#rivervale_lodge

"Um. What did I tell you?"

"About the arrangements you made that she doesn't know about yet."

"...oh.."

"I'll be going on a quest soon. Before the horse quest. I figured, that one then the one with you."

An eyebrow from Kerri.

"You're going on a quest? Great. I can do two" She offers

She shoots a look at Kerri.

"I... it.. you can't go on the first one..."

She swallows.

"I..cannot?" Well, that stings, but she says "All right. May I ask why not?"

"...I already asked Symon to go..." Fidget.

Kerri is quiet and watches Nadeen for her reaction.

"oh." Nadeen says , then seems to ponder "the mission requires stealth then?"

She nods.

"Dagmar...."

"Well, then he is.. a good strategic choice. And he IS your friend" A nod

Nadeen seems to be quite understanding of this whole thing

Kerri takes a deep breath. "Dagmar, you know that is not all of it."

"I.. but see, this way, I get a quest with Symon and a quest with you?"

"it's quite all right, Hearth. There is the additional problem of the two of us, Symon and myself, even if we meant it as banter and barbs, we would stress her. I understand. "

truth there

"It's fair."

"That...is closer to it." She seems to be agreeing with both of them. "Nadeen, you understand that Symon is one of Dagmar's friends? A true friend?"

"I understand they are close, yes" Like a tick loves the dog it rides upon

"Do you understand that she has been trying to juggle the two of you in her life? That that's very stressful for her?"

"I'll do better."

Kerri's brow furrows at Dagmar's comment.

"No, Dagmar. You.. you aren't the one here who apparently needs to adapt. I'm the one who believes Change is good, yet Change in some areas is hard for me. I... should have realized there was a lot of pressure. I just.. " A sigh "It's not your fault that we don't like each other, Dagmar, or your responsiblity. That's on Symon and myself. And.. perhaps our heritages"

"obviously, hearth I did not realize it caused THIS much tension for her" She looks at Dagmar "is that why you've been avoiding me? Why you skipped school?"

Mumble. "There's a lot of stuff going on."

Kerri nods to Nadeen, then says to Dagmar, "I think you need to tell her all of it."

"Nadeen, she's very nervous. Please listen."

"ALL?" A blink. Okay. Exactly what does she have to do? Kiss the sluagh on the mouth? I would need to cut them off and ask the Hearth to Heatherbalm me new lips

"Pardon. I'm listening" She sits primly

"I dunno. Just a lot."

"I know you have a lot going on. And. Um."

A tilt of her head

"I dunno. I miss regular school. And it's been weird with Adam there. And. Um."

She's turning purple and shrinking down in her seat.

A frown at Adam, but true to the request she sticks to listening

she does make go on motion, gentle

"And I... I d-don't really want to go to Silver Wolf. I don't like him very much, and I know it's not fair since I know you're trying so hard with Symon."

"But I have a lot of trouble with how he treats Connor, and I know it's.. like.. I know it's not like he's trying to be cruel, and that.. that it's complicated... but I... it's really hard..."

"I.." a sudden realization

But she catches herself

"But I took an Oath for Connor, too, and it's my job to protect him and take care of him... and I don't even think I could take him with me?"

"I've been working on that" She says "It's.. tricky. As Squire he might be welcome to visit, but ..." A breath "I don't think Aiden would be open to overtures of affection from him."

"And Connor loves him and wants... wants what Aiden can't give, yeah." She swallows. "And I don't... I don't want to make things harder, either."

"And I really want you to get everything you want...."