High Dara, Part 2: Comedown!
Who: Aelan, Essdara
Where: Beast pens, HRW
When: Even later evening, day 8 turn 2
Comment: Dara goes to visit the poor lonely animals, and finds a poor lonely holder girl. She is happy at her, until things where off and her real emotions kick back in.
It's after dinner in the weyr, and the best pens have settled down for the night. Quiet, warm, and comfortable - the perfect party for Dara to crash. She comes skipping into the pens, humming a happy tune and looking around her with a bright smile. She crosses over to one of the pens, with a mare close to birthing in it, and offers a hand out to her. "Hello, little mother! Having a good evening tonight? Me too!"
Aelan has apparently retreated to someplace vaguely familiar to continue reading up on etiquette and manners. At the cheerful greeting, though, she looks up from her straw-strewn corner of the stables, a smile appearing from nowhere. "Hey, Dara!" she calls over, brushing herself off a bit as she stands. "Didn't expect to see you here."
Essdara twirls around towards Aelan, and gives her a dazzling smile. "Aelan, my dear! I didn't think anyone'd be down here, and thought the boor beasts might be lonely, so I came to see them." She moves towards Aelan, and gives the other girl a tight hug. "What're you doin' down here? Reading? Bah, that's /boring/. I was just trying to convince Niya to get out more and not do that all the time!" She giggles with a shrug. "She didn't listen either, likes to be alone. But you're smarter than that!"
Aelan looks a little surprised at the hug, though an amused smile soon returns as she gives a squeeze before stepping back. "Well, it wasn't at the top of my list of fun things to do, but I figured getting an early start wouldn't hurt..." She trails off, quirking a brow. "You seem awful cheerful," she chuckles, considering the other girl.
Essdara grins brightly. "Shouldn't I be? Give or take my best friend being hurt and being turned down by a beautiful girl, it's been a lovely week!" She moves away, back towards one of the pens. "Got most of that night figured out, too, 'least as much as anyone has. Doesn't do me any good, but at least I know!"
"Oh?" Aelan asks, interest perking as she follows the other girl towards the pen. "So...what'd you find out?" Apparently, this question takes precedent over finding out why Dara is acting so strangely right now.
Essdara grins brightly, giving the runner in the pen she's at a solid scratching. "Well, the way I've got it down, Roa dissapeared sometime around when we were dancing, maybe a little after. I guess when she realised she was in trouble, Tialith called Dananth, and through him K'sar, for help. He grabbed Jensen and Ashwin, and they took off for where Roa was, the stores. K'sar, I guess, found the first trap, and got some heavy shelves dropped on him. He's doing a bit better today, though, so you know. Roa's out and about. It looks like K'sar is getting feeling back in his legs and... Bits. Slowly, though, so we'll see. Anyway, they /say/ Roa was hit with one of the falls, but I am not sure. regardless, she was knocked out and her leg broken when they got there. Jenny and Ash went for the stranger in there, but Jenny tripped another one, so it was just Ash and the stranger. They fought, stranger died. Pity, that, but what can we do? After that was just cleanup. Somewhere in there, Kierom and Tavaly got there, and they watched over Roa while the guards did guardy things." A faint giggle. "Then they came out, calmed Tia, and off to the infirmary!" She looks back over her shoulder. "Got all that?"
"Got it," Aelan says slowly, smile quirking as she watches her friend. "Someone apparently lured Roa into a storeroom full of traps, and she and everyone looking for her got hit with them, but the person who lured her got hit to death. Sounds...interesting." She leans over to cross her arms on the railing, looking over at the other girl. "So, uh...Where'd you find the good quickal?" she asks bemusedly.
"Quickal?" Dara offers Aelan a confused smile - never stop smiling is apparrently her new motto. "Dunno what that is. And I'm just, you know, happy!" She turns around fully, arms behind her against the pen door, bouncing back against it while she talks. "So what've you been up to, just classes?" She wrinkles her nose. "I still think your etiquette is just fine!"
"It's, ah...Homemade alcohol. Strong stuff, usually. They make some interesting variants on it in the mountains back home," Aelan explains, still watching Dara with a faintly amused and definitely curious expression. "You're /really/ happy," she observes with a brief laugh. "Not that it isn't a good thing. It's just...unusual."
