[Mm. There's no way for her to know for certain, but with the clues he's left, she can more than string one and one together. He didn't smell entirely human to her from the very beginning, but judging by the heavy airs of a pompous magus he consistently put out previously, something that IS intrinsically familiar to her knowing how magi are back in her own world, she didn't think much of it. With how self-absorbed their lot are infamous for and how they tend to be willing to do virtually anything for more power, it was both plausible and none of her business that he may have undergone some ritual or contract before in order to grow his own abilities. Just an average Tuesday for any Lord of the Clock Tower, they who willingly discard their humanity for the sake of pursuing the mystics.
It took finding him at death's door to show her how wrong she's been. The Clock Tower mages may react dramatically to defeat in accordance to the depths of their selfishness ambitions, but none of those would entail death's idealization. His very existence is in jeopardy back in his world... And he does mind, in a distinctively, soul-crushingly, human way. She knows for certain, now.
The irony is too much. It'd almost be funny, if it wasn't so heartbreaking.
He agrees, he says, but she understands instinctively, immediately, that it's pure lip service. He hasn't done anything for himself. Does he even know how--or what he really wants? He's only been coasting off the motions of what he's used to to get by, nothing more and nothing less. It wouldn't get either of them anywhere to keep pushing, not with him as he is now. So instead...
(This question...)]
As I am here now, I must do what I can.
[What's asked of her. What's expected of her. What she can help with. Anything in her power. And because she's starkly aware that it's a non-answer without context, plus he did share with her something personal as is:]
If I don't, there's no meaning to this, either.
[Looking back at him straight in the eye, expression clear and firm despite the softness in her voice, she raises her own hand to rest at her sternum: where her own Shard is hidden beneath the robes, a jewel of muted dark blue that she always keep concealed. Something that should not be, yet is.
She doesn't elaborate. There is no need. Does he understand, now? All the more reason for her to get on his case too, for better or worse.]
no subject
It took finding him at death's door to show her how wrong she's been. The Clock Tower mages may react dramatically to defeat in accordance to the depths of their selfishness ambitions, but none of those would entail death's idealization. His very existence is in jeopardy back in his world... And he does mind, in a distinctively, soul-crushingly, human way. She knows for certain, now.
The irony is too much. It'd almost be funny, if it wasn't so heartbreaking.
He agrees, he says, but she understands instinctively, immediately, that it's pure lip service. He hasn't done anything for himself. Does he even know how--or what he really wants? He's only been coasting off the motions of what he's used to to get by, nothing more and nothing less. It wouldn't get either of them anywhere to keep pushing, not with him as he is now. So instead...
(This question...)]
As I am here now, I must do what I can.
[What's asked of her. What's expected of her. What she can help with. Anything in her power. And because she's starkly aware that it's a non-answer without context, plus he did share with her something personal as is:]
If I don't, there's no meaning to this, either.
[Looking back at him straight in the eye, expression clear and firm despite the softness in her voice, she raises her own hand to rest at her sternum: where her own Shard is hidden beneath the robes, a jewel of muted dark blue that she always keep concealed. Something that should not be, yet is.
She doesn't elaborate. There is no need. Does he understand, now? All the more reason for her to get on his case too, for better or worse.]