard it twice before and would likely remember it all of his days...

Assuming he got to keep those memories.

"A price I offered freely for a bargain you kept," the bard said quietly, his voice confident even though fear flickered through his blood and chased its way through his thoughts. He hadn't expected Ludo to show up, though perhaps he should have. But what harm could there be in a story?

Oh.

The fabric grabbed him before he could react, before he could even draw breath to protest his trespassing upon knowledge that was written down and handed into his keeping. He was given no chance to resist, no chance to struggle before he was yanked into the book in a way that was becoming all-too-familiar and he tumbled into the dark.

Down, down, down the rabbit hole once more, far longer than he had fallen in the previous two books he had been devoured by. Long enough to begin to feel the first stirrings of panic that he would fall forever through the void before the ground found him and brought focus to a world without direction once more. If that was down then he could stand up, legs shaking, as he looked around at the buildings that seemed to lean out of the night and the snow-

Snow?

Wonderingly, Jigano reached out to cup a falling flake in his palm, but the voice that hissed in his ear - in his head - gave him no time for pleasantries. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, the bard tucked his hands into his sleeves and began to walk down the street, eyes darting from shadowed arch to shuttered windows to closed doors, drinking in details and letting questions sizzle and burn through his mind.

But he held his tongue, asking nothing of his guide but the story Ludo had deigned to share with him.
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#4
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

Jigano should not have been able to see through this darkness, but with Ludo's control over its narrative, the bard would be able to watch and witness. Light glowed, barely, around the shutters of a few of the windows, and up ahead something ran across the street. Something small, barefoot, stumbling. As Jigano drew closer he would see a black-haired youth, haggard and skinny and huddled on a doorstep, beating against it with clenched fists.

"It was the first time the night had fallen, and the sun had not returned. The first LongNight," Ludo said directly into Jigano's mind, even as the youth, receiving no answer, moved desperately onto the next house. In this one curtains flickered but the door, again, did not open.

"Follow."

Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
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#5
Jigano's jaw tightened at the sight of the ragged youth, barefoot in the snow and seeking solace from the dark and cold from doors that would not open and light that was locked away. He tried to stride forward, to add a full-grown man's hand to the knocking, the authority of his voice-

But this wasn't real, was it? It was a vision of the past, a story being told, and nothing he could change. He bowed his head for a moment, counting three beats of his heart before he looked up again and nodded grimly. He followed the luckless waif as he was bid, but the words Ludo spoke chimed like dark bells down the shadowed corridor of his thoughts. "The first," he repeated softly. "Makes it sound like it is not a natural occurrence on this world. Like something, someone - some god or demon - chose to impose it upon Caido. Knowing it was coming was frightening enough... I cannot imagine how terrible it must have been that first time, when no sun rose and no stars shone and no one knew why." He paused, swallowing hard. "Or whether they would ever see the dawn again." But still, to leave the young one out in the cold, alone and helpless... Fear could cause people to make terrible choices, the bard knew that well, but that didn't mean those choices could be forgiven.
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#6
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

"Yes," Ludo agreed, though it did not sound as if it was talking about the LongNight in particular. "It was terrible."

Jigano would follow the youth door to door. And it got colder and colder, later and later, and still no kind soul would brave the dark enough to open up. Finally, the youth gave up. God and bard would trail after them, snaking down streets and lanes until finally turning into a skinny, pitch black alleyway.

Only supernatural sight would allow them to watch as the youth found a small, snug area between two barrels, hunkering down there. Fingers and toes were already frightfully white. The snow fell, hard and silent, and Ludo would not urge them any further. It was perhaps for hours that Jigano stood, watching the youth try and fail to warm hands that were quickly losing feeling, quickly turning black - until eventually the air failed to cloud with their breath.

"The sun did not rise for another three days," Ludo said.

Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
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#7
Jigano glanced to the side at the voice in his mind, but of course there was nothing there to see. "I wish there was anything I could say to help," he said softly, but it was too late for that by far. Centuries or more too late, in fact, and Ludo did not seem like the type to accept sympathy from a mortal.

Their walk continued, and even though he couldn't feel the temperature of the snowy night his heart grew colder and heavier in his chest with every door that turned the youth away. It was not hard to see the direction the tale was heading. Tragedy hung heavy in the air and he was too familiar with the darker endings not to see one coming.

