She flinches when he touches her.

He backs away immediately, drops down to make himself smaller, less threatening.

She doesn't look - she can see him in her peripheral vision, that's enough - but reaches over to give him a brief pat: she's not upset at him.

Drex has sat down, cross-legged, hands on his knees, his chest moving obviously in slow, steady breaths, eyes closed. (He doesn't want to leave her right now, but he also doesn't want to be an intrusive presence.)

Esca nuzzles her hand slightly, but otherwise doesn't intrude on her space.

It takes a few seconds for her to notice what Drex is doing. She doesn't know what to make of it, when she does. (Get away, her mind screams at her, he's acting weird and that's dangerous; she does her best to ignore it.)

He doesn't move from where he is, is very much pretending to be part of the furniture.

Esca isn't acknowledging Drex either.

It's still weird. But... soothing, eventually; her breathing syncs with his without her noticing it, and she relaxes.

Esca notices, and relaxes a little against the bed.

Drex will stay a calm, steady, ignorable presence until she seems to be doing better, or at least until the corner of his powers still monitoring her tells him she's not as distressed, and then he will very carefully leave the room.

That's... also weird. But, well, okay.

She eats. She's always a bit mechanical about it, paying little attention to the food itself, but today that's redoubled; she works methodically from one side of the plate to the other without thinking about it much.

And then - well, that's a question, isn't it. She considers it, absently petting Esca as she does, and then picks up the tray to bring to the kitchen.

The kitchen is completely empty this time.

If she looks out the window, she will see Angelique stood on one of the paths out into the garden, apparently doing tai-chi, with fire wrapping around her as she moves.

Drex sat a little way from her, apparently meditating again.

Fire. Woah.

But Angelique is out there, and she's in here; it's only a little worrying. She leaves the tray on the counter and picks a seat at the table where she can see out the window.

Perfectly controlled fire! It spirals around Angelique, but always in response to a movement from her, echoing her. It's a vibrant and impressive display.

Esca leans against her legs.

Yeah, that's sure a thing.

She waits for them to come in.

It's about half an hour before they do, Drex's arm draped over her shoulder.

She gives Denice a smile when she sees her at the table. "Hello," she says.

Drex gives a nod.

She's a little nervous, a little wary, but mostly calm, and she nods back.

"Can I get you anything?"

She shrugs, then shakes her head.

Angelique nods. "Drex said he talked to you. Did you have any questions?"

She struggles with that for a few seconds, trying to come up with a piece of the 'yes, what, why, how' tangle that she could possibly express. It's not working, though, and she knows very well that not answering makes people think she's slow, and not worth wasting time or effort on; usually that's to her advantage, even though it gets her punished, but not today.

She looks back up and nods.