"Geez, Language!" scolds Kalaya, pulling hard to unstick Ven's foot from the wrack waste before it can claim more than it has already. "And where do you get off calling me stupid? Have you [i]seen [/i]where we are?? Now come on!"

Dragging her with strong arms, she brings the warlock up to the ridge to ...

"Oh. great." she says, her voice leaden. "Now there are [i]two [/i]giant demons. And that dragon is still there."

[i]You're in over your head, girl.[/i]

She sighs, closing her eyes. Why has it got to be [i]this hard[/i]? 

The plan had been simple to start with - just herself heading to Kingeater, nobody else needed to get hurt. Either she rescued the priestess, or she'd be captured or killed. A nice neat ending to everything. But then she had to meet Fengye. She'd gone and invited her along in a fit of impulsiveness. Why had she done that?

No, that's a lie - she hadn't come to Kingeater just to rescue the priestess. That had been a convenient intersection of duty and desire - but if that had been her only reason to come then she'd have just waited for everyone else back at that inn. No, with everything playing out how it had, she'd had to move quickly and come alone. Only Fengye, who'd never met Ven before and thus had no specific ill will against her, could be trusted not to interfere. 

She spots the battle unfolding below, but for some reason she can't summon the energy to run towards it. She'd probably feel guilty about that later - but right now, she just felt so. very. tired.

[Taking the condition "guilty" following Han's attack]

"You know ..." she says, glancing downwards and effortlessly dispatching a wrack doll that was trying to pull itself together out of the rubble around them. "I was pretty sure coming here would get me killed. That seems pretty inevitable now, so I'm just going to take a moment to do what I came here to do: You and I? We need to [i]talk[/i]."

She tosses the doll's breastplate down as a makeshift chair and, moving her full-arm grip on Ven to her hands, draws them both into a sitting position. Look into her eyes. Take a breath. Hope for the best.

"I don't know what's going on." she begins. "I've only seen you twice in the last ten years, so I know there's lots I'm missing. You've gone from being the girl I remember as my best friend to ... this."

"I didn't think we'd ever get the chance to meet again. And I'm not going to lie and say that I was always searching for you like one of those storybook characters." she admits "But I always kept my eyes open. I always ... I guess I always hoped we'd cross paths somehow."

"And now we're here. You're you. I'm me." she says, glancing down to those hands "And for some stupid reason. Despite the demons and all the circumstances. I'm still [i]happy [/i]about it; That I got to see you again."

"Things may have changed - [i]we [/i]may have changed - but that hasn't and [i]it[/i] won't." she finishes.

"So ... uh ... yeah." she says, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly. "I guess that's what I broke into your castle to say."

Awkward silence.

"Did you, uh, want a book to read? I have one of our old favourites somewhere on me." she says, patting her cloak.

[For lack of a better thing - gonna take a string on Han as my fight move (since she'd recognise Kalaya when she grabbed the veil)]

[Rolling to [b]Entice[/b] Ven: "Come on. Smile for me" and spending a string. 5 + 3 + 2 = [B]10[/b] ]