Essdara says, "Ahh! I see. No, no, nothing like that! Alchahol and I just don't mix well, last time I drank I ended up having to be put to bed by Roa, and told her /way/ more than I should have." She giggles, and bounces over to Aelan to drape an arm around her. "Just some tea, and some sugar. Nothing noteworthy! SO tell me a story, something about you I don't know. Something fun!""
"A /lot/ of sugar," Aelan chuckles, turning to lean back against the rail as well. "A story. Um. Well, that's a good one," she muses, tilting her head back thoughtfully. "I...could tell you about what it was my father caught me at that got me sent here?" she offers.
Essdara perks up. "Ohh, that sounds like a good one, indeed. Must've been something really over the top, if he went this far!" A grin, "I'm betting, myself, it involveds a guard, a bail of hay, and a decided lack of clothing, but that could just be a fun way to imagine you."
Aelan chuckles softly, shaking her head. "No, nothing that interesting, I'm afraid," she admits. "Though there were guards involved. I snuck out to a tavern not far from the Hold. Stole a runner to get there, first off. Then once I was there, there was quite a bit of card-playing, and there was a little bit of clothes removing, though no touching. And, of course, my father managed to walk in right as I was in the middle of a very, very dirty joke, in my underthings, sitting on a table surrounded by Guards."
Essdara's eyes widen, and she can't not laugh. Deep, heartfelt laughs. "Oh, Aelan, that's priceless! I can totally see that! And so, in response to finding you near-naked, gambling, and flirting with a group of guards, he sent you to the /weyr/? Shards, maybe I /would/ be a step up in his eyes!" She giggles more. "Oh, dear. I love it!"
"No," Aelan corrects with a laugh, "He sent me to /Caucus/. And considering I never got caught doing anything half as bad when I visited Igen, I suspect he figured it just couldn't get any worse." She reaches up to rub a hand at the back of her neck, letting out a long breath. "Nothing that makes a person want to rebel more than having absolutely /no/ freedom."
Essdara giggles more and shrugs. "I admit, I wouldn't know. I've never had anything but. 'Spose that's why I am so wicked and dangerout." She skips away, with a bright smile. "He thinks he sent you to the Caucus. But we know that won't change you much. So, really, he just sent you off to the weyr. A dangerous thing to do." She grins over her shoulder at Aelan. "Who knows what new troubles you can find?"
Aelan's smile quirks at one corner of her lips, amused. "Y'know, Dara, yesterday I was getting yelled at by you for being too cheerful about a gold rider being ambushed," she points out. "And today, you're suddenly ready to get into trouble. Not that I'm complaining, mind, but, uh...What gives?"
Essdara shrugs. "I've a different perspective now, that's all." She grins, "And you're not her, or hurt, or likely to be so. Alas, you're still not /mine/, but everyone has to have /some/ flaws!" She leans down into a pen to run fingers over a sleeping runner. "Would you prefer I wasn't happy?" She asks, curiously.
"No, not really," Aelan laughs, shaking her head. "I'm just curious where the change of perspective came from, that's all." Her own smile fades a bit at that, wrinkling her nose. "My day wasn't so great. Apparently there's at least one person here who's heard all the rumors. Should've seen the look he gave me when I introduced myself."
Essdara glances back, "What was the look? And I am sorry it wasn't so good." She makes a face, "Makes me even madder I can't join the Caucus. You need someone there who cares about you to smack sense into people like him!"
"It was the disapproving frown," Aelan grimaces. "The 'I've heard of /you/' look, where suddenly you go from person to...nonentity. I'd rather have the- the open disdain of Benden's bastard than that look from someone I've never even met." She leans back against the railing, huffing out a breath before looking over with a quirk of her brow and that same vaguely amused expression. "What would you want to be in the Caucus for?"
"To prove I can. To make people like Aspen have to admit they aren't the best thing ever." Essdara chuckles and shrugs; her smile is noticibly fading. "Even went to far as to talk to Sefton about it a little. I'd thought he had some impression I was worthwhile. He didn't laugh at me, no, I wasn't even worth that. He just made it very clear that I wasn't worth the least of his students." She turns and looks at Aelan. "But that was my mistake, thinking above my station. It's a common one I make. Hell, the two people I've tried to get close to have been hopeless cases from the start, no?"
"Well, sexual attraction is sort of one of those things, Dara," Aelan points out with a shrug of one shoulder. "If the whole girl-girl thing was my sort of game, you'd be at the top of my list. But since we don't all walk around wearing signs that say 'I like tall, fair, broad, and burly' or 'I like small, skinny, and by the way, girls', it's kind of bound to happen. Just like is does between any other two people."
