The Continent Across the Ocean

I do so hate the boring path.

Being dragged through the air by a man she has been told repeatedly is dangerous, a prophet and a godslayer and a mage, Shade can't repress a wolfish grin. She knows that feeling all too well. It has gotten her into trouble before, and it will get her into trouble again; she won't learn her lesson, because this kind of unexpected contortion is what makes life worth living.

"Now there's a sentiment I can relate to," she says.

And then she drops.

The smile evaporates as her stomach plummets; her mind races, searching for some way out of this suddenly life-threatening situation, and her limbs flail, trying to catch something that isn't there. She spits another string of choice curses into the uncaring wind. Well, what did you bloody think was going to happen? she demands of herself.

With a sudden uncanny clarity, she recalls a fight with her mother, or rather, a dozen identical altercations, iterations of the same battle. Kitty Dawnguard would stand with her arms akimbo and a scowl on her pretty face, and although she was tiny, shorter than her child, somehow she always managed to loom. I didn't think... Shade would begin, trying to defend herself.

That's right, you didn't think! Faith, why can't you just take a moment and consider that your actions have consequences? Kitty would chide, going from furious to disappointed as she spoke.

Shade still doesn't have a plan, and the ground is barreling towards her. The visceral fear of death tries to crowd out her rational thoughts, but she fights back. There must be some spell, some trick, something she can do. Narsh didn't drop her with the intent to kill her, not from the way he had been talking. So...

This line of thinking is vindicated when an updraft of air grabs her. Shade braces against it, acting with instinctual dexterity to prepare herself for hitting the ground. She lands, rolls to kill her momentum - automatically but unnecessarily. The wind that caught her set her down gently.

She finds herself in a ready crouch, her hands planted on the wooden floor of what looks like a bedroom in an inn. Her head snaps up, and her eyes meet Steven Rivers', and her stomach lurches in a way that has nothing to do with acceleration.

She rises to her feet and waves away Rivers' attentions. "I'm fine," she says brusquely, looking anywhere but at her rescuer. "Blood and hellfire. If I'm going to hang out with teleporters and wind mages, I should see about learning to fly." She tugs her jacket straight and pushes her wind-ruffled hair out of her eyes. Her hands are trembling slightly, the aftereffects of adrenaline. "Bastard left my cat behind. Rain had better not let that creature of hers eat Midnight." She is muttering; this is the verbal analogue for the slight, autonomic shuddering in her limbs.

She takes a deep breath, visibly pulls herself together, and looks at Rivers again. Her voice is returning to its usual gruffness. "Man, Rain thought we scared you off for good. She's just about pining for you. What'd you go and disappear so dramatically for, anyway?" A pause, then, more grudgingly, "Thanks for the save, by the by."

Rain looks down, avoiding Neil's eyes. "Sorry. I didn't know what it would have in it. I know that isn't a very good excuse." Open when you miss me, what the hell did that even mean. She could hardly wrap her head around what he meant by that. But it seems like he thought that maybe she would miss him earlier. And why her? Why not Neil? Why not Shade who could of used the advice more? At least, the letter was useful. Reassuring. At this point, she was beginning to think that the man had two personalities.

"I promise if I get any future messages, I will let you know."

She does a quick sweep across the site for anything before they are about to head off. The only thing around is the small black cat that Shade carried around. Poor thing must have been terribly frightened with everything happening around it. She gets off Lalo and walks toward the cat, picking it up and cradling it in her arms. Speaking softly to it, "I doubt you know where your master went... It is alright. We will find him soon."

She turns back to Neil after he addresses Lara's ability to travel in her state. "Lara, if you find it difficult to walk, you can ride Sendoa. He rides better than any horse."

Lalo seems insulted for a brief second. "Don't compare me to those stupid creatures. Better than a horse... of course, I am better than horse." He then bows for Lara so she could ride him if she chose. "If you are injured, my lady, I will trot slow."

"We were handling ourselves fine," says Shade, inspecting the room for some hint as to where they are. Not too far away from where they started, she knows, or Rivers wouldn't be standing. "Just a little spat with some displacer beasts and then almost a fight with some chick named Lara." She rubs her shoulder; now that she isn't falling to her doom, she is reminded of her injuries from the brief melee. The throbbing in her leg is the worst, but honestly, she's been in bar brawls that left her more battered. She eases her weight onto the leg that isn't wounded, her eyes tracking across the ceiling as though the dark wooden beams holding up the roof might tell her something.

