Janius was correct on why Kaleeth was breaking down before him. There was little else that could be so devastating as the knowledge of her mother's death. "There's...so much I didn't get to say to her. She never got to learn that I was okay, that I was happy. She never got to meet Julan, because I didn't come back soon enough. Why did I have to be so afraid to come here? Why did I have to do that to my own mother?"

Kaleeth raised up her head just enough to be able to see Janius, albeit unclearly through her tears. "What can I even do now?" 

[hr]

Ahnasha rolled over onto her back, letting out a long breath. She stared straight up at the ceiling in thought, tapping one of the claws on her feet rhythmically against one of the bedposts. "Yeah, I didn't worry too much about it before. The important part was just getting here, making sure we were ready. Making sure that your family knew to expect them. I just figured that I would come up with something to say if I thought about it for a week." Ahnasha shifted in place and leaned her head back off of the edge of the bed, looking upside down at Fendros. "That did not happen." 

"My family are not stupid; I don't think we'll just be able to brush it aside. They will probably get suspicious if we try to tell them something too unlikely. Honestly, as much as I would hate worrying about it, it might be best to leave if we can't come up with something. We've warned your family what to expect, which might have to be enough. A weak, contrived story about how we're here might just make things worse. I just don't know if there [i]is[/i] a good enough story we can tell them." Ahnasha said, with no real confidence. Although, after one particular thought crossed through her mind, her ears twitched and her eyes grew slightly wider. "Unless...maybe we don't tell a story? Maybe we just tell the truth? Not all of it, of course, but...just the right pieces. We say we've befriended a mage. Someone friendly, maybe a bit eccentric. A mage who was kind enough to send us here. None of my family is educated in magic; they won't really understand how difficult or rare that kind of magic is. I mean, they would probably understand that it's not something most mages can do, but they won't find it unbelievable. Besides, it's not like Meesei's teleportation has anything to do with lycanthropy."