Her descriptions brought his child to mind - caught in the throws of their illness - and their muddled pain spread in Jorah's clenched chest as he tried to rip the two apart. He told himself she spoke of a completely different horror. A faster one, a desperate one, a crazy mutant illness so unlike the slow and peaceful deaths that were normal diseases by comparison. His child's illness, shaking in bed, unmoving during a wave of whatever it was that left their skinny legs crippled, was nothing compared to the fast rot of the Blight.
Jorah muttered [color=orange]"I have not,"[/color] but he nodded his head as if he were saying yes.
The warden named her monsters burden and as she did, it was as if whatever haunted her disappeared from her countenance, and her humanity bubbled to the surface for a breath. Jorah closed his eyes. He should be relieved to see this madly violent woman speak so tenderly, but his own monsters had their claws in him. He felt suspended in the deepness of pain nearly two decades old, that, while it had shifted into new shapes with age, never dulled. He let himself feel it, clueless as to if his memories were something he should hold onto or seek magic to help him forget. This catharsis had ambushed him; He was an assassin. He needed his strings tied. He felt in his pocket for where he'd put his wedding ring, but didn't dare pull it out. Just touching it and he knew he could never give up those memories. Nothing made him happier nor more proud than Elena's smile and laughter had, and even if he never found another person like that again, knowing what it had felt like was like the memory of seeing a beautiful waterfall when one had no map to mark where it hid to find ever again.
Jorah sank into his thoughts, his mouth twisting wryly at the awkwardness of how overwhelmed he was.
[color=orange]"I think today has exhausted me, Warden,"[/color] he admitted with care. [color=orange]"Do you mind first watch? I would volunteer, it is unseemly, but this is a dangerous forest and I would not lie to you when our lives depend on it,"[/color] he chuckled with a sniff.
Jorah muttered [color=orange]"I have not,"[/color] but he nodded his head as if he were saying yes.
The warden named her monsters burden and as she did, it was as if whatever haunted her disappeared from her countenance, and her humanity bubbled to the surface for a breath. Jorah closed his eyes. He should be relieved to see this madly violent woman speak so tenderly, but his own monsters had their claws in him. He felt suspended in the deepness of pain nearly two decades old, that, while it had shifted into new shapes with age, never dulled. He let himself feel it, clueless as to if his memories were something he should hold onto or seek magic to help him forget. This catharsis had ambushed him; He was an assassin. He needed his strings tied. He felt in his pocket for where he'd put his wedding ring, but didn't dare pull it out. Just touching it and he knew he could never give up those memories. Nothing made him happier nor more proud than Elena's smile and laughter had, and even if he never found another person like that again, knowing what it had felt like was like the memory of seeing a beautiful waterfall when one had no map to mark where it hid to find ever again.
Jorah sank into his thoughts, his mouth twisting wryly at the awkwardness of how overwhelmed he was.
[color=orange]"I think today has exhausted me, Warden,"[/color] he admitted with care. [color=orange]"Do you mind first watch? I would volunteer, it is unseemly, but this is a dangerous forest and I would not lie to you when our lives depend on it,"[/color] he chuckled with a sniff.
11-08-2023, 09:57 PM
