[Adriana Sha'kaal]

The meal was settling well with Adriana, as she sipped at a glass of water to clear her throat. "I haven't really been to many cities. I stayed in the wilderness for a bit, then camped near Mileswick. I didn't wander much. I was just hoping someone would come back, I was waiting for any news. I didn't want to head out because I didn't, and, well, still don't know where any other places are. I almost headed for the mountains, but the thought of another winter alone there... Well, I'd rather stay near buildings." The Baijani smiled a bit. That bit of feral instinct had been smoothed out of her character from the long months spent in the civilization of Paxia. "But it has been long, too long, since I've had so good a meal!"

Adriana looked steadily at Sevette for a moment. She seemed much the same as she had been before. Her hair shone gently in the light, her face was radiant and her eyes sparkled. But, it seemed there was a starkness about her that had not been there before, a definition along her cheekbones that betrayed the hardening of life. Adriana suddenly wondered if her own face had changed so. She did't know... Was that ridiculous innocence still there, or did she now have that same air of worldliness as Sevette? Could the events of Paxia have changed them all so much, or, as it may be, so little? So little that only the bearest suggestion of line in their faces had changed... And yet that bear line signaled some deeper transfiguartion of the soul. The Baijani's warm eyes were lost as she dwelled in thought, and the candlelight played gently over her auburn hair and always gold-tanned skin, diffusing around her and smudging the edges of things.