IC Inbox

[lumelume]

[Action and crystal only, unless you want him to find someone else and make them read a letter to him.]

Comments

[keenly]

"My knees?" Colin blinks, then remembers. "Oh. Yeah, thanks to having not been messed up in the first place. Best healer, that."

[lumelume]

Mado grins.

"Indeed!"

He takes another bite of his stew, then opens up his posture somewhat, finding more ease in the conversation.

"It was all quite silly, I think, what we imagined." Definitely all completely fabricated by their sleeping minds, right? "Perhaps it served a purpose! The spirit seemed to think so. I hope she's right."

[keenly]

"I hope it means we have the power to stop it," Colin agrees grimly, still somewhat rueful that he's alive during a time that's so dire. Why couldn't he have been born in one of the quiet ages?

[lumelume]

"I... well. Yes." That's a darker turn for the conversation than Mado had anticipated, but he doesn't mind it, necessarily.

"It would help to know how it began, I think."

[keenly]

"How what began? The-the spirit meddling, the gates thing, or Corypheus?"

[lumelume]

Staring blankly at Colin for a moment, Mado then smiles and gestures vaguely. All of it.

[keenly]

A very gentle bob of his head. Sure.

"I think it probably started with a distraction," he says carefully.

[lumelume]

"Really? How so?"

[keenly]

"You know," Colin says, "when your friend walks up to you and you're not sure if he remembers something you told him in your dreams, so you get nervous and act like he came to talk to you about literally anything else when you really don't have anything to be nervous about."

[lumelume]

Mado is unlearned, to be certain, but he's not quite the idiot many take him for; Colin's response stops him in his tracks, so to speak, and all he can do in response is plaster a smile onto his face as his thoughts race for a response that isn't either rude or completely incriminating.

[keenly]

"I'm not going to tell anyone."

[lumelume]

A light sigh through his nose, and Mado looks back to his stew bowl, defeated.

"I worry less about that," he admits, "and more about who else might remember." He idly scratches behind one of his ears.

"Perhaps you're right, and it isn't that important," spoken with more hope than conviction.

[keenly]

"It's important," Colin says gently. "Being a mage, I mean. It's a lot. But the people here know that. There are a lot of mages here, so pretty much everyone here is either a mage or the friend of one. You've got a much better chance making it with their help than you have making it alone, even if the Circles never come back."

[lumelume]

Knees bouncing anxiously, chewing the inside of his cheek, Mado nods. He's never looked quite this nervous before.

"Will there not be those who feel they've been lied to?"

[keenly]

"There weren't when I did it," Colin says with a shrug. "I must have kept it from people as long as you have."

[lumelume]

"...perhaps." Even if he disagrees, Mado is in no mood to argue, instead going quite uncharacteristically pensive as he looks down at his bowl. There's a lot to consider here.

[keenly]

Colin reaches out to gently squeeze Mado's shoulder.

"It's completely up to you. Whether you do it tomorrow or you never do it, you have my support."

[lumelume]

The smile Colin receives is grateful, even a little sad. As effusive as he tends to be, Mado has reasons for his secrets-- and if nothing else, he recognizes the grace involved in allowing him to keep them.