Ruby had thought it would be a breath of fresh air to talk to a normal person rather than a priest or a worshipper for once, but she had to admit that she found the unnecessary reverence and hesitation preferable to the open hostility she could read on the woman’s face. She wasn’t even saying anything, just staring at her with eyes narrowed in suspicion. At least she was looking at her face this time in stead of staring into space. If this was how people acted when they were drunk, she could understand why the church was so dead-set against it. 

When the woman finally spoke, Ruby wasn’t even disappointed that she didn’t know anything. She clearly hadn’t been thinking straight when she thought that it would have been a good idea to come up here alone. At least the woman hadn’t seemed to have recognised her, which at least kept her from embarrassing the church. Now she only needed to take a paper and they could both go back to- 

Her thought process ground to a halt with the bright flame flaring up between them. For a moment all she could do was gape slack-jawed as everything she’d been expecting was wiped away in the bright glow of the burning paper. Not a child then.

The hesitation was enough to have her end up with a gun pointing in her face, and the bright spark of joy she felt ([i]she was not alone[/i]) was just enough for her to be able to push back the memories that came rushing back at the sight of the barrel. A lifetime of practice turned her focus to her breath before she needed to make a conscious decision to do so. 

-Three counts in, four counts out. Four counts in, five counts out.- 

While she could feel the flames within her pushed away just out of reach, she had this under control. She [i]had[/i] to have this under control. With that thought she took a slow step back and held up her hands to show she wasn’t planning anything.

 “I… No one ‘set me up’ to this,” she said, not bothering to hide the fear in her voice or eyes. As long as that gun was on her, she was [i]very[/i] afraid, though not for the reason the moonchild probably thought she was. 

“We were… looking for someone. Like I told you, there was a divination,” she didn’t much want to tell her she was the daughter of one of [i]the[/i] goddesses as long as she was aiming a gun. That had to be a shock, right? The last thing she wanted was to startle her into doing something drastic.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I would [i]never[/i] hurt you,” she said, hoping the truth of her conviction would shine through in her words. She slowly lowered her hands, gesturing with the paper case to show that she wasn’t reaching for anything else.

“I’m the same as you, look.” She slowly reached for a paper, not flinching when it burst into flames the moment her fingers touched it. She held it up between two fingers as it burnt itself out in seconds. 

“I can explain everything, but I need you to put that gun away.”