Nakreyya listened to Grug as he spoke his thoughts both on her steed, and on the matter of Fate. She saw Anzu glance over as the word 'tamed' came out, and she knew both she and Anzu were thinking the same thing. The veil of a smirk crossed her features, but she waited for Grug to say his piece before speaking. 

"Anzu is not tamed. He cannot be broken or gentled. He made a conscious decision to help me for reasons of his own. I freed him from a prison where he was being kept as an oddity, bound by twisted spells that were inscribed around him. He decided that I earned my freedom with his, and has dutifully been my companion since that day. He is free to leave my side at his discretion, as I am free to do the same of him - but neither of us has. 

"The Nightmares we see in our sleep at night are... hard to behold, but that doesn't make them inherently evil. Such is the same for Anzu. He has suffered a great loss in his life that turned him from a creature of pure light to the steed you see before you. I cannot speak as to why he has changed, as he does not communicate in my language, but I know well enough the acts that create a steed like him. He is as I am - once beautiful, once respected and revered. Now a wanderer, feared or hated... certainly misunderstood. Anzu is not evil, he is corrupted - but he is not evil. He is... simply not pure any longer. His blood could no more heal you than mine could. His horn is gone, and all the powers with it. I would have to imagine he's sorrowful for what has transpired to take such things from him, but I have never known him to show malice or hate. 

"I believe he chose me because I showed him mercy. It is a selfish arrangement for both of us, to need a companion - especially one that understands how we feel. I would no more recommend his demise than I would remove my other eye and make myself blind. Too much in this universe is mere misunderstanding over true despotic evil," it had been probably the most Nakreyya had ever said at one time, though she felt it was important for both Fionn and Grug to understand, and accept her unlikely companion. Anzu commanded fear at his very presence, but Nakreyya had never been afraid of him - and she hoped to pass that acceptance on to her two new companions. 

"As to your answer about fate... There are many reasons to reject this opportunity. We are an odd party of people, and will certainly be in grave danger as we continue. This being a fated encounter, or random happenstance does not change that. That said, I have very little to lose with that danger, so I will stay. I simply have reservations at the notion of some grand plan that intended my presence here. I feel as though that moment passed for me long ago," Nakreyya reached down to the table and lifted her eyepatch as she spoke, shifting it up to tie it over her eye, feeling the draw of the mana from the glass battery she wore as an eye, and into the eyepatch, which whirred to life. "I will begin to pack so that we can alight to the Space Ship shortly." 

[@Hekazu] [@Silvan Haven]