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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tuerny" data-source="post: 1080133" data-attributes="member: 674">Damn These Rooms With No Windows!After nearly two months of bickering, in-fighting, and awkward silences, we were finally united in a singular cause.Why did it have to be picking a fight with the giant?At least the guards were gone, thanks to Anwar. I was a little surprised that the brown-noser had it in him to shout down six armed men, but he did outrank them all, even if he hadn't acted like it at first.I scanned the room to check on my other compatriots. Sanjay was still alive despite being smashed pretty hard. He somehow managed to get a weapon, but I hope he doesn't think that little club will really be any help against the giant's big fricking hammer. Maybe next time, he'll remember to bring his equipment even for the most apparently mundane of tasks.Mesios, having finished curing Sanjay of some wounds, stood his ground on top of the table. Or what was left of it, anyway. As he gripped his staff in his hands, I finally got a good look at his arm. It hadn't yet started to change dramatically, but it was already starting to look really freaky. (Wrists are not meant to bend like that, dammit!) And yet, for Naja's sake, Mesios seemed to be willing to cast spells until he turned into a giant squid...thing.And then there was Naja.She didn't just seem to be reluctant to undergo the ceremony--hell, any sane person would be, if they knew what it entailed--she sounded like actually wanted to keep the baby. The spawn of that bastard, the thing that--It made my blood boil just to think about it. And worse, she didn't say anything until now. I suppose she didn't trust me to keep my mouth shut, and I don't blame her for that, but if she told me earlier I might have been able to help her. I could have introduced her to some acquaintance who knew less deadly methods of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy.But Naja was willing to give birth to it.If Shukri, who had supposedly been born from two human parents, acted the way she did, then what would a child who was genuinely half Asura be like? Even if this whole Samsara thing is the biggest sham anybody's ever pulled, didn't she think that having that sort of baby wouldn't be a good thing? Why doesn't Miss Diplomacy realize that this sort of social stigma--not to mention total and complete humiliation--can't be pretended away?The giant continued to block our only means of escape, and he showed no signs of budging. He seemed to be as intent on making Naja endure the purification right now as we were intent on keeping it hopefully never. I had a sinking feeling that if he really wanted to kill us, we wouldn't stand a chance, especially not if those guards changed their minds, or worse, ran off to get reinforcements. And while I might be able to make a break for it, there was probably no way that I could somehow get away with Naja in tow.Some hero you are, Amesh, I thought to myself bitterly. A moment ago you were all ready to die for her.But it wasn't easy fighting years of ingrained instincts. At the moment, every fiber of my being was screaming at me to run, run, run away from the twice-my-size giant and never look back. I could feel my stance shifting to the defensive, ready to break into a sprint the moment I had an opening.And then what? Go back to Dasani? That was a one-way ticket to death as surely as standing my ground against this fanatic of a giant. And if Naja did somehow manage to survive the ritual, she would definitely never speak to me again. She might have forgiven me for what happened in Taith, but I'm sure she was wondering if I could ever be trusted to not ditch her at the first sign of danger now that I had no automatic obligation to protect her. And if I went down fighting but Naja were taken anyway, then at least I wouldn't have to live with failing her again.But dammit, why in the name of whatever gods that might exist did it have to be a giant?</blockquote>

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