Rivers throws open the window; Shade blinks in the sudden bright light.

Looks down.

Sees the blood on the floor.

"Holy fuck. Rivers, what the hell-" Even as she speaks, she's moving, dropping to her knees next to Rivers, heedless of the viscous red smearing onto her pants. "Oh no. That is not good, losing that much blood is not good, Rivers I am crap at healing spells." She has some training - her parents were adventurers, paladins bringing succor to the weak - but treating injuries has never been one of Shade's strong suits. She pulls Rivers' shirt up, trying to assess the extent of the damage, and takes a deep breath, summoning the positive energy her mother and father used for curing the most grievous of ailments. As usual, she can only manage a sort of warm glow, barely enough to heal a paper cut. She lets it seep out, shepherding it towards Rivers' injury, but she knows it's unlikely to make a difference.

"Fuck," she swears again, pulling off her jacket. She wads it up against the wound, applying pressure, trying to staunch the bleeding with crude mundane treatments. "Why are you porting around in this condition?" she demands. "And if you were, why didn't you go get someone who could actually fucking help you?" She feels stupid, useless, and it makes her angry. "I can... I'll tie it up and go for help. Hold that." She puts Rivers' hand against her jacket and walks to the bed, ripping off the top sheet. "And for godsakes keep talking. How did this happen?" she demands, hoping against hope that this question will not be met with silence.

Rain is relieved at the site of the airship. "Thanks! We need a ride to the farm to the southwest. The town nearby is plagued, so that is a no go. By the way, this is Lara and we lost Arch. So keep your eyes peeled for him. I managed to find his cat though."

Lara's suggestion as she boards the ship is unbelievable to Rain. "We are not courting. Nor dating. Nor sleeping together. Nor anything of that sort. I don't think I need to say that I am not romantically interested in him. He is incredibly infuriating. All the time. Spending any more time than necessary is painful. However, it just seems to be necessary that we find him eventually..."

Lalo throws an amused look at Neil to make sure that he is catching all this.

She lets Lara get all the way up on the ship before attempting to stop Neil. "Listen. I am really sorry about not talking about the letter. I guess I should reciprocate when it comes to honesty, especially concerning what each other know and our abilities. We should maybe talk a little later. I guess I have a childhood story to tell as well..."

Grabbing the ladder, she boards the ship as well, being extra careful while holding the cat. At the top, she whistles and Lalo appears at her side.

"I'm beginning to see why Rain spends so much time berating you for idiocy," Shade says. She nicks the sheet with the edge of her blade, without drawing the sword fully, and rips off a long strip before returning to Rivers' side. "You shouldn't have..." She stops before finishing that sentence. If Rivers hadn't stepped in, she would be dead now; no power she possessed would have halted her fall more gently than the ground.

She looks at Rivers' pale face, then quickly away. The wound is less horrifying than that glassy stare. Before she can start wrapping her improvised bandage, though, Rivers murmurs something she doesn't quite catch, and his finger brushes the back of her hand.

"Don't..." she begins, and finds herself talking to empty air. She bites back another blistering curse, wipes one bloody hand on her pants, and takes her bearings.

For a sickening moment, she fears he might have sent her away to keep her from witnessing his death, or because he knew all of her efforts couldn't save him and they were annoying him in their futility. That lasts a paltry fraction of a second before reason sets in - reason and a sense of place. She is in a city, or at least a decently sized town, the kind of place one could buy a brace of healing potions, or failing that, find a doctor or a cleric. Which will be a fat lot of good if I can't find my way back to the inn he's bleeding out in... Shade tries to reconstruct the room in her head, to imagine the view from the window so she'll remember it when she sees it again from a different angle. Rivers can't have sent her very far, not in the state he was in. That inn had to be nearby. So she'll find it somehow. So healing.

Shade sets off down the street. Doctor. Cleric. Healing potions. If there is any shop that looks like it might yield those things, she'll duck into it, and if there isn't, she'll ask some passerby or merchant for the same. She is thoroughly conscious of time slipping away from her, like sand running through an hour glass, and she moves with obvious urgency.

Shade does dodge, although it's as much by luck as by skill. Focused on her search, she hadn't noticed the thing that alighted on her pants at first, until the glimmer of it caught at the corner of her eye. She stuttered a step, looking down and twitching her hand to brush it off, and that's when the newcomer emerges, and because she is not rushing forward any more, she is able to flinch back and avoid the hit.

