RORY
i told the stars about you
But not even embarrassed ghosts were left alone.From somewhere—the forest, the darkness, the back of his mind—
She swung her dark cloak around his shoulders. The fabric whispered through the dark. "Thank you," he breathed as he tugged it around himself, hiding away his pale legs in its folds.
He realized he had paid very little attention to what was going on, too startled to find himself awake and near-naked in the great woods he had only seen from the Spire's top. Jigano was there, he had seen him turn, but he remained where he was, and there was Remi, of course, with a fox of his own...
Then the fire-lady on the river spoke, seemingly to herself, before addressing them all. A trait that made them valuable? Rory's eyebrows drew into a small, concerned frown, while his stomach flipped uncomfortably: the cold realization that he had never considered himself in terms of value before. He was just Rory, hands and heart and eyes, good at some things, worse at others, but not inherently valuable.
One by one the gathering began to offer their theories, some choosing to interpret it as individual traits, others trying to speak for the whole group.
Rory's heart was racing with the question, the adrenaline like a crack of fire through his veins. He felt a little sick with it.
Maea said the first thing he had thought of—they were all alive, weren't they? His gaze drifted to Wessex. Surely you had to be alive, if you were capable of dying, even if it wasn't quite the traditional definition of being alive. But could he say the same thing as another had already done? Was it what he wanted to say?
"We listen," he ended up saying, then winced slightly. What a dumb thing to say.
