Despite his answer, Alysanne watched Tembovu carefully as he stood - noting just how tired he seemed. For a moment, she thought about using the healing winds to refresh him but - that’s right, she was no longer a Moon Doctor. She couldn’t quickly heal anyone even if she wanted to, instead she was once again stuck only with her  herbs and plants and common sense.

Once he was fully standing, he continued to speak and - to her surprise - he was thanking her. Was this why Mbwene had come to find her? She glanced over at the meddlesome little elephant but it was warmth in her expression instead of annoyance. “You’ll come to find that foals are a weakness of mine.” She responded with a smile, small but genuine. “Whatever our… disagreements, I wouldn’t want to be the one who came between you and your children. I hope Rexanna and the twins are still doing well?”

A moment later, and Alysanne received a second surprise from Tembovu - he chased the thanks with a compliment. Well, this was new. The painted mare was pretty sure she failed at covering up the widening of her green eyes well enough for it to not be notable, but everyone had to admit that was pretty out of the norm for the two of them. She smiled after a moment, though, cautiously. It was strange to be exchanging such pleasant conversation with the Elephant King and she couldn’t help but wonder how long it would last. “Thank you. I had a… strange encounter with a creature on an island in the south. This was a gift from our Goddess that it gave me.” This information was shared without bragging - she felt uncertain about what the gift even meant. Maybe he didn’t even need to know all of that information but it still perplexed her. Had the Goddess given her a gift as a gentle reminder of the quest she had yet to complete?

She shook her head lightly, the halter and necklace twinkling with the movement - she was still unaccustomed to the weight and noise that it made. The small glass headband that she had worn since her first day in the Edge didn’t make nearly as much noise.

After a moment, which Alysanne let stretch out between them as she tried to get up the courage to say what she needed to. Tembovu had only just said he was in her debt and here she was, about to ask for it to be paid already.

“There’s actually…” Alright, this was going to be a lot harder to say than she actually thought. Alysanne closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady herself before starting over. “Since we’re partners now, there’s something I think you should know.” The hesitation in her voice made it clear that she wasn’t completely sold on sharing this information - she still didn’t trust him - but she had decided to be honest and open, thinking those were two good qualities in a Queen. “I meant to tell you right after the meeting, but it was chaotic and Mauja seemed to have disapproved when I told him so I didn’t want to bring it up with him again.” She was growing fond of the spotted Emissary and didn’t want her troublesome tasks to get between the possibility of a friendship. “I’m on a quest for our Goddess, I have been for years now. It’s… difficult. She gave me tasks to help me learn but most of them go against my nature.” She honestly had no idea how much to tell him, wasn’t sure if she should go into the terrible things she was going to have to do, so she stuck to the original plan - tell him only what he needed to know. They were co-leaders now, not friends. This quest was guarded so close to her heart she hadn’t even fully told her sister about it.

And besides, she didn’t want to hear his hypocritical judgement about how she needed to hurt someone when he had done far worse.

“You see, when I didn’t heal myself after our fight… that was because part of my quest was to receive an injury and not be healed. I didn’t think that was important for you to know then, but it is now. There will be a time when I am wandering around the Edge, hurt, and I just need to let it heal on its own.” There was more that could be said, probably, but she fell silent there - guarded green eyes watching him, waiting for a reaction.

And she hadn't even gotten to the favour she needed from him yet.