"...the hell..." She eases into an en garde stance, and her hand is on the hilt of her sword before she can even consider her reaction, but she does not draw. In fact, she would have been more inclined to run if the dome hadn't sprung up around them.

The man facing her is pretty, in a wiry way, but there's a certain fervid light in his eyes. Child of paladins, Shade has seen enough zealots in her time to be worried by that kind of expression. Also, he just attacked her without provocation - although his declarations soon make it clear that he thinks he has reason for what he does.

"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me," says Shade. "I don't have time for this, my friend is dying and I need to find whatever passes for a healer on this crappy excuse for a continent, so get the hell out of my way!" Her words snap like fireworks, sizzling with barely restrained bardic magic; as she finishes, she draws her sword in a single quick, sharp motion and lunges to the side - attacking the dome of force that surrounds them.

"I don't need to deceive you, I just need you to stop attacking me," Shade asserts. She ducks around the first flurry of punches, taking only a few hits on her limbs and torso. The pained cry of the dome upsets her rhythm, though, and as she jerks her sword back, several of her attacker's blows connect solidly. His fist in her gut makes her double over, gasping emptily for air, unable even to curse. She dances backwards and raises her arm to block the next punch; the force of it feels just short of shattering her bone.

She doesn't want to attack the dome again. She had expected it to be a construct, not something that would feel pain. But her attacker won't let up. If I let him handicap me, Rivers is probably dead...

Before she can act on that thought, though, something heavy hits her foot. As it rolls away, she steps on it, falling to the ground. Although she lands well enough not to hurt herself, she is prone now, and it's all but impossible to use a rapier from that angle.

"I don't know who you think I am or what you think I did," she spits, letting go of her sword so she can concentrate on rolling away from his next attack, on looking for an opening to regain her feet. "But I'm pretty sure I'm telling the truth, because when I lie, people believe me."

Shade struggles, of course, but is clearly overmatched. She's a dueler, not a brawler; if she had gone for a kill straight off the bat, she might have won, but now that she's pinned, she isn't going to get out until her opponent makes a mistake. Even then, with the dome over them, she won't be able to go anywhere.

She drags in a breath through her constricted windpipe. "Steve?" she asks raggedly. There can't possibly be another person in this town with an English name like that. "Steven Rivers? You have got to be fucking kidding me. He's the guy I'm trying to..." Realization dawns. She talks so quickly it is almost babble, trying to force out her slipshod explanation before her assailant chokes her off. "Blood and ashes, if you're looking for him he probably teleported me here so I'd find you. I don't know what happened to him, but he is not in a good way, I got his blood on me trying to fix him but I'm not a healer. He's in an inn around here somewhere, I don't know exactly where because teleportation screws up my sense of direction. He's alive. He was when I left anyway, but the clock is fucking ticking, so I need you to let me up. Now." She is snarling, almost growling, but there is very real worry beneath the fragile rime of anger in her face and voice.

Shade is far from offended by his caution; in fact, she is just as wary. She has no guarantee that this man isn't one of the people who hurt Rivers in the first place. Except for the fact that if that were the case, attacking me would be completely irrational... As a consummate lier herself, though, Shade can't completely shake off the suspicion of a complex deception.

"He opened the window," she says, climbing slowly to her feet. She sheathes her sword with great care, offering no threat, making no sudden movements. "The sun shone in, so it was facing west, out over a street. There was a store across the street, had a sign with a... goose or something painted on it. What do you mean by significant? I was barely there for a minute... Oh, I guess it was within earshot of where I got dropped, so if anyone can tell you where the attractive young bard who plummeted out of the sky landed, that would get us close."

As the airship passes overhead, Neil looks up and smiles. "Gambit. Hawk. You two really know how to make an entrance." He watches as the rope ladder comes down, then chuckles as Rain and Lara have their little exchange, with a little nod of acknowledgement to Lalo.

He turns to Rain and nods at her. "Yes, we should talk." A sigh leaves him as Rain turns around, and while she starts to climb he says, "...I'm not mad at you."

Neil follows up the ladder behind Rain and climbs on board. When he gets up, he gives Hawk a small salute and then leans against the rail to look down at the scene. The charred corpses, the fire scars, the circle of plants, Narsh's shackles...its been a long day.

