Darin had wanted to give Ridahne a chance to avoid answer the question yet again for yet another crowd of people that simply didn’t seem to care. Yet when the warrior asked her to wait, she did so gladly. It was Ridahne’s business. If she wanted to share the choice was hers. The human would not begrudge the Azurei that. There was nothing to begrudge anyways. The story she gave the Council was briefer than the story she had given others in the past nut it wasn’t any less true. Darin did appreciate the brevity. She wasn’t sure she would have been able to stand being here in this room for too much longer.

Ridahne’s response to her question cause the young girl to wrap her arms around the warrior in as tight a hug as she could manage, “Thank you Ridahne. Thank you so much. You have no idea how much than means to mean.”

It meant more than Darin could ever hope to verbalize. She hadn’t been looking forward to taking Ridahne with her when they first meet. She could remember trying to hide who she was. She could remember being apprehensive of taking in a stray. Yet Ridahne had changed. She wasn’t torn up by guilt anymore. She knew the love The Tree had for her. She walked with a confidence that Darin didn’t realize people could have. She was not afraid to admit her crimes and the truth of the entire situation. She seemed proud to be both the Guardian and to be Seed-Chained. She was someone Darin couldn’t imagine living without. Darin loved her the same way she loved her mother, as dear and precious family. The fact that she was willing to modify the traditions of her entire culture to comply with the whim of a silly human girl was a good example of how much the relationship between the two girls had changed.

The human did her best to tighten her grip on the warrior as Darin had to consider how she had changed since Greyrock. She didn’t feel like she had. She still felt like she was out of her depth. She still had no idea what she was doing. Only now it was worse; much worse. She could level this forest and it wouldn’t even be very hard. She was still afraid of people knowing she was The Seed-Bearer; not just because of the threat to her life, but also because she felt unworthy of the role. She swung between wanting to avoid people to keep her name and face a secret and practically screaming from the rooftops that she was The Seed-Bearer. The problem with the first was that she was trying to make friends. So, she couldn’t avoid people. It was also becoming harder and harder to hide her identity. People just seemed to know. The problem with the second was that Darin didn’t want to seem like she was bragging, She was also unsure of how people would react to her. She really didn’t want to be showered in praise. She was just trying to do a job.

With great reluctance Darin pulled away from Ridahne, “And I suppose we should discuss if there is any point in continuing to travel as your apprentice. More and more people seem to know the truth. What do you think?”