Essdara shakes her head, sharply. "I didn't meanit like that, Aelan. I just meant, I've never been good at knowing my place. I'm always pushing, always trying for more. And I need to learn that, in the end, I'm just a cook. I don't even know why it bothers me. I /like/ what I am. But people like him, like Reyce, even like Sefton.. They make me angry. They make me feel like I don't matter, and I don't think anyone should be able to do that, even if I don't."
Aelan tilts her head to one side, considering her friend. "Look, Dara, thing is, it takes all kinds, y'know? Ever stop to think how the guards would run if every man was a commander? It'd be a mess, right?" She shifts her weight, hopping up to sit on the railing. "Every place needs every kind. From the Lord Holders down to the drudges. You shouldn't let whether or not you get to be in charge determine whether or not you're worth something."
"Don't wanna be in charge." Dara mutters. She closes her eyes a moment, andis quiet. "I don't think I feel very well, all've a sudden." She comments. She leans on the railing again. "I don't want to be in charge of anything but the kitchens, and even that's turns and turns out. I am just tired of Caucus brats looking down their nose at me, calling me inferior and saying I'm less than they are, just cause I was born of two riders and not two Blooded Lords and Ladies." She shakes her head a little again.
"That's sort of why they're here, Dara," Aelan points out, though there's a touch of concern in her gaze. "If they were already perfect lords and ladies, they wouldn't need to be here. And part of what they have to learn is how important each person is in a Hold, not just the people in charge." Her brows furrow slightly as she hops down from the railing, coming over to try to slip an arm around the other girl's shoulders. "Hey, you okay? You're looking a lot more off now than before..."
Essdara shakes her head, letting the argument, such as it is, drop. "Yes. No. I dunno. Dunno if this is normal or not. This's all new to me." She admits. She leans against her friend briefly. "Think I just need a little bit to find myself again."
"Yeah, I'm thinking that might be a good idea," Aelan suggests in a quiet voice, nodding. "You think you can make it back to the caverns, or you think you should just sit down here for a little bit?" she suggests. "Nice bale of hay over there if you need it..."
Essdara shakes her head, and smile a little. "No, it's ok." She makes a face. "Just felt a bid weird there, that's all." She blushes a little. "Umm. Sorry for that. Dunno why I got like that. I didn't mean to be offensive or anything."
"Oh, yeah, because I get /totally/ offended by things people say," Aelan drawls with a dry smirk, shaking her head. "I mean, I would /never/ say anything unintentionally offensive, myself. I'm a paragon of virtue and perfection, y'know." She winks, though she still guides the other girl towards the haystacks, moving to sit with her. "That was admittedly, though, a little odd," she chuckles.
Essdara shakes her head and blushes more; she doesn't resist the movement. "Just tried something new, and not entirely sure what it's supposed to do. Said to put it in my klah, which I did. It was... Intense. The first few minutes were nearly overwhelming, and then for the next few hours, it was like... Nothing bothered me in the world. Then it was just... Gone. Like suddenly, I remembered the bits of the last few days I'd forgotten, the bad stuff."
Aelan quirks a brow at that, a little surprised. "You get it from the healers?" she asks curiously, leaning back against the wall as she takes her own seat on the hay, a brief snort of a laugh escaping. "I'd think if they had something like that, they'd be handing it out in buckets to the riders after a fall."
Essdara blushes again. "Umm. No, not exactly." She hedges. She sighs. "I can't say where I got it, cause if I do, you'll yell at me and call me stupid." Much quieter, she adds, "Rightly so, probably." she closes her eyes. "I think I am going to go in, go to bed, Ae. It's been a long week, and I'm very, very tired."
That brow remains arched, but Aelan doesn't press the topic - yet, at least. "Okay," she finally says, reaching over to give your shoulder a little squeeze. "Take care, Dara, okay? Sleep'll clear things up, hopefully."
Essdara smiles at her, and tentatively gives her a hug before standing to her feet; not even wobbly! "Sorry, again, Aelan. I promise I didn't mean anything I said. See you soon, I hope?"
"Yeah, of course," Aelan says with a quick grin, nodding and reclaiming the scroll she was reading earlier. "I'll see you around, Dara."
