"You're very pretty," she says, a stray trickle of blood trailing down her chin.

Kiss!

Kiss! (She can taste her blood on Elana's lips, she loves that - )

She melts into Elana even more.

Beautiful girl.

Heeee.

"You're so good."

"So are you."

Nuzzle! (Which pulls at her just barely healed skin rather pleasantly.)

"I'm happy I'm so tasty," she says, teasingly.

"It's an excellent quality to be proud of." Hug. "Do I need to carry you again now?"

"Hm... I could heal myself all the way and walk... But I am enjoying this..."

Scoop!

Heeeee!

She hums happily, settling into Elana's arms.

And off they go again.

Solitude is enormous compared to Morthal or Dragon Bridge. The city proper spills from the palatial district perched on the grand arch over the river, rolling back into the mountainside and then crashing down to the river, a few small villages spreading out like ripples into the marsh. The outlying farms start about two hours out of Dragon Bridge, small village clusters rolling on for another three. Temples and standing stones and strange monuments dot the mountains, mostly small shrines to obscure gods, except one enormous statue of a robed woman holding up a beacon of light looming on a cliff above them about an hour from Solitude's gates. (It's searingly bright, enough to force Elana to tighten her hood.)

Solitude is an active port with all the attendant sounds and smells, and its gates are open for the early afternoon traffic, and its guards are relaxed. There's a nice inn meant for non-noble travelers just inside the gate - less nice ones down by the docks, nicer ones closer to the palace.

It's a city proper of over thirty thousand souls, the largest in Skyrim, and looks downright provincial to Lace's eyes.

"We won't be getting to anywhere interesting after we're done here," she says to Lace. "Shall we book a room at the inn?"

"Fine by me. Hopefully one with a decent bed."

"Let's head up to the palace district, then."

Grin. "The architecture on that looked pretty neat from the distance..."

"That's the place where they have a reason to try."

"I'm used to temples, museums, and schools being the prettiest buildings around... But I guess if you're resource poor, your kings are gonna try to show off even little scraps."

"An interesting way to put it, but true enough."

Shrug. "It's - a pattern, with petty people."

"You would have seen more people, I suppose."

Small smile. "Though maybe less petty on average. Or more able to exercise their pettiness - it's hard to say from here."

Elana chuckles.

"I think deprivation like this is - probably bad for people. Bad for the art they make, if nothing else."

"Limits their choices, what they're able to do in life."