Rain joins Neil by the rail. The scene below was pretty bad and this probably wasn't going to be the worse of their journey by a long shot. They had just gotten started. "I feel bad. You confided in me. I kept secrets. And if we are fighting out together for who knows how long, it might be best that I get something out of the way."

She keeps petting Midnight. More for her own benefit at this point, but the cat doesn't seem to mind much. "Alright. You aren't the only one has issues with magic. But I wouldn't go to say mine is as bad as yours. More difficult to understand. So if it comes up, I don't need people... freaking out. By the way, this doesn't go back to your father ever. He can be sort of awkward when he comes over as it stands right now."

"So let me begin with giving you a basic lesson in starting. It comes in 4 parts: the anchor, the rift, the calling, the shackles. You lay down an anchor or a trap. So you open a rift through the planes. A very small one. You call something through. And you sort of shackle it. Keeps it in line with you. This isn't the same for eidolons, but you don't need to know the details there. Now, some alterations in your language can change what your summon and its conditions. Shackles can be made looser for things more willing to obey or in line with your own morality. You can call something different... So on and so forth."

"Now, my dad. I don't think I need to retell stories that the both of us already know. I will just state that infernal taint crosses generations. As a result, whenever I get halfway through summoning, the calling part, things get jumbled. They change... And I am sort of a beacon to things in that plane. As a result, I am a little limited in what I can summon. I don't normally summon anything other than Lalo because I don't have a need to. However, if it arises, I am adept at summoning demons." She instantly switches to try to reassure Neil that nothing is wrong. "My anchors and shackles are strong. Mom taught me that. And I know more than most on how to deal with them. My dad taught me that."

She let down Midnight and keeps looking toward the moving ground below. "My dad told me that they aren't so much something to be feared as much as be wary and cautious about. However, I don't think many others share that view besides my family. I don't anticipate needing to contact that plane, but I have in the past when it has been useful to do so."

"I don't really like telling other people this. Arthy wouldn't teach me anything other than eidolon training. My mom and dad taught me everything else... Except for my weapons training, that I thank Lance for."

Neil looks at Rain as she tells her story. He has no expression on his face until she mentions the demons, at which point he goes wide eyed. He listens to the rest of her story, then looks back over the edge and sighs while closing his eyes. After a brief moment, he looks back at her.

"Well, I can't say that I was completely blindsided by that. Dad suspected that the abyssal taint was passed down, and I remember him making a few com...never mind. As long as you can keep them from slitting our throats in the middle of the night I don't care what you summon. If you do manage to lose control though, I'll take care of it." He finishes with a strong and determined look in his eyes.

Well, I guess spending days memorizing demon lore might actually pay off...hopefully she won't summon anything I can't handle...

The Half-Nymph relaxes a little. "Now we should probably figure out what we are doing once we get to the city, and what we should do with that book. Maybe Lara knows Celestial. Should we ask?"

Rain smiles, glad that Neil is taking this better than some. "I don't summon anything I can't control. One of the big rules that was impressed on me. And if I can't handle it, we should probably just run because I screwed something up massively. That hasn't happened yet though."

She then grabs the book out of the pocket of the coat. "Sure. However, it seems like prophets are something special. At least that is what I gathered. And the way Rivers talked about it, deciphering everything takes some time."

She moves over to Lara. "Do you have any idea on how to use this book? Rivers left it with us. And neither of us can read Celestial..."

Shade can't keep shouting, not when she has no targets for her anger. Rivers, still and silent on the floor, can't defend himself, and this other man, the one she wants to blame, is crumpling into a small sad mess. She rubs her eyes with the heel of her hand, unwilling to be seen shedding tears, but it's hard, especially with the weeping light-creatures and the man who summoned them.

She believes Rivers' voice when she hears it about as much as she believed his cooling corpse; she looks up blankly, too shocked for emotion. For a numb second, she seems totally calm. "Ral?" she asks, fixing on stupid, small things. That was the word Rivers had half-spoken before teleporting her off, wasn't it? She looks at the other man, the one she had fought. Ral. A name. The help Rivers had sent her to fetch.

Rivers, who is still here, somehow.

For once, Shade is speechless. She feels empty and dry and hollow, like something scorched through her inside, like her anger burned too bright and then burned out. She doesn't ask 'how' or 'why'; the crow lady explained that, or well enough. She can't shout at Rivers. He obviously hadn't let his soul leave his body just to give her and Ral a good scare. Finally, she mutters, "My name is Shade," sullenly correcting Rivers, but her heart isn't in it.