Essdara gives one last sheepish smile, and flees.
Where: Beast pens, HRW
When: Even later evening, day 8 turn 2
Comment: Dara goes to visit the poor lonely animals, and finds a poor lonely holder girl. She is happy at her, until things where off and her real emotions kick back in.
It's after dinner in the weyr, and the best pens have settled down for the night. Quiet, warm, and comfortable - the perfect party for Dara to crash. She comes skipping into the pens, humming a happy tune and looking around her with a bright smile. She crosses over to one of the pens, with a mare close to birthing in it, and offers a hand out to her. "Hello, little mother! Having a good evening tonight? Me too!"
Aelan has apparently retreated to someplace vaguely familiar to continue reading up on etiquette and manners. At the cheerful greeting, though, she looks up from her straw-strewn corner of the stables, a smile appearing from nowhere. "Hey, Dara!" she calls over, brushing herself off a bit as she stands. "Didn't expect to see you here."
Essdara twirls around towards Aelan, and gives her a dazzling smile. "Aelan, my dear! I didn't think anyone'd be down here, and thought the boor beasts might be lonely, so I came to see them." She moves towards Aelan, and gives the other girl a tight hug. "What're you doin' down here? Reading? Bah, that's /boring/. I was just trying to convince Niya to get out more and not do that all the time!" She giggles with a shrug. "She didn't listen either, likes to be alone. But you're smarter than that!"
Aelan looks a little surprised at the hug, though an amused smile soon returns as she gives a squeeze before stepping back. "Well, it wasn't at the top of my list of fun things to do, but I figured getting an early start wouldn't hurt..." She trails off, quirking a brow. "You seem awful cheerful," she chuckles, considering the other girl.
Essdara grins brightly. "Shouldn't I be? Give or take my best friend being hurt and being turned down by a beautiful girl, it's been a lovely week!" She moves away, back towards one of the pens. "Got most of that night figured out, too, 'least as much as anyone has. Doesn't do me any good, but at least I know!"
"Oh?" Aelan asks, interest perking as she follows the other girl towards the pen. "So...what'd you find out?" Apparently, this question takes precedent over finding out why Dara is acting so strangely right now.
Essdara grins brightly, giving the runner in the pen she's at a solid scratching. "Well, the way I've got it down, Roa dissapeared sometime around when we were dancing, maybe a little after. I guess when she realised she was in trouble, Tialith called Dananth, and through him K'sar, for help. He grabbed Jensen and Ashwin, and they took off for where Roa was, the stores. K'sar, I guess, found the first trap, and got some heavy shelves dropped on him. He's doing a bit better today, though, so you know. Roa's out and about. It looks like K'sar is getting feeling back in his legs and... Bits. Slowly, though, so we'll see. Anyway, they /say/ Roa was hit with one of the falls, but I am not sure. regardless, she was knocked out and her leg broken when they got there. Jenny and Ash went for the stranger in there, but Jenny tripped another one, so it was just Ash and the stranger. They fought, stranger died. Pity, that, but what can we do? After that was just cleanup. Somewhere in there, Kierom and Tavaly got there, and they watched over Roa while the guards did guardy things." A faint giggle. "Then they came out, calmed Tia, and off to the infirmary!" She looks back over her shoulder. "Got all that?"
"Got it," Aelan says slowly, smile quirking as she watches her friend. "Someone apparently lured Roa into a storeroom full of traps, and she and everyone looking for her got hit with them, but the person who lured her got hit to death. Sounds...interesting." She leans over to cross her arms on the railing, looking over at the other girl. "So, uh...Where'd you find the good quickal?" she asks bemusedly.
"Quickal?" Dara offers Aelan a confused smile - never stop smiling is apparrently her new motto. "Dunno what that is. And I'm just, you know, happy!" She turns around fully, arms behind her against the pen door, bouncing back against it while she talks. "So what've you been up to, just classes?" She wrinkles her nose. "I still think your etiquette is just fine!"
"It's, ah...Homemade alcohol. Strong stuff, usually. They make some interesting variants on it in the mountains back home," Aelan explains, still watching Dara with a faintly amused and definitely curious expression. "You're /really/ happy," she observes with a brief laugh. "Not that it isn't a good thing. It's just...unusual."