That didn't mean it hurt less, and though he considered hardening his heart to what was happening it seemed too much like a disservice to the small light that burned so desperately in the darkness ahead of him. He followed on feet that left no prints in the snow, trailed his fingers across walls that rippled without resistance to his touch, and saw the midnight search come to its heart-breaking conclusion.

He was medic enough to recognize the signs of frostbite, and his jaw tightened as time passed and no one came. Eventually the child's shivering eased to stillness, and the puff of breath came more slowly. Jigano was jaded and bitter and tarnished to his very soul from what he had done, but standing and watching the young one dying slowly in front of his eyes while he was helpless to stop it, was a special kind of cruelty... even if it was nothing compared to what the youth endured.

He might not be able to touch the world around him, or change the course of the dream of history he had fallen into, but he still moved at last to sit near the youngling, unwilling to leave even the dream of a lost soul alone to face an end that was long since past. "And where were you when the light returned?" he asked quietly to the voice inside his head. "Was Mort waiting, when you... when they breathed their last? Or was the god lost in the dark as well, until the sun rose again?"
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#8
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

"No need," Ludo murmured within Jigano's head. And whilst the night was long and time passed slowly, the god would say nothing more until the bard settled himself down beside the lifeless child. "In body I was here, just as you see me now," it said. "In soul, Mort was waiting. He was... he came for me." Death had wept when no one else had cared. "And in his kindness, he gave me a purpose that I had never achieved in life."

As Jigano blinked the world around them would change - the street was the same but the architecture was markedly different. It was dusk. Someone was crying inside one of the houses, but kneeling on one of the barrels next to Jigano was the youth, dressed in black rags and wearing a porcelain mask. It beckoned within the house, and something warm and glowing fizzed out. The youth bounded away, laughing, and the soul followed dutifully along. "And now you know."

Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
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#9
There were a half-dozen questions that the story raised. Questions about Long Night and how and why it had come to be. Questions about the monsters that walked it now, and the way the bodies of those killed during it disappeared. Questions about whether Ludo would have chosen this for themselves, if their life had gone a different way...

Questions that, for once, Jigano accepted were not appropriate to ask.

He stayed seated as the scene changed again and the youth became the god. He moved easily now, joy and pride and mischief in the bounding grace no mortal could match, making sure that other souls were greeted and led home again, no matter how hard or lonely the moments leading up to their deaths had been. Something ached within the soul of a man who had been an Oracle, and as he shook himself to release the tension in his chest his human body flowed away to the form of a long-legged and dainty-pawed white fox, sitting in the ghost of a sunset memory.

"And now I know," he agreed softly, blue eyes following the floating soul until it disappeared into the coming night. He looked around, cocking an ear curiously as he sought the owner of the voice that whispered in his head. "This... makes the charge you gave to Amalia and myself all the more an honor," he said at last. "We will do all we can to make you proud. Thank you, for letting us be a part of your legacy." He bowed his head gravely, but when he raised it again there was a twinkle of mischief in his blue eyes.

"I cannot undo the past, dreameater... but I would not mind so much, if you wanted to warm your fingers in my fur now," he added, remembering how it had been something the spirit guide had once shown interest in. Given what he had just witnessed... it seemed the least he could offer.
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#10
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

"It is a legacy that few have known. And it is one that no one will ever believe, should you tell them." Ludo sounded amused, as though the sincerity in the Outlander's words were coming through from somewhere far away. Somewhere it had forgotten, and could not be touched by. However, as the bard was replaced by the white fox, the owner of the voice within appeared without; Ludo drifted down, a mass of rags and a blank, bone-white mask.

"Perhaps that would be nice," it agreed, reaching out a tendril of fabric which flicked and turned - and suddenly a small hand with black fingers emerged, plunging gently into the ruff of fur around the fox's neck and scritching at one fluffy, pointed ear.

"Your dreams are quite boring," it said, offhand. "You may have them back. I prefer this anyway."

Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
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#11
"Therein lies the difference between loreseekers and lorekeepers," the fox said, a flicker of amusement coloring his mental voice. "And your story..." he hesitated thoughtfully for a moment, then came to a decision. "...is not mine to share." Like several others which he held in trust, even if they were for people and beings he would never see again, a world away. With a nod he wrapped the story firmly into his memory, knowing that he would not speak of it again to any but the god itself.

He recognized the hand now, and he arched his neck into the scritching fingers. Before Rory, he might have shied away from the touch to his foxform as much as he would have to his human one. Now, though, he accepted the pets without flinching, letting his eyes drift half-closed as Ludo found a particularly good spot and Jigano leaned into it with a sigh.

