#brightwindsbarony

"Good" The Sidhe nods "It's a wonderful world we live in, but as you've seen only a fraction of the dangers. " A sigh "I know from experience"

Carefully standing back up, she looks at Otha. "What happened?"

"I was training with other hunters to be. Every Aesin is encouraged to find their path. Most men become warriors, hunters, Beserks... or skalds. Women tend to be Volvas ..as I am now, or a Mothers. There was a training accident where..." A breath "We didn't see it coming. The ambush"

She inhales sharply. “Oh, no....”

"The Thallian came like locusts. We were not warriors but we fought. our mentor died. "

"And when the blame came I was... " A breath then "Nevermind that. I'm glad you found a vine you like"

And they search on.

She gives Otha a concerned look, but bites her lip and doesn’t probe the sensitive memory. After a while she quietly mentions, “I’ll never be a warrior like my mom, or the Lady, or you... but if I can find a way to help by healing, I will...”

A tilt of her head "What do you Want to do with your life, Nessa?"

A pause, as she gazes out over the brush and trails, the rocky yet vibrant landscape. “I don’t think I know anymore.” She admits. “I had thought I didn’t have many options. Maybe try to save up to go to nursing school... but probably would have settled for a minimum wage job and scraping by. Now... things are suddenly so different.”

"So many options open it's overwhelming eh?"

“As long as I have my family, I know we will get by. But now I’ve met so many new friends and seen such incredible things. Books filled with magical memories, talking plants, flying elf princesses.” A smile. “I’m sure whatever happens... it won’t be boring?”

Otha smiles and it is dazzling, "We are not that much alike. I tend to be ..guarded, cynical. I think you're right though. It will not be boring. My advice to you is find the duty you love, not just the duty others would tell you to be."

A hand reaches to lightly touch one of the Ivy leaves. “I think I will, yes. And I do want to help people... not just because I feel beholden, though I do. I’d help someone in need even if they were a stranger.”

"I believe you would" A nod "if you have a healer's heart, then you have a healer's chances. If I may suggest the study of spring magics might serve you well. "

“Spring magic.” She says thoughtfully. “Do you know a teacher?”

"I think I know one" SHe says "Or at least of one"

“I’d like to meet them, if that’s okay. I’m not sure what I should or shouldn’t do before me, um. ‘Saining’?”

"Oh this is the perfect time to train, trust me. Even if you may feel like it's ..well, like being asked to fetch a bucket worth of water with your bare hands and no bucket, it pays off in the end"

She smiles! “I’ll learn what ever I can, then.” Nodding. “For now though... I’m here with you. And I can focus on what you can teach me.”

"This is true, I am amazing" Straight faced? Or does she believe it "My arts have to do with soothsay and portents and the like but... my ability to affect nature with them is strong. And if you want to question plants, I can teach you how to ask them questions. Unlike your Ivy, most plants don't talk. " And she explains Willow whipser

And omen

and yes, the nature realm , offering lessons to some degree

Out here in the open under the sky, even with a stunningly beautiful otherworldly being, it’s easy to focus and learn- and Nessa does her best to do that!

Otha is a wilder, lacking some of the patience of a graybeard/granddame/grump, but they do share a common interest and that helps Otha find that patience for repeated questions, or odd tangents.

And Nessa is such a kindly soul, it's hard not to like her.

It might not hurt that, lacking any reason not to, and recognizing the noble nature of the sidhe, she instinctively takes a polite and deferential manner. Not like some of those uppity commoners.

Well that IS a plus.

While Nessa is no pooka, she might get Otha opening up a bit more, about her House, her own training (Some old wound there) and then, more about how she feels about Sparrow "I rather like her, which as she's a Liam is..startling. They're oathbroken by most standards, and they seem obsessed with helping mortals as much as kithain, but one cannot deny she rules warmly, wisely, and well. She's also a fierce warrioress. What's not to admire?"

"It seems... unfair to be branded by something done by someone so far in the past."

"What is time to the likes of us when some of us remember such things as yesterday an others know of such by past lives? SIdhe in particular are.. odd about Time I do confess"

"That said, you are not alone in that feeling"