"And of course you couldn't help going there to figure out what's going on to kill it. All in a day's work in the life of the Commander, I suppose." Sigh.

Oh dear.

"He's not working alone, nor charging blindly into danger. We're gathering data to properly counter them and learn the breadth and depth of their abilities. I can't say he's safe, but he is prepared and acting deliberately, and he's very, very good at staying alive." Softly, she adds, "And he's happy."

"I know," Deborah sighs again. "I know my brother, I couldn't do anything to keep him away from whatever the most dangerous thing he could be doing with his life is," she says, with some fondness. "As his sister, it is my job to worry anyway."

Vetareh nods. She ambles away from the pretty library and in a toursward direction.

Deborah can continue the tour! She's pleasant company and curious to get to know her brother's apparently-girlfriend better. When they reach the kitchen there is an older man wearing an apron organising things.

"Henry!"

    "Ms. Orland!" he says, turning around and grinning at her.

"Oh, stop it with that Ms. Orland thing, it's Debs for you."

    "And Commander, it's good to see you, too," he says, turning a kindly smile towards James.

Deborah turns a can-you-believe-that-guy look at James.

He smiles at Henry in turn. "Henry, this is Vetareh."

James's apparently-girlfriend is perfectly polite, and happy to get to know Deborah, too! She's a mesmer, has a lot of magic to catch up on, and she thinks it's interesting how everything has shifted to a focus on weapons over spells. Depending on how modern magic has changed, Vetareh suspects that she can write a couple of books on ancient magical theory and make a tidy sum of money, and is considering how best to do that without wasting too much time, or giving away the weaknesses of her currently unique style of magic. She talks about how interesting the modern era is, about how impressed she is with all they've accomplished, how pretty Divinity's Reach is and how friendly all the people she's met are. It's clear that she's happy, too, and just a little bit head over heels for James.

When they reach the kitchen, she smiles warmly at Henry.

"Pleasure to meet you," she says, with a polite little incline of her head. "Are you responsible for breakfast? Because I have to tell whoever made it that it was delicious."

"That would be me, yes," he says, going just very slightly red. "Madam is too kind."

"Certainly not. Yesterday's breakfast was also delicious, so what we have here is a pattern, not a one off fluke! Thank you for yesterday too, by the way, we were in a bit of a rush and I didn't get the chance to thank you."

"Oh, I've been working here for long enough to know how it is with the Commander."

"He is very that way, isn't he," she agrees, smiling fondly at James. "Still. Thank you. You do good work, and I appreciate it."

"It's nothing, nothing at all," he says, nodding and grinning.

She smiles at him.

"Is it just you taking care of the place while James is away, or...?"

    "No, madam, my wife works here, too."

"Henry mostly just cooks, Clara deals with—everything else. She's great."

    "I'm a very lucky man," Henry says, nodding.

"I hope I get to meet her sometime."

"She should be outside taking care of the garden, I think, madam."

"We can say hello on our way out, then," says Vetareh.

"But I should finish your tour of the inside first!"

"I wouldn't dare cut it short."

She bids Henry a farewell, and then: tour! What a pretty house.

Pretty house has some more pretty rooms and Vetareh will be introduced to them! But eventually Deborah runs out of those.

She wonders if it's too soon or not to ask for a room to turn into an office/workshop. They definitely have enough spare rooms for it, but it seems like it might be moving too quickly. Besides, she's not sure if she is an official resident, or if she's just sleeping here temporarily because she's having sex with James, and it's therefore convenient to just fall asleep here after. That's probably a conversation to have with James later, when they are not in front of his sister. In front of Deborah, she would sort of like to pretend that theirs is a celibate love affair. It won't be very credible, but she can pretend.

Deborah's nice, she likes her well enough so far, in spite of the... less than stellar start. She seems like a sweetheart, and it's probably very hard to be related to someone like James, who runs all over creation and risks his life daily. Vetareh understands how that could cause some emotional turmoil. There's no real reason to hold it against her, and she's glad James has family.

"The house is really lovely," she sighs fondly, when the tour concludes. "Thank you for showing it to me."

"You're welcome! It's always a pleasure to meet James's friends. You still haven't introduced me to Rytlock, by the way."

"He's a busy person!"

"I'm sure you could get around to it if you really wanted to," Deborah says, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, now you've seen the whole house and can be allowed to go back to the Fire Islands to fight an Elder Dragon." She shakes her head. "Little brother, you've made my past few years very surreal."

"Love you too, Debs."

Out they go!