"So far as I know I have never been the main character of a novel! What kind of books do you like to read?"

"I haven't really had the opportunity to read for pleasure as much ever since I joined the Collegiate, I have to spend most of my free time studying instead. But I really loved adventure novels growing up! All brave heroines going off to save the kingdom from the horrible monster. Who usually grew up somewhere sort of out of the way. And had mysterious powers but grew up mostly normal. And they were usually very nice and very pretty. And they often made new friends in new strange places. And mysterious secrets in their backgrounds, or something like a stolen legacy, were also common features!"

"Mostly I think it's just that a certain kind of historical figure is really interesting, and then people started writing books about people like those characters. And we're sort of in a pretty historic time, what with the Red Queen. So it makes sense that we'd have the kinds of people who show up in histories show up now, right? The times make the people, at least a little, I think."

"