As the trees and leaves began to crunch and crackle with Eva's approach, Kahlua's heart began to grow cold with something akin to fear. Though she called Eva friend now, instead of a frightening stranger, Kahlua was still not sure what exactly she wanted to hear from the philosopher. Was she looking for validation that leaving was the proper thing to do, or was she looking for dissent and insistence that she should stay? Maybe, she was looking for something else entirely- just an honest opinion in the only place she knew that she could find one.

Stiffing and Tallis unexpectedly flew overhead, Kahlua turned her head in his direction and found Eva emerging from the trees. And though she genuinely wanted to offer a smile, Kahlua could not find one anywhere within her heart. There was only a cold blackness, a sense of dread that overwhelmed her, and a hollow hole where there should have been beating flesh. “Oh Eva, I did something terrible,” she started dramatically, her voice not as hysterical as it had been when she had announced the news to Aly and Res, but upset enough to display her emotions. Kahlua had been drowning herself in the calming magic that the Lady Moon had gifted her- it was the only thing that had been holding her together these past few days.

“Aurelia attacked me with her companion and... Oh Eva, I didn't mean it. But the snake, it bit me and...” She stopped, shuddered, wondered if she should be telling, and still tried to figure out what exactly she wanted out of this conversation. She found no answers to any of her wondering or figuring. There was only more confusion. But she had already started her story, had already begun to betray her black heart to this knowledgeable mare, she could not stop now, so she pressed her, lowering her head in shame for what she had to say.

“And I kicked. I didn't mean it, it was a reflex, but there is no excuse. Aurelia's companion is dead because of m-” she stopped again sharply, looking up to Tallis suddenly with wide eyes. She had been worried about Eva, but now she remembered the dragon and wondered what sort of hate he would find for her. She shook her head wildly back and forth a few times, as if to say she would not harm him, that she was not a serial murderess, that she had not meant what she had done... She feared that she would feel dragon flame upon her flesh, that she would burn after having just healed. But she had to finish, had to find her strength, and so she swallowed hard and lowered her gaze back to Eva, voice just slightly wilder than it had been before. “What am I supposed to do?!”