“Good. I mean, it is good that she has made friends here. It's just that I've been trying to think of how to approach her myself and I've had little success. I was wondering..."

“Ah, you want to know why she dislikes you." Talina tried not to smile knowingly and just about managed it by wincing instead.

“She openly dislikes me then?" The older woman appeared somewhat crestfallen at the news.

“I wouldn't say openly," Talina tried to reassure her.

“She doesn't go around telling everyone she doesn't like you or anything like that. It's just that Janette isn't exactly subtle in such matters. I mean after that cum-splattering performance in the tent a few weeks ago she might as well have branded him as her property in front of you."

“But he has other Lovers! She doesn't seem to treat Lydia or Fiona that way, and sometimes she and Algra are just as bad as Gregory and Algra. I just don't understand why her vexation has fallen upon me!" Valise lifted her arms in exasperation and appeared the closest Talina had ever seen her to actually being flustered.

In response to the outburst, Talina turned her head to Look upon her old friend. Her eyes narrowed, as if focusing her vision to peer beyond Valise and see just what the hell was going on inside her

“Are you serious, Valise?" she finally asked.

"Yes." The woman's arms fell back to her sides with a swish of the long sleeves of her white gown.

“Why would I not be?"

"Alright then, but it's embarrassing to explain something so basic to one so wise. Janette is very jealous of you.”

“Jealous? What has she to be jealous of? Gregory spends almost every night with her."

“True, but those nights are also nearly always spent with Algra as well. When he comes to you, you get him all to yourself. That's the problem. You're not playing fair in letting her compete. Janette likes women, you know. When they're in bed with her she will happily be with them when she can't be with Gregory. Sometimes she prefers the attentions of Lydia and Fiona, or Algra. Not all her lessons with the courtesans have been entirely focused on dancing practice, you know.”

“Have you...?

“No. I'm rather certain that I'd break Torren's heart if I slept with Gregory or any other man. I'm not so sure about how he'd feel about me being with another woman. Humans are very strange like that. So, because I'm uncertain, I don't take the risk. Perhaps I'll ask him one day, very nicely, whilst offering to demonstrate exactly what I'll be doing in front of him with Lydia. Do you think he'd like that?"

“Talina, I think Torren would walk on hot coals if you asked him nicely. Focus, please?”

“Oh, yes." Talina shifted her gaze back to the greenery in front of them to consider her words for a few moments. "My point with Janette is that she's happy to share, but sharing requires giving as well as taking. You're not really giving her anything at all, and you're taking something very precious to her."

“I had not considered it Like that." Valise paused and Lowered her gaze to the moss-covered earth beneath her feet. "The truth is that I have been quite jealous of her. I did not think that she had anything to be jealous of."

“That's because you have a bizarrely low opinion of yourself." Talina gracefully hopped over a mud puddle and then stopped when she noticed a patch of dead Leaves on the ground. "We're getting close."

“Wait." Valise noticed the Leaves too, and stepped forward until she was standing beside them. "Don't touch these.”

“Are they poisoned?" "No. They are nothing." Valise crouched down to examine them. They weren't simply dead leaves of the sort that might fall for the winter in the countries to the north. Instead, they appeared blackened and almost charred from something.

“Perhaps this was where one of the fireballs landed?" Talina suggested.

Valise took a steadying breath and closed her eyes to focus herself, and then reached out to very carefully take up one of the leaves between her thumb and index finger. Not long after she lifted it into the air, a faint breeze crumbled it to dust. It was only after the Last of that dust had been blown away that she began to breathe again, stepping away from the blackened mess as she did.

“I don't think it was where they Landed. I think it was where the fire was summoned,"

Valise Looked around between the trunks of the nearby trees until she found a blackened handprint with dark veins Leading up the Length of the trunk toward a few charred-looking branches. The branches were barren of their leaves, and although only they seemed to be directly affected it looked as if the rest of the tree had begun to die.