Rain is a little confused by the sudden offer. "Ummm... a keeper? Sorry, I don't even know what that begins to entail. I mean, the powers you have were impressive. I wouldn't mind learning something like that. But what does a keeper do exactly? And why the offer by the way? We have just met, and usually, people tend to get wary when they hear that you summon demons."

Shade sits dumbly next to Rivers' body as the light creatures and the crow woman do their work. When Rivers finally sits up, his smile is wan but as incorrigible as ever, and the sheer volume of sincere and uncharacteristic gratitude towards the world that seems to well up in Shade's chest almost hurts. The potato is the last straw, though, and as the tuber rolls away on the floor, she can't help herself; she smiles back, then leans forward and hugs him. "Rain is right, you're a horrible person. But I'm glad you're not dead," she says before releasing him and standing up.

She rolls her shoulders, slightly discomfited by his scrutinization. "I look like hell? Pot, kettle - you're the one who just died." There is a hint of lingering anger there, but for the most part, Shade is far too relieved and glad to be her usual wrathful self. "I did run into some trouble, although apparently his name is actually Ral." She gestures at the other man. "We had a bit of a miscommunication, but I think we're okay now." The look she gives Ral dares him to contradict her.

Rain gives Neil an apologetic look as he is told to leave. However, she is anxious to hear what needs to be kept so secret.

The idea behind keepers are so far outside anything that she has ever seen. Her mother had no spells that were restrictive nor compulsive. And the spells that she could learn from examining deep into the arcane arts were far below this level. To think that Lara could place any human into the same state of any quasit that Rain could summon was amazing. And it suddenly strikes her that she is speaking to someone of immense power that may only be comparable to that of her own parents. Especially if she controlled someone with the same abilities as Renji.

When Lara finishes, she voices a few of her thoughts. "So it as about like controlling a powerful outsider. One at a time. However, as far as I knew the spells only worked on outsiders. And not even on native outsiders. I don't even know how to begin to do something like that on a humanoid. And if prophets have keepers, why is Rivers allowed to walk around free? I guess that I am interested. This isn't really anything I thought was in the realm of possibility. But why offer me this? And is there anything that is required from me if I go choose to accept this?"

Rain takes a seat after Lara. "Steven," the name feels odd to say to her, "hasn't told me much about himself. He spoke of a mentor that taught him Common and Celestial and some other language as well as how to be a prophet. He came from this continent to mine, crossing the ocean. And spent a good number of years locked away in a library of a castle. I know he draws prophecies from his book of fate. He speaks endlessly of cryptic nonsense. Oh and I don't think he is even from this realm. But he hasn't admitted that to me. I said before that I didn't even know his name was Steven until you said something. So I really don't know who he is at all... I think he likes us not knowing who is or is clueless about basic person-to-person interactions. Maybe some combination of the two. I really don't know if I should be angry at him or pity him at this point."

The conversation starts feeling uncomfortable to her, and she is more interested in the keepers than discussing this any further. "About the oath though. That seems reasonable. More than reasonable. And your goals seem just. Keeping those who are dangerous from harming the public. I am sorry that Arch released Narsh. I would like to help you get him back under your control if you would allow me to. I owe that to you. And having that type of ability would help in stopping Renji if it can stop Godslayers. I think I want to do this."

Rain smiles as Lara agrees to take her own as a pupil. However, her last statements take her off guard.

"I... So he... I am sorry I don't know how to take this... Rivers is supposed to kill people? The guy who got locked in the tower? The guy that teleports instead of rushing into a fight? The guy who seems like he doesn't want to get involved too much? An assassin? Any why? Why is my future so important? No one has bothered explaining to me why I am the one to do all these things and not, say, my parents or something."

She looks over the railing of the airship. "I hate this whole destiny thing. This whole fate thing. I feel like I haven't stopped being pushed along some invisible road since I met Rivers."

She mumbles to herself. "I just want to make my own way in life not have some paths laid out before me and be guided along them."

Her eyes go back to Lara. "Sorry. I shouldn't be complaining about all this. It isn't like there is anything you or I can do about it. Thank you for offering to teach me. And thank you for telling me all this. I think I will take this time to rest now."

