Talbot

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   <default>Talbot</default>
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Talbot is a selfless man that devoted himself to protecting others.

Personality

The gobliness inside the jar has leaked out and effecting him, making him meaner, nastier and more vile.<ref>“I don’t think that’s you talking,” Milly told him.  “That’s the poison and goblin-ness in the jar, leeching out to you.”- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.y</ref>

He doesn't understand how society has changed in the hundreds of years he's been guarding the jar.<ref>“Women wear pants now.  You’re behind the times, Talbot.”- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.y</ref>

Relationships

Milly Legendre was deeply saddened by what Talbot had become.<ref>She wasn’t sure what being a great warden or knight of seals might look like, but a part of her was terrified that it looked like this.

The heroic sacrifice.  Holding an evil back for so long that she became a part of the door, of wall, of floor.

Until now, and until tonight, she’d imagined there was a resigned nobility in it.

But Talbot was no longer noble.- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.y</ref> Milly asked him to share secret knowledge with him and he showed her a new ward.<ref>“Alright,” she replied.  “One last thing, then.  As an Other of wards and seals, you’re attuned to forces.  By the knighting ritual as a keeper of groves, sanctuaries, and holds, I’m in my rights to ask for secret knowledge.”

...

His finger scraped the paper, leaving a smudge of clay-like white-brown.  He marked the page, the movements almost mechanical.

Possibly a new ward.  Or something that could contribute to greater knowledge about wards.- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.y</ref>

Appearance

He is starved so that you can see the bones beneath the skin, he wears rugs that are so old they've gone stiff.<ref>He was emaciated.  Her brother’s height, less than a third of the weight.  Skin sucked in between ribs to the extent she could have laid a finger inside one of the divots and been level with the ribs.  A man, dressed in scant rags, but the rags had gone stiff long ago.- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.y</ref> His flesh has turned to stone and tree roots have grown around him.<ref>He embraced a clay pot, legs and arms wrapped around it.  He’d been down here for so long that tree roots had grown into him, draining away moisture and leaving flesh stone-like.  Those same roots bound arms and legs in place.  A curl of root filled one eye socket, and in the other, dust and grit had caked it to the point that it was impossible to tell where the eye was meant to open.  The roots bound legs to the flat stone of the floor, extended beneath the rags of his pelvis.  Rooting him to the floor in more than one sense.- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.y</ref>

Abilities

He used to be a sealer.<ref>Talbot had been Sealer, much like her.  Now he was Other.- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.y</ref>

Chronology

One of the early settlers of the region attempted to make a Gu jar, a jar containing venemous beasts, spirits and goblins insides. He realised what he'd made was too dangerous to let loose and tried to seal it away, creating two more jars over the first. Both the first two jars ended up breaking forcing him to keep hold of the third to stop it from shaking.

A church leader offers to take the jar, securing it in his embrace and wards the area around him. He used practice to prevent himself from dying of old age or hunger and guarded the jar for centuries.<ref>Long, long ago, around a time of early settlers, someone had tried to make a Gu jar.  They’d captured venomous beasts, goblins, and evil spirits, and they’d stored them in a jar, with the expectation they’d devour one another, concentrating ugliness and poison into a single survivor.  Or that they’d dissolve and something else would rise within.

As the story went, the maker of the jar had realized that what he’d made was too great and terrible to be let loose.  He’d taken measure after measure to keep it contained, but the jar would knock and the lid would shake, threatening to come free.  So he’d placed it inside another jar with a cork and he’d sealed it with practice.  Then inside another jar, this jar, giving it no opening or exit at all, except being broken.

And the first jar inside had broken with a crack that had woken everyone in the area out of their slumber.  Then the second jar had broken and the creator had gone running about, carrying the jar, desperately afraid of dropping it, but needing help all the same.

Back then, a lot of practitioners had been tied to the Church.  The man in charge of the church had agreed to handle the problem.

A selfless man.  He’d warded the area, and hid himself away, embracing the jar to seal it within his grasp.  Then, to the stunned and relieved culprit, he’d asked that the creator of the jar turn away from evil and live a life as virtuous as the one the reverend would now never be able to leave.

And then he’d remained.  Sitting in the dark, hidden from sight and interference, holding the four foot tall clay jar carefully with limbs marked with wards, so it couldn’t throw itself to one side or hatch from the jar that was now egg-fragile.  Prayers and power meant he didn’t starve, though he got hungry, and he didn’t dehydrate.  He didn’t need sleep, and he didn’t age.  People would visit from time to time.  The caretaker of the church would be his caretaker, visiting every evening.- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.y</ref>

Milly suggested that whatever was inside the jar might be dead by Talbot refused to listen.<ref>“Talbot,” she told him.  “It’s possible that whatever was in that jar has withered, died, or burned out.  If I’m right, you’ve triumphed.  You’ve won.  you could let go.”

...

“No.  I can’t let it be for nothing,” he repeated.- Excerpt from Left in the Dust 16.y</ref>

References

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