Again, the small white mare described her and the ever lovely Psyche as kind, drawing a slight heightening of an eyebrow as she wondered just how much error was in that judgement. Perhaps they were good souls to have helped her out of her predicament and to have provided her with answers to her bubbling froth of questions, but there was no sense of kindness behind their acts; kindness was for the weak, for those who could not depend enough upon themselves and so went searching to appease others and hope, with limbs crossed, that all their efforts at befriending this other being would not be in vain. Illynx was not this way. Had the white mare before her not worn the dual horns that sprung from around her ears, she would not be speaking now but maybe for wet, visceral gasps escaping from a severed throat; and as far as any further mention of "friendship" between the two of them, Illynx would have little to nothing to do with such nonsense. The being known as Iosui would serve her purpose on the outskirts of enemy territory, observing what she might so as to feed the might and power of the Lady Psyche, much as Illynx herself patrolled the perimeters of their home and would lend her horn to any battle that she was requested to attend by her oldest friend and superior. If the whims of the DarkEmpress were to annihilate every last trace of Iosui's existence, no matter how much further down the road this theoretical situation came into play, it would be with great pleasure that the corporal would descend upon the little white woman and snuff her very essence from existence; never would guilt cross Illynx's mind, never would she second guess her actions.

She was not kind.

Regardless, the corporal observed the little one as she listened to the explanation of the social order into which she was about to enter, the golden orbs of Illynx following the red ones of Iosui to Psyche's mane, where the various trinkets of battles won dangled from individual locks. The golden femme watched with mild amusement as the girl's eyes widened as the word pain was brought into play, her obvious discomfort at such a notion highly pleasing to the sadistic and often cruel warrior, who's lips responded to the mild horror that dashed across the damsel's face with a sinister smile. It was not Iosui's fault that the corporal disliked her so. That she was a mare had already won her no points with the chocolate minx, the often overly confident corporal a sucker for male attentions and company over the delicate mental states and incessant glorification of themselves that she had come to find most women to consist of. While Illynx had come to love Psyche, and perhaps was growing fond of some of her other kin upon the mountain, she had no reasons to feel anything but disdain for the white mare who had already proven too daft to avoid the natural traps in the currently darkened world of Helovia.

Despite the darling's initial discomfort at the mention of pain, her words were an invitation to train her as the elder unicorn's saw fit, a few points dripping down in her favor at this mention. At least she desires to learn, thought the corporal, her malicious grin fading into a loose and flat line as she pondered the facets of herself that Iosui had already shared. It would seem that her stupidity could be due entirely to her age, and perhaps insufficient raising of the child on her parents behalf. Not that they had utterly failed; the girl had enough sense to know her superiors when she saw them and also to hold herself in highest esteem above all the hornless maggots that crawled across the earth. But they had failed to teach her any skills beyond being beautiful and a handful of beliefs that had wound up being her salvation in this dark forest. "We will see what our resident thief decides of you," she replied, her gaze drifting to the side to observe the quiet strength of Psyche, who seemed to have chosen Illynx to do the speaking for now.

Little Iosui's next words returned the mildly mocking smile to the dark lips of the corporal, her eyes moving next to the tree that was causing such distress in the white mare. Perhaps it was just a ruse to get them moving? "It is but a tree, albeit magically marked at the moment," she stated, her body angling itself to return back up the path on which Psyche and she had arrived, "there will be more like it along the way to the Basin. Do not let them rouse your discomforts too very much." And with that, the mare took a few graceful steps forward, hesitating to see if Psyche and Iosui were joining her in her venture back home; when she was sure that they were united upon the theory, the corporal continued forward, sharing what tidbits she could of the land as they progressed towards the mountain.