Rain gets up and heads off in the direction of her room, making a slight detour to tell Hawk to inform her when she lands. She lays on bed and all her limbs seem thankful for the rest. She is mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted at this point, so sleep claims her quickly.

After about half an hour the Half-Nymph gets bored emerges from his room. He goes out to the bow of the ship and looks out over the horizon, just scanning for their next destination while everyone else goes about their business.

When they finally get to the farm town he goes to find Rain.

The airship is burning. She can smell the smoke, but she can’t hear or see anything but some outlines of Hawk, Lara, and Neil running around. It doesn’t help the ship is upside down. However, gravity didn’t seem to count for much as no one was falling. Hawk seems to be saying something to her, but she can’t make it out much. They landed? That was when he was supposed to contact her. Either way, she gets off the bed in the middle of the deck and stares at the fire. It is more than a little toasty. And no one seems to be scared of it despite the fact it keeps growing large. Everyone is running around in one circle. The fire is growing into the circle, and when Rain tries to yell, nothing comes out. However, they sort of just stare at her. Lara and Hawk looks at her confusion mixed with horror. And Neil looks angry and disappointed. They all vanish suddenly, leaving her on the burning airship. She calls for Lalo but there is no response. She is alone as the fire chases her, pushing her to the furthest edges of the ship. She feels the coat yanked off and then a push on her back. She stumbles into blazing ship.

Rain looks around the bed, and relaxes as she realizes that she is not on fire. She finally gets changed out of all the band attire that she had. It was torn from the fight, but Rivers' coat still looks fine. She finds some of her normal attire, deciding that the band idea didn't look like it would pan out, but keeps the coat.

She heads to the top of the ship, seeing that they were beginning to land. Walking over to Neil at the bow, she says, "I thought I should mention that I am becoming a Keeper. I also learnt some interesting things about Rivers and prophets in general. Lara says they are supposed to guide us a long forks in the future, away from destruction. Also, they act as assassins when necessary. Most have keepers. Rivers doesn't have a keeper simply because it would make him less mobile. I just can't imagine him doing something like that though. We should get ready to speak to the people in the farm though. Seems like you abandoned the band act as well..."

Neil hears Rain behind him and turns around, looking at Rain with a hint of curiousness in his eyes. His expression doesn't change, but there is a certain uneasiness to his posture that Rain can pick up on just from knowing him for so long. After she finishes, he looks down at his garb and holds his hands out a little.

"Well, its fairly pointless to try running with the band cover without Shade here. We'll just have to take things as they come and hope that the assassins don't catch up with us." He turns his gaze over the bow and looks at the approaching ground. "They are probably sent after us from Fort Kahn, but I don't really know how they could have followed us so easily. I mean, how could they? A boat is too slow, so they either hijacked an airship or followed us magically...and if its magic they are using to chase us..." He turns back to Rain and looks her straight in the eyes. "...then this keeper training of yours is that much more important. We need you to learn this stuff as fast as you can. If you can do what we just saw Lara do, then we might just stand a chance....and if you need someone to practice on, then use me. Just don't tell Shade. I'll never hear the end of it."

The uneasiness strikes Rain as strange, but she doesn't try to press him about it. She hasn't felt well either since they got to this continent. Rain laughs a little at Neil's comment. "I would never tell Shade. He might think that I am trying to steal you away from him. But I don't think I will need to use anyone. I don't know yet though."

"As for the assassins, not sure how they found us. I would think we would have ditched anyone back at Fort Kahn after we jumped to the City of Flowers or the Genrik. It isn't like we talked to many people at either of those locations. However, there may be more than one prophet involved. Someone on the opposite of us. Hopefully, we can rely on Rivers to keep them off our tail for a bit... I guess we should make our way down though."

Rain walks around to find Lara, "We landed. Time to meet the farm." And then heads off the airship in the direction of the house. She goes without Lalo, not wanting to scare anyone that may be around.

As the man mentions Rivers, Neil cannot help but smile. He shakes the man's hand and says, "It seems like Steve has quite a few friends around. Thank you for the welcome. My name is Avander, and you are?"

The honest welcome puts Rain at ease. It seems like the first time in awhile when things weren't extremely confusing or life-threatening. She puts her hand forward and shakes his, "Glad to know he informed everyone that we were coming. Thank you for coming here to welcome us and giving us a place to stay for awhile. I am Aysun."