Ariel kept her hands on Rukeewei's arm as they progressed from the lift. She had her eyes up and her mouth agape at all the various sights. She had a failed belief that Rukeewei would guide her steps, despite the fact that he was just as fascinated.

"You have...werevultures here?" Ariel remarked casually, in spite of her shock. "This is all...I am feeling rather faint." Ariel let one of her hands go so she could take a swig from her waterskin. Stepping into what felt like another world was more overwhelming than she could have anticipated the clanhome to be.

When she had finally swigged some water and wiped her lips on her sleeve, Ariel remembered to breathe once more. "This is hardly anything I could imagine. Have you not cast some vast illusion on us Meesei?" Ariel turned with a worried brow to Rukeewei, not able to give her last remark the tone it required to be conveyed as a joke. "There's-nothing-like-this-in-Black-Marsh, is there?"

[hr]
Still side-on to Ri'vashi, Gallus looked up at her from a head tilted forward. He held her gaze and frowned for several seconds before letting his shoulders fall and sighing. "I should have known that I wouldn't be able to avoid you if I tried. Alright, I'll tell you."

Gallus strode over to a nearby bench and sat himself down. He spoke as he picked up a cloth to wipe the sweat from his face. "Cuts was a spectacular guide. We reached Gideon in good time and shape and a day of asking around the city found us the boy. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to say, but I couldn't have known what I would find, really." Gallus let the cloth hang from his hands as he leaned his elbows on his legs and stared at it. He spoke clearly, but sombrely. "His name was Yizan-lei. He lived with his aunt and uncle in a less-than-wealthy neighbourhood. His mother, the agent Dar-tzesa, she had told me that he had a disease that was wasting him away. Even knowing that...he looked barely anything but skin and bone. He couldn't even sit up or lift his head for long. He couldn't eat, or...couldn't keep any food down. He was starving, but for this stuff that the alchemists were using to keep him alive. Even that would only last a few more months, from what I heard from him."

With a half nod to Ri'vashi, he continued. "I gave him a red feather that I kept from his mother. I told him about what happened to his mother. About how she was tricked into a deal by some horrible people for a cure that they never intended to give. That she was wounded when we caught her, though I told him that she died of her wounds, and not what her wounds were, exactly. I didn't want to be graphic about it. I also kept our nature a secret. He...was upset, clearly, though at the same time relieved. Everyone but him had believed that Dar-tzesa was dead at that point and he was holding out hope."

Gallus bobbed his head and gestured with the towel. "Now, the entire reason I went was because I had promised Dar-tzesa to make sure that her son was being cared for. I told him that I could help him in any way he desired. I, uh...I then began to explain that there might be a cure to his condition in lycanthropy. The possibility of health, the challenges, and that I could teach him to live with it. I spoke without mentioning that it was lycanthropy, specifically, just so I could explain properly." Gallus took a short breath in and out. "His uncle knew what it was from when Dar-tzesa was told to contract it. He vehemently opposed that option on the grounds that his soul would be cut off from the Hist. Yizan-lei asked me if it was true, and I told him the truth."

It was at that point that Gallus blinked a few times and wiped his eye. "He was just a boy, not much different than my boys. I could have helped him, but he chose to turn down the offer. Not only that, he...he decided that he didn't want to live with the pain anymore. He asked his aunt and uncle to end his life."

Gallus clenched his teeth, remained leaning forward, and stared daggers at the ground. The fingers of his right hand pressed together on the cloth he held until they began to quiver.