The Valkyrie sprung from beyond the mountain pass, and the idle bewitchings of danger, of treachery, of having to guard the outpost from too many strangers fell away – the ambience and composure remained, knotted along her graceful form as if kindled and incensed from birth. Her smile was a luminous, beautiful creation, blooming in curls of blossoms and petals, spring-like in its warmth and tenderness, in its affection and grandeur, while her head bowed towards the Queen, rose again to honor her in words and presence. “I trust you’re well, Hotaru?” Thereafter, her gaze swung back to the newcomer, Ghost, and she wondered how she’d come to possess such a name – by the follies of intangible things, or did she linger as a wraith, a cool, shrouded phantom, loitering listlessly around halls, parlors, and avenues, sweeping over dungeons, collecting fragments of secrets? Was she serene, a spirit dwelling on the earthly plain, rendered complete by the title of otherworldly expressions? Lena wanted to ask on the acquiring; it nearly jumped from her tongue, but she held it back, grinning again instead, welcoming another branch of smoking cloaks and daggers, of sleuths clawing and clattering for information on the truths, on the lies, on the serpentine edges of their realm. “A pleasure, Ghost.” Then her head tilted, curious still, trying to dwell along safe harbors, where furtive arms and munitions weren’t suddenly seized, where rights and inquiries were liberations and deliverances. “Where did you come from?”
 
But Ghost posed her own question too, and the Songbird watched a set of keys dropped to the ground; her memory sketched its way through nooks and crannies, through experiences and upheavals, attempting to search and pore over why they seemed familiar – something about the desert, about Sikeax, about days cavorting along the sand and flying over a bridge - enchanted, distorted, a means of a way in and a way out. Maybe her query had already been answered, because those artifacts seemed like pieces of the Dragon’s Throat. Her brow arched, but she had no response to give, glancing ultimately to Hotaru, who would hold a decision on the matter.