Rilana looked down at the gray-white moccasins, the edge of the fur lining fluttering around her ankles under the touch of the wind. She tugged at the hem of her tunic, wishing it were a bit longer, listening to Svarak's explanation. Lana realized that she was actively hoping to hear something, anything, that would strip away the shrouds of mystery and fear and give her a glimpse of the man underneath. Not one to interrupt, she was quiet for a minute, giving herself, and Kona, a moment to digest. He sounded genuined and reasonable, but her apprehension wouldn't be swept away so easily, not if Kona had anything to say about it.

[color=00aeef]"I don't know much about living in a place where magic is feared and un-welcome. Perhaps it is a difference between the Moon Children and other people, but if those of us who didn't mean to do ill were afraid...those who meant to do harm would, by their very nature, work their evil unopposed. Outlaw something and only the outlaws will continue doing it."[/color] She shook her head, unused to philosophizing,  looking out across the lake, which suddenly seemed desolate when a moment ago it had been a wondrous spot.

Svarak's sigh nudged his shoulder against the moon fey slightly, and she shifted away, turning to look up when he asked her about her Familiar. She paused then, but not because Kona was speaking. This time she was merely considering how much to tell him. Kona's preference would have been a dramatic appearance, called out from his Mark into the sky behind Rilana, proud and fierce and strong. 

[i][color=00aeef]And smug, and arrogant, and annoying,[/color][/i] she added in reply to the fantastical image the gryphon painted of himself.

[color=00aeef]"He is my first, but not my only,"[/color] she admitted, feeling the prickle of skin as Kona's mark moved around on her back. [color=00aeef]"It seems I will have quite a few mementos of Ebonfort when I finally return to the Frostfell."[/color]

Rilana's expression changed to one of thoughtful introspection when Svarak mentioned bad Druids. What was a bad druid? What was it that she did that qualified as good? Could she be bad, if she wanted to? Rilana was typically a practica sort of person, but the last few months had not been very practical, and she was not devoid of imagination. She valued life and light and the balance of nature. But nature could be vicious and cruel and dark as well. Kona flexed his claws and growled in the back of her mind, and something sinister passed across the moon fey's face as she pondered on what kinds of great and horrible things she could do. The piercing scream of Kona's war-shriek, and the savage thunder of an adult balauradon snarling teased her ears. But that shadow dissolved almost as soon as it arrived, soothed away as if by the sheer pale coolness of the shifting sky. [color=00aeef]"I'm sure they were. But I'm pleased that you consider me a good person."[/color]

[color=fff200][i]A person, instead of a lackey, you mean?[/i][/color]

The chill in the wind seemed to blow right through Rilana, infusing her with a meloncholy that was difficult to fight. She scooted further down the log, crossing her arms and rubbing her biceps in a way she had seen humans do when the wind was especially fierce.

[color=00aeef]"Hmm. A paradise? An oasis where magic hid while it died in the rest of the world, you mean. Something tells me that this mission of yours didn't just fall at the same time, but had something directly to do with this...death of magic and the reason my home was in a bubble in the first place. How else would a charr live so long and carry a shard of enchanted ice for a sword?"[/color]

And after a moment, [color=00aeef]"Who was she?"[/color]