" Thank you. I have seen 4 teachers, all claiming by many to be the most powerful of the fire wielders. The longest any of them has been able to last with a continuous power push was 7 hours before collapsing. You have done Tal a great honor, she would be pleased." Lia said, her accent lilting softly and caught slightly on Tal's name. She wondered if she had faded yet or was still in her tent on the Saadian dunes living the rest of her life out in piece, no longer worried about looking after her youngest grand daughter. The thought both saddened Lia and gave her some peace, knowing that she was giving her grandmother final days of solitude and quiet but wishing to see her just once before...Blood pooled in Lia's palm, dripping into the polished hard wood of the dining room floor and working its way into the cracks, deeper, deeper into the house itself. This would not be the first drop of blood she would lose to this house, she could tell. May as well start now. 
  "What else can I tell you? None of them believed in my abilities, and when I demonstrated them only one stayed around long enough to know my whole name. They could offer me nothing, and frankly, seemed hateful. One man in the Volcano dunes of Demi snarled at me before stomping off and locking his door against me." Lia lifted her shoulders in a shrug, her braid tossed to one side behind her back. Popping a piece of sauteed cactus into her mouth, she waited for another prompt.