The concern in the face of the stallion was more or less lost on the girl as she chatted back and forth with him. Not that she would have chastised him for such a look, having certainly been more than nervous upon arrival at the borders of the snowy palace to the north. Still, had he said it aloud, she probably would have rambled on about something Kaj said about being nice and not judging your enemies and things like that. She had been affected deeply by Kaj's yelling at her for being a terrible soul and, though she was still a little confused about how to make it all happen, she had ultimately decided that she was going to make things right with the Basin, and the rest of the racists, and try her best to make the whole world get along. It was a lofty goal at best, but at least she was trying.

And, while Dragomir was surely getting at something else with his words, the painted girl only hummed and smiled brightly, quite taken by the compliment he had offered her. “Oh yes, it was rather pretty blue glass, a scorpion,” and some other nonsense words about this and that and what it had looked like. And so the stallion's racist manners, that surely would have dampened the painted girls eyes, went unnoticed for another day, for the stallion to continue hiding while he tried to live like a wolf among a herd of sheep.

As the chain work grew, as link after link formed into one another and glittered under the autumn sun, Kahlua continued humming along softly, proud of herself for what she had learned to accomplish, glad that she had finally found something in her life that she was actually good at and pleased that she had even been able to use it towards a larger goal. And she was even beginning to feel useful to Dragomir, in that perhaps she was actually offering him something he didn't already know, when he delved off into questions she would never have even thought of on her own, let alone having answers to them.

Her humming stopped as she listened, taking in his words, but left all aflutter in trying to process them into something that made sense. “Hmm,” she offered with a chuckle and a shake of her head. She had fooled him once, perhaps twice, into thinking she was smart, a scholar as well as a crafter, but illusions never last long, and Kahlua had never been good at keeping up false appearances anyway. At least she could answer the first question. “The mists will pick them up and solidify into the glass, as you see here,” she nodded to the work that was conveniently hovering before her. “Or, with the scorpion, I tried to... melt them?” Was that the right word? “So that the glass would turn blue instead of clear and it worked.”

As for the rest, she had no answer, and told him such with a bright laugh. Perhaps, if she ever gave up her position, he would be better at her than this. After all, he seemed to want to ask questions she had no desire in asking, or answering. Nevertheless, her feelings were not hurt. She was used to not knowing. “When I'm done I'll have you take this to Shadow, if you want,” she chatted on, her bright soprano continuing to fill the air. “She's supposed to give some palm leaves in trade. And- Oh! Maybe you can make friends with their crafter, too. We'll need metal hinges, at some point, you see, for Res' greenhouse... You can offer a trade!” And so she smiled brightly, pleased with herself for having thought of it at all, hoping he would accept what little job she could offer him. If she could share her magic she would...