Essdara says, "Ahh! I see. No, no, nothing like that! Alchahol and I just don't mix well, last time I drank I ended up having to be put to bed by Roa, and told her /way/ more than I should have." She giggles, and bounces over to Aelan to drape an arm around her. "Just some tea, and some sugar. Nothing noteworthy! SO tell me a story, something about you I don't know. Something fun!""
"A /lot/ of sugar," Aelan chuckles, turning to lean back against the rail as well. "A story. Um. Well, that's a good one," she muses, tilting her head back thoughtfully. "I...could tell you about what it was my father caught me at that got me sent here?" she offers.
Essdara perks up. "Ohh, that sounds like a good one, indeed. Must've been something really over the top, if he went this far!" A grin, "I'm betting, myself, it involveds a guard, a bail of hay, and a decided lack of clothing, but that could just be a fun way to imagine you."
Aelan chuckles softly, shaking her head. "No, nothing that interesting, I'm afraid," she admits. "Though there were guards involved. I snuck out to a tavern not far from the Hold. Stole a runner to get there, first off. Then once I was there, there was quite a bit of card-playing, and there was a little bit of clothes removing, though no touching. And, of course, my father managed to walk in right as I was in the middle of a very, very dirty joke, in my underthings, sitting on a table surrounded by Guards."
Essdara's eyes widen, and she can't not laugh. Deep, heartfelt laughs. "Oh, Aelan, that's priceless! I can totally see that! And so, in response to finding you near-naked, gambling, and flirting with a group of guards, he sent you to the /weyr/? Shards, maybe I /would/ be a step up in his eyes!" She giggles more. "Oh, dear. I love it!"
"No," Aelan corrects with a laugh, "He sent me to /Caucus/. And considering I never got caught doing anything half as bad when I visited Igen, I suspect he figured it just couldn't get any worse." She reaches up to rub a hand at the back of her neck, letting out a long breath. "Nothing that makes a person want to rebel more than having absolutely /no/ freedom."
Essdara giggles more and shrugs. "I admit, I wouldn't know. I've never had anything but. 'Spose that's why I am so wicked and dangerout." She skips away, with a bright smile. "He thinks he sent you to the Caucus. But we know that won't change you much. So, really, he just sent you off to the weyr. A dangerous thing to do." She grins over her shoulder at Aelan. "Who knows what new troubles you can find?"
Aelan's smile quirks at one corner of her lips, amused. "Y'know, Dara, yesterday I was getting yelled at by you for being too cheerful about a gold rider being ambushed," she points out. "And today, you're suddenly ready to get into trouble. Not that I'm complaining, mind, but, uh...What gives?"
Essdara shrugs. "I've a different perspective now, that's all." She grins, "And you're not her, or hurt, or likely to be so. Alas, you're still not /mine/, but everyone has to have /some/ flaws!" She leans down into a pen to run fingers over a sleeping runner. "Would you prefer I wasn't happy?" She asks, curiously.
"No, not really," Aelan laughs, shaking her head. "I'm just curious where the change of perspective came from, that's all." Her own smile fades a bit at that, wrinkling her nose. "My day wasn't so great. Apparently there's at least one person here who's heard all the rumors. Should've seen the look he gave me when I introduced myself."
Essdara glances back, "What was the look? And I am sorry it wasn't so good." She makes a face, "Makes me even madder I can't join the Caucus. You need someone there who cares about you to smack sense into people like him!"
"It was the disapproving frown," Aelan grimaces. "The 'I've heard of /you/' look, where suddenly you go from person to...nonentity. I'd rather have the- the open disdain of Benden's bastard than that look from someone I've never even met." She leans back against the railing, huffing out a breath before looking over with a quirk of her brow and that same vaguely amused expression. "What would you want to be in the Caucus for?"
"To prove I can. To make people like Aspen have to admit they aren't the best thing ever." Essdara chuckles and shrugs; her smile is noticibly fading. "Even went to far as to talk to Sefton about it a little. I'd thought he had some impression I was worthwhile. He didn't laugh at me, no, I wasn't even worth that. He just made it very clear that I wasn't worth the least of his students." She turns and looks at Aelan. "But that was my mistake, thinking above my station. It's a common one I make. Hell, the two people I've tried to get close to have been hopeless cases from the start, no?"
"Well, sexual attraction is sort of one of those things, Dara," Aelan points out with a shrug of one shoulder. "If the whole girl-girl thing was my sort of game, you'd be at the top of my list. But since we don't all walk around wearing signs that say 'I like tall, fair, broad, and burly' or 'I like small, skinny, and by the way, girls', it's kind of bound to happen. Just like is does between any other two people."
Essdara shakes her head, sharply. "I didn't meanit like that, Aelan. I just meant, I've never been good at knowing my place. I'm always pushing, always trying for more. And I need to learn that, in the end, I'm just a cook. I don't even know why it bothers me. I /like/ what I am. But people like him, like Reyce, even like Sefton.. They make me angry. They make me feel like I don't matter, and I don't think anyone should be able to do that, even if I don't."
Aelan tilts her head to one side, considering her friend. "Look, Dara, thing is, it takes all kinds, y'know? Ever stop to think how the guards would run if every man was a commander? It'd be a mess, right?" She shifts her weight, hopping up to sit on the railing. "Every place needs every kind. From the Lord Holders down to the drudges. You shouldn't let whether or not you get to be in charge determine whether or not you're worth something."
"Don't wanna be in charge." Dara mutters. She closes her eyes a moment, andis quiet. "I don't think I feel very well, all've a sudden." She comments. She leans on the railing again. "I don't want to be in charge of anything but the kitchens, and even that's turns and turns out. I am just tired of Caucus brats looking down their nose at me, calling me inferior and saying I'm less than they are, just cause I was born of two riders and not two Blooded Lords and Ladies." She shakes her head a little again.
"That's sort of why they're here, Dara," Aelan points out, though there's a touch of concern in her gaze. "If they were already perfect lords and ladies, they wouldn't need to be here. And part of what they have to learn is how important each person is in a Hold, not just the people in charge." Her brows furrow slightly as she hops down from the railing, coming over to try to slip an arm around the other girl's shoulders. "Hey, you okay? You're looking a lot more off now than before..."
Essdara shakes her head, letting the argument, such as it is, drop. "Yes. No. I dunno. Dunno if this is normal or not. This's all new to me." She admits. She leans against her friend briefly. "Think I just need a little bit to find myself again."
"Yeah, I'm thinking that might be a good idea," Aelan suggests in a quiet voice, nodding. "You think you can make it back to the caverns, or you think you should just sit down here for a little bit?" she suggests. "Nice bale of hay over there if you need it..."
Essdara shakes her head, and smile a little. "No, it's ok." She makes a face. "Just felt a bid weird there, that's all." She blushes a little. "Umm. Sorry for that. Dunno why I got like that. I didn't mean to be offensive or anything."
"Oh, yeah, because I get /totally/ offended by things people say," Aelan drawls with a dry smirk, shaking her head. "I mean, I would /never/ say anything unintentionally offensive, myself. I'm a paragon of virtue and perfection, y'know." She winks, though she still guides the other girl towards the haystacks, moving to sit with her. "That was admittedly, though, a little odd," she chuckles.
Essdara shakes her head and blushes more; she doesn't resist the movement. "Just tried something new, and not entirely sure what it's supposed to do. Said to put it in my klah, which I did. It was... Intense. The first few minutes were nearly overwhelming, and then for the next few hours, it was like... Nothing bothered me in the world. Then it was just... Gone. Like suddenly, I remembered the bits of the last few days I'd forgotten, the bad stuff."
Aelan quirks a brow at that, a little surprised. "You get it from the healers?" she asks curiously, leaning back against the wall as she takes her own seat on the hay, a brief snort of a laugh escaping. "I'd think if they had something like that, they'd be handing it out in buckets to the riders after a fall."
Essdara blushes again. "Umm. No, not exactly." She hedges. She sighs. "I can't say where I got it, cause if I do, you'll yell at me and call me stupid." Much quieter, she adds, "Rightly so, probably." she closes her eyes. "I think I am going to go in, go to bed, Ae. It's been a long week, and I'm very, very tired."
That brow remains arched, but Aelan doesn't press the topic - yet, at least. "Okay," she finally says, reaching over to give your shoulder a little squeeze. "Take care, Dara, okay? Sleep'll clear things up, hopefully."
Essdara smiles at her, and tentatively gives her a hug before standing to her feet; not even wobbly! "Sorry, again, Aelan. I promise I didn't mean anything I said. See you soon, I hope?"
"Yeah, of course," Aelan says with a quick grin, nodding and reclaiming the scroll she was reading earlier. "I'll see you around, Dara."
Essdara gives one last sheepish smile, and flees.