As her sapphire eyes cast about, looking for any trouble that might be coming for them, Elisabeth listened to the two talk. She had put two and two together from previous conversations with Balthazar and figured out that because she was a mage now, the place they were in was a danger to her. Too late to do anything about it but she didn’t want to be caught off guard.
Just because she was aware of her surroundings though didn’t mean she wasn’t absorbing what was being said. The first thing that caught her attention was Yeva’s description of her experiences in Viden. Well, she was right – Viden was cold. Locals being dismissive? Perhaps. When Elisabeth lived there, she never strayed far from the Academy and really hadn’t been social. Beyond that, she trusted Yeva’s opinion, so she wasn’t in a position to question it. Catching the redhead’s smile, she gave her hand a squeeze and smiled back. “If you ever want to go back to Viden, I’ll go with you. I’m sure we can find all sorts of mischief to get into.”
The mention of Darius made her smile. Swinging her hand a bit, she laughed at the memory of the collision. “You have an exceptionally good friend in that one, Yeva. I like him very much. I’m glad you got to spend some time together. Friends like that are awfully hard to find.” Nodding as she trailed off a bit, the raven-haired mage considered how long it had taken her to find people that cared about her. The number was still small but at least there was a number. Some people didn’t even have that.
Balthazar remained silent when their friend asked about their adventures. Elisabeth took that as a sign that she was supposed to respond. Checking their surroundings again, she shrugged a bit. “After Balthazar came to find me, we did mostly training. I’m a bit behind with Defiance so it was a good opportunity to catch up a bit. Oh, I went to see a friend before you both arrived. His name is Doran and he’s a professor here. I met him in Rharne and enjoy talking to him.”
The question about ‘home’ made her a bit reflective. There had been a time when she wouldn’t have considered any other place ‘home’…but that had changed a bit. Elisabeth was evolving into something much different than the girl that had arrived in Rharne almost a cycle earlier. “It was good to come back, but it was different. I think I finally realized that while I love Viden, it’s not ‘home’ anymore. I’m not sure that Rharne is either. I feel like I was able to have a bit of closure with Viden, if that makes any sense?”
Home was where the people you cared about were and that no longer included Viden.