A sight that turned into a sneeze of surprise at the offhand gift, and the fox might have laughed if the story he'd witnessed hadn't been so somber. "A new price I will gladly keep paying, then. He is wary of gods... but well worth protecting," he ended fondly.

The thought of prices had both of his ears perking up, and he had to fight the urge to tilt his head up to look at the masked god while he was letting them warm their fingers in his fur. "Ah! I had been waiting until after the new moon for this, but since you are here... I have gifts for you, in my office!" It had taken awhile to get them ready. He had needed to find the raw materials with Edy during Deepfrost and then Long Night had interfered with finding the smith to do the work, but they had finally been completed. After what had happened with Remi he had almost reconsidered... but it seemed churlish to hold back on them now, after all the time and work he'd put into having them made.
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#12
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

"Wariness of gods is a valuable attribute to possess," Ludo said simply, happily scritching away as the fox leaned into it. What an odd sight they would be indeed, were it not for the fact that this was a dreamscape, for lack of better word. As Jigano's ears perked up and he offered, strangely enough, gifts for the soul guide, Ludo withdrew its hand and became, once more, a simple mass of rags.

"Is that so?" Around them the world began to bleed away, colours and shapes dripping from the fabric of reality itself, until it melted back into the Atheneum. Ludo was before Jigano and the book now, hovering quietly and expectantly. Obviously it liked gifts.

Jigano Silversmith
the Sage
Provost of the Loreseekers Soul Shepherd
Portal Guardian
Age: 36 | Height: 6'2" | Race: Attuned x Abandoned | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 12 - Strg: 30 - Dext: 45 - Endr: 38 - Luck: 42 - Int:
ISUMA - Mythical - Griffin (Venomous)
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Posts: 3,914 | Total: 7,219
MP: 10170
#13
Jigano didn't say anything, but a little vulpine grumble of agreement might have escaped as Ludo found an itch he hadn't realized he had and clever fingers slid through silken fur to scratch it away. But as the hand slipped away he sighed silently and regathered himself and the wits the god had just subtly warned him to keep about himself.

Returning to the world of the present wasn't like what happened with the sentient books, and it was a far gentler transition than his initial fall into the vision of Ludo's past, for which he was grateful. It took him a moment, still, to get his bearings and his body sorted out when he realized he was no longer seated on four paws but needed to walk on two legs again.

"Ah... well," he said, a little abashed as he rose and caught his balance against the desk before moving to the corner where the little shrine was. "If I'd known then what I know now, I might have chosen differently..." He hesitated, but gave a wry shake of his head, lifting the masks from the wall and turning to present them to the mass of rags with a deep bow. A smiling mask of gold, a sad mask in silver, and a neutral mask most similar to Ludo's porcelain 'face' in precious platinum, all of a size with the mask the raggedy deity always bore. "But it is too late to change what has been done. I retrieved the raw materials from the lair of a stone golem," he explained, remembering how Edy had subdued the beast with her fire magic while he'd distracted it. "And then bargained with the finest smith in the settlement for the work to be done to my designs." A slight frown came over his lips then, and he tilted his head up at the god curiously. "He did the work under the promise that they wouldn't be used for any 'cult things', whatever that means. But I thought..." He trailed off, looking searchingly at the masked god who served the gentle Mort. "Well. I wanted to give you something beautiful, as thanks for keeping your bargain with me over Deepfrost. The more I have learned of you, the more I have wanted to carry through on that." Ludo was not an easy god to deal with, none of them were, but the soul guide could be noble and it was rarely easy being a god of death among the living. Of all people, one who was born an Oracle could understand that. "I hope they are acceptable, Chosen of Mort, or at least that the intention behind them is."
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#14
ludo

Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own

Ludo's mask tilted further with a slightly feline curiosity as Jigano went and fetched the masks, the deity drifting and hovering in a writhing mass of shadow. It listened closely to his explanation, and each mask he presented would lift from his hands to hover before Ludo of its own accord, allowing it to examine them more closely.

"Something beautiful?" it echoed, not particularly understanding why, but more than accustomed to receiving offerings nonetheless. The mask bobbed in happy acceptance. "They are very shiny," it agreed.

"I shall keep them. Thank you, bard. And sweet dreams, yes?" The trio of masks swirled about Ludo and winked out of existence, and it snaked out a bit of fabric to pat Jigano on the head, before promptly disappearing as well.



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