Marod raised his hands and conceded with an outward breath and a smile. "I admit, I am not enough of a gourmand to know of such...delicacies. I apologise for my reaction. The meal was wonderful."

After a quiet harrumph at Marod's continued ingratiating behaviour, Lunise had to bring up the clearer issue before them before it drove her to any further distraction. "Meesei," she asked. "If these creatures can simply climb over this fence, why was it built to begin with?"

[hr]
The beginning of Ri'vashi's answer grew Sabine's anxiety behind her remaining cringe. The last half, with more hope, made her lift her eyes. Still, she blinked a few times and looked down again. "Ri'vashi...I am..."

She paused. She had the beginnings of a few different answers in her head. All of them either went nowhere or would only antagonise Ri'vashi more. Much like with Ri'kalesh, Sabine could only go off her feelings in the end.

"Ri'vashi, I am sorry," she said. "I wanted to speak to you about this because I feel guilty. I do not know what I wanted the outcome to be when I asked you to talk. I just..." She let out the last of her breath and looked aside. "I need to do this. I do not want to make you angry or...hurt you with this. But I need to do this. "