"Tch, sorry. Just reminded me of old hurts there for a bit. Yes ma'am."

She shakes her head, takes a deep breath, and in the space of a single blink executes a familiar mental motion. Her awareness flows entirely out of her hurts and her memories, and entirely into the present moment. She spreads her mind across every tug of airflow over every feather, fills her heart with the thermals rising up underneath her, and resets.

By the time the blink has passed, she opens her eyes as a new woman, freshly built from the joy of the air and the steadiness of her wings. With peaceful breaths she soars onward.

Lily stays quiet, and keeps her eyes closed.

After a few minutes, Sable starts quietly humming a song from her world to herself as she flies. She's easy to listen to, carrying the melody well.

Isabel listens. 

It's calming.

... The wind is rushing past, and she's being held close and hummed to. 

It's... kind of nice, actually. 

After a few minutes, she finishes that song and starts humming a different one. They can pass quite a few miles this way if nothing interrupts her.

Lily would like to just be held and hummed to right now.

It's... not because of her... and weirdly, that makes it better. 

And thus a few hours can pass, though eventually Sable starts improvising new melodies rather than humming from memory. This is a pretty great way to pass the time: she's flying, enjoying her isekai-enhanced musical skills, and helping a cute girl get a fresh start.

"The thing you need to understand," Lily says at length, "is that you wanting me to be happy is you still wanting something from me."

She laughs and nods. "Very fair point, you're quite right. How about instead I put even more implementation into my ideals and make a trade skills public library? And you can have early access to any book that you want to help me review for being quality educational material."

"That's... more reasonable."

"Suggestions are welcome. I'm not exactly going to stop being a crazy idealistic bitch, but I can point less of it at you or change how I'm doing it."

"At least you're being honest. Let me think about that."

"Sure," she says with a smile. "Mind if I go back to humming or maybe sing something while you do?"

"Not at all."

Then the music resumes. This time she lets herself sing. It's a bit different than she remembers without any accompaniment, but she's a lovely singer. If uninterrupted, she'll work her way back through her mental playlist for a while.

Lily listens, and thinks. 

It's a little different if Sable isn't doing it for her specifically. It's... easier to know what her obligations are. They're clearer. Simpler.

But Sable has already proven herself inclined to meddle, and... she barely knows her.

Amira helped her, even if she did prove to have her own agenda in the end. It's foolish to not accept help, even if it does come with strings. 

The kitchen servants helped her, too... But it's obvious that they wanted the same things for her as she did, at that moment. 

It's less clear with Sable. 

Maybe she should talk to her.

"... Where did you come from, anyway?"

She giggles nervously. "That is a complicated question to answer. I don't mind answering it, but it's possibly a little hard to believe."

"Go on, try me."

"Three months ago, I woke up on the floor of a dungeon in the far western Wastes. I woke up in an unfamiliar body — running on ink when previously I'd been a completely mundane human — with some grafted on magic and skills."

She huffs nervously. "I'm from another world. I'm from a world with no magic, much higher technology, and predatory capitalism that's replaced slavery and feudalism. A world where nothing other than humans is sapient enough to create a civilization. A world with no tentacles, and much more restrictive and shaming sexual mores."

She sighs softly. "I got hit by a fast-moving ground vehicle, faster than I'm flying us now, and died, and woke up in this world."

"... what's capitalism?"

"Basically it's nobility reimplemented through money instead of title. The wealthy own the means of producing goods and services, and pay everyone else to work. Housing, food, essential services like water or heat, they all cost money. There is no unclaimed wilderness to live in. It's illegal to sleep in your vehicle unless the owner of the property you're on allows it. It's illegal to sleep on public property. And the wages are rarely enough to live on. Education for better-paying careers is expensive, and there are systems of debt that help you pay for it but entrap you for decades paying it off."

"Isn't that how nobility already works?"