Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was all so much to take in. Touching the brand on her skin given to her by the crystal Kithryn sat in the center of the floor that belonged to her Clan. Home, Nirva had said, this was home now. Yet it was so strange and different from the home she'd left behind, the home she'd lost in the cataclysm that even now made no sense to her. How had it happened? How had she survived? Over and over fingers traced the design and wondered at its meaning.

She'd been told it meant conviction which she had in spades. Conviction in the ways of her Clan, conviction in the teachings of Death, conviction that the oldest ways were the right ones. Medea had, apparently, unearthed teachings older than the ones she'd ever been taught.

What should she think of that?

Quiet and looking horribly lost the petite priestess simply sat and wondered.

For all that it was overblown Kithryn was comforted by Bastion's sudden apology and bow. It was familiar to her and something that had carried over from one life to the other. Her manners had always been impeccable when not in the safe company of trusted friends and family and, even then, she'd often gotten requests to let herself be a little looser. A little more real. This had always seemed ridiculous because what was more real than the chill of the stone beneath their feet?

Pulling some of that into herself, though the stone here was too far from the ground and too far from the north to ever emulate its chill, Kith extended the hand that had been stroking the mark on her skin. "No, stay." No please. Just stay. Looking up into Bastion's face she saw nothing that marked him as someone she'd known from her previous time in the Clan and it made her curious. Gave her something to think on other than the past or the future.

"I am Kithryn Sen. I am, was I suppose the term ought to be for now, a priestess of the Clan. I take it from what you were saying that you are a craftsman?" It was somewhat pathetic how desperate she was for conversation, for something to engage her mind, but it was better than putting herself through misery with no end result.

After so long true formality was a bit of a shock and made her feel the same echoing sense of loneliness she'd been investigating through trance when everything had gone wrong. Death was something that could generally be only experienced alone. To desire the company of others ruined the special bond that existed between Death and the soul at the moment of expiration, a bond she strove to emulate in her life. There could be only her and the moment -- it was her focus, her area of study, her obsession and it was wavering.

His obvious passion for his work made Kith smile and she leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees so that their eyes were more at level as they talked. Poise was all well and good but right now it was difficult to maintain and better to look relaxed than to fail at looking elegant. "What is it that inspires you? As you've perhaps noticed I've not yet found a part of this tower that speaks to me in such a way as it does you." Her lips quirked in a small smile at a thought that she was not keen to share -- that the tower had spoken to her but only to call her to it.

Since then? Silence. It bothered Kithryn in much the same way her conundrum of desiring the company of those not her immediately family had been. "I just found my way home to the Clans, you see. This is all very strange to me but I suppose it is something you are accustomed to now, all the clans living together like this?"

Bastion had not quite answered her second question but seeing his enthusiasm, feeling the force of it as he talked, explained enough. Either this stallion was so driven and creative as to be able to look past the shock of being found or he was used to the situation Kithryn now found herself in. Living side-by-side with the other Clans wasn't something that had ever really been done before and, if it had, never by the priestess herself.

Moving over on her bench the woman made a bit of a gesture indicating that Bastion ought to get up. "You should sit here so that you're off the floor. I've heard that your passion can be a rigorous one and I would hate to be the cause of your discomfort. 'Looking after the Clan' was one of the few jobs Kith was still sure she could do so she would do it, tirelessly. Getting Bastion up off of the floor wasn't much but it was a start, wasn't it?

Sitting back slightly, looking up towards the ceiling of their part of the tower, she thought of home. Of the cave she'd made full of the tapestries woven by her family, rugs and hangings, the jewelry she'd once had to adorn herself with. Kith still had a few pieces that she'd been carrying with her but nothing compared to what she'd accrued over the hundreds of years of life before the cataclysm that had destroyed their home.

"Do you tolerate others who are not craftsmen themselves watching you work? It's been such a long time since I've seen anyone work and I admit your passion is rather contagious." Certainly her smile had gone from polite to genuinely interested in what he was doing. "I would love to see it sometime, if you'll allow me."