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Ralitha paused. She wasn't sure what to make of Michael, and she didn't much care for his avoidance of her questions or the way he jabbed at Banodin. She did not return his wink, and the unhappy expression that marred her attractive face didn't change.
"I have always lived in Medonia," she said to Banodin, deliberately answering his question first before returning her attention to Michael. The young man was awkward, but there was something inherently...trustworthy, perhaps? about him. "But in my job with the Church, I travel fairly widely. Throughout Enamoria on a regular basis, and occasionally to other parts of the Empire. Before the Schism, I went to Diana often, but now, most of my travel outside the province is for reasons like this."
Her eyes moved from him to Michael. "There are problems in my job," she said quietly. "Problems that go far beyond me, and even beyond the financial difficulties that have led to my assignment here. The internal workings of the Church are of little interest to most people, but I have to deal with them on a regular basis. And they are both more complex and harder to solve than I might prefer. Politicians and businessmen have people to go to, but clerics have to put their trust in the gods."
It was not, in the grand scheme of things, a statement that perhaps conveyed as much information as her interlocutors might have liked. But it was her first comment on whatever was actually bothering her, and as such, it was a cautious one. She looked from Michael back to Banodin, and then down at her glass. Again, she idly swirled the contents, but she still did not drink.
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