Second Floor Common Room; Monday Afternoon

[snarkyhealer]

It wasn't Shira's common room, but that wasn't stopping her from plopping herself down on a couch and flipping through the TV channels

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[glacial_witch]

This was Karla's common room, though she didn't mind other people stopping in. For one thing, more people usually meant more food and when was Karla going to turn that down.

"Kiss kiss," she called, sticking her head in the room. "I don't suppose anyone's making lunch plans?"

[snarkyhealer]

"Not yet, anyway," Shira replied, looking up at the new person in the room. "We should get someone to, though."

[glacial_witch]

"I'm in favor of--Hell's fire, you're a Black Widow!"

See Karla stare. Stare, Karla, stare.

[snarkyhealer]

See Shira instantly be on her guard.

"How the hell do you know that?"

Notice that denying it never even entered her mind.

[glacial_witch]

Ignoring the sudden prickles in the other witch's psychic scent, Karla beamed at her. "What, like I'm going to miss a Sister of the Hourglass?" she asked, waving the idea away as being very silly. Crossing into the room, she held her hands out, palms down, offering the other witch a greeting. "Another Sister! Cassidy's going to be so pleased!"

The High Lord probably wouldn't, but only because he was going to despair at the thought of three witches wreaking havoc on Fandom.

[snarkyhealer]

Shira instinctively met Karla's hands in the proper response. "... Cassidy?"

Oh, this place had just gotten eight more kinds of interesting.

[glacial_witch]

"She's another Queen, from Dharo," Karla explained, still grinning. "What Territory are you from? Oh, this is wonderful! I haven't had anyone to properly talk about Black Widow training in ages!" She tugged out her hourglass pendant, the sand split evenly between the top and bottom. "I'm still only a journeyman, are you? We can perhaps study together, then? I would hate to make the Offering without being fully-trained."

Karla finally realized she was babbling and stopped for a moment to give Shira a chance to respond.

[snarkyhealer]

That'd been a whole lot of babbly words. Shira just blinked at the other girl for a moment before lifting her pendant to show it in a similar state to Karla's. "I'm also a Healer. It... it would be nice to have someone to study with." She had a gut feeling she could trust Karla, but she was still on her guard.

She hesitated a moment, not quite sure what to say, before deciding on, "I'm from the Shaladoran reserves."

[glacial_witch]

"The Shaladoran Reserves?" Karla repeated, confused. That wasn't anywhere she'd heard of. Which meant it probably wasn't in Kaeleer. "Are you from Terreille?"

Kaeleer and Terreille had been closed off from one another for fifty thousand years. She didn't know much about the Realm of Light, but what little she did know of it was bad. Briarwood. Lucivar's centuries of enslavement. Jaenelle's nightmares. A creeping, twisting taint.

A touch uncertain now, Karla added, "I'm Karla, by the way. From Glacia."

[snarkyhealer]

"Shira," she replied. "And yes, I'm from Terreille. Dena Nehele, specifically. Though the reserves hardly even seem like part of Dena Nehele anymore." What with them having been whittled away over the years until there wasn't enough to sustain the people anymore.

[glacial_witch]

"Glacia--and Dharo, too--are in Kaeleer, the Shadow Realm," Karla offered, watching Shira's reaction closely. She knew that Jaenelle's family had believed that Kaeleer a myth and wasn't sure how the other witch would respond to such a claim.

[snarkyhealer]

Shira had spent most of her life scrabbling for survival, so she wasn't quite as up on places outside of Dena Nehele as other people might have been, but she had heard of Kaeleer.

"Didn't think I'd meet anyone from there," Shira said cautiously. "Then again, I never imagined traveling outside of Dena Nehele much, so... there you have it."

[glacial_witch]

"You're the third person I've met from Terreille," Karla offered with a tentative smile. Possibly fourth, but the High Lord had been the High Lord for so long, what Realm he'd been born in hardly seemed to matter anymore. "May I ask how you ended up in Fandom?"

[snarkyhealer]

"My Queen sent me here," Shira replied. "For my own safety."

[glacial_witch]

...That was a disturbingly familiar story. Karla's hand crept up to her Sapphire, like an unconscious need to make sure it was still there.

"You're not the only one here for that reason," Karla offered quietly.

[snarkyhealer]

"Good. That I'm not alone, I mean," Shira amended. "It... I thought I was going to hate it here. Thought I'd hate being away from home and everything I know. But people here are making it bearable."