For just enough time to protest, Sabine forgot her knowledge of an uninformed populace and its general reactions to werecreatures. It may have been her anxieties being not as strong as they were, or Sabine's impression of Kaleeth's village that fueled her reaction. "But she could live there without hurting anyone, and her father is the Master-Hunter. The Treeminder, Thorantilth, he is wise enough to understand. Even the wise woman must have already known what she was, otherwise she would not have..." Sabine cut herself off, "...or maybe she was scared too." Sabine's expression lowered to.deep disappointment with her realisation. They couldn't know for sure whether Reanaseer knew that werecreatures could control themselves well enough to live amongst people, or whether her reaction was purely from fear, but having Kaleeth reintegrate seemed a lot more difficult now that Sabine said it out loud

Next door, Janius had to stop and wonder for a moment whether he should be completely honest to Kaleeth about their situation. Most of his delay came from his own uncertainty rather than Kaleeth's. However, he had been in situations before where the outcome was uncertain, and this one hadn't removed all hope yet.

"...To speak the truth, Kaleeth, I can't tell you for sure," Janius said, looking to one side at the bedsheets for a moment, "I can't guarantee that any or all of us will survive. This is a very dangerous scenario we've got ourselves into, one with less control or certainty than we would like." Janius looked to Kaleeth again and rubbed his hand over her upper arm comfortingly, "That's not to say that any of us are definitely going to die here, though. There's still possibility that manifests reasonable hope. We could all survive."

Janius reached out to Kaleeth's hands and gently encouraged her upwards out of her curled up and withdrawn position. "Come, sit up, let me see you." Janius put his arms around Kaleeth and kissed her on the forehead. "When you went on your trial, the one that earned you your tattoos, was there any point where you thought you might not survive? Any point where you felt as if you didn't have control over your fate?"