There was mild frustration in Sabine when the topic turned to her magical training, but she was not in so bad a mood as to be especially reactive. There was relief when Meesei made it clear that it would not be happening on the spot. In fact, having a swim was an appealing idea. Sabine gained a wide smile and nodded, "That would be fun."

Sabine stood up enthusiastically and went to scoop up Leaps from where he was napping. The undersized wamasu wriggled and chirped in surprise. "We'll take Leaps with us. He gets lonely here." Leaps protested for a short time, but was eventually caught up in the excitement enough to start wanting to lead the way himself. Sabine took Meesei's hand and accompanied her to the pool chamber.

The first half of the walk to the pool chamber was fairly quiet from Sabine, but the walk brought back the feelings she was left with at lunch. Her smile began to fade. A long enough time passed until she decided to try and bring it up again. She looked up at Meesei, considered for a moment whether asking would just cause more stress, then spoke up anyway. If it was not now, it was not ever. "Meesei, how do you know if a boy likes you?" Sabine asked quietly, checking around her for others listening.

[hr]
Najirra angled his head back slightly at Ahnasha's final statement. "A...waking vivisection? This happened before you turned?"

"No," Fendros corrected, "But it has caused us both...pain. We can't forget it. We thought you could help."

"Ah..." Najirra looked into his tea and wiped his lips, thinking. Or was he observing something? He looked up again and smiled, "We shall get to that shortly."

[i]What?[/i] Fendros lowered his eyebrows. He couldn't fathom what reasons it should be left for later. It was the entire reason that they were here! Fendros kept himself from protesting, but his patience was wearing thin already.

Najirra's posture became rather professional, then. His tone was official and serious. "Now, there are a few conditions if I am to help you with your problems. The first thing you must know is that what will not happen is you leaving my presence with no memory of your experiences." He put a hand on his chest, "What I do is strive to allow people such as yourselves to live your lives without the pain, to have you learn to manage it on your own. Whatever happens, you [i]will[/i] carry this for the rest of your lives, but it need not cause you pain. The next thing to know is that it will not be a swift process. Your mind may change, but you will not leave here with all your problems nullified in an instant. It may take months, even years for you to overcome the wounds you both suffer. Next, my methods may not give you an immediate relief, such as a potion to numb your minds, but I promise you, however long it will take, I will not stop meeting you until you force yourselves away from me or I am confident that your scars will not hinder your lives. Finally, I cannot help you unless you put your trust in me. If you have any questions, I will answer them to the best of my ability. In turn, you must not lie to me or hold back something where I insist that you share it." With that, Najirra's demeanour softened again, "I know it is much information, but you must understand, I have been treating wounds of the mind for many years, and this is what is required for me to help you. Do you agree?"

Fendros was going to interrupt Najirra halfway through his verbal contract to say yes and that he didn't care about the conditions. He was annoyed that this would not help them in the immediate short term, but he supposed that should have expected as much. "Yes, I agree." Fendros said impatiently, "I want to heal this."

"Good," Najirra gave his smile again, "With your permission, Ahnasha, I shall begin to explore further."

[hr]
Janius was not oblivious to Kaleeth's nervousness. He gestured for all the children to go towards the exit of the dining hall, "Alright everyone, gather in the main chamber, we'll see a werecrocodile there!" While the children ran out, Janius took the opportunity to take both of Kaleeth's hands and ask confirmation. "Hey, if you don't feel confident doing this, just say so now. It might just be good practice while your beast will be at its tamest. Don't worry, I'll keep the children well away from you."