Lunise couldn't let the first comment go. "You have what my mother would call a filthy mouth, Meesei." A second later, Lunise pecked said mouth with a kiss.

"As for being 'one of you,' that is just the issue," Lunise continued. Her serious voice had returned. "I have learned it from many accounts and seen it firsthand. Even you say that packs are bound by their shared challenges. As are clans. You are lycanthropes. The beasts do inform your behaviour. Without that ring of yours, there would always be a part of you that sees me as...well, being on the exterior."

[hr]
Fendros paused to take a smaller drink, but he put the bottle aside rather than pass it back just yet.

"Ahnasha," he replied. "I would rather the chauruses sabotage the plan than you get caught out and killed. If things go without a problem, they will not know that undead were involved at all." He worked out the knots at the base of her neck. "Besides, maybe Darahil has a few tricks up his sleeve. You might get help from just automatons after all. By the way, I think Rhazii is going to worry if we're on a mission either way. If he does not learn to live with it, and that could be hard enough...I don't know, maybe we can ask Saraya to help. She has been doing great work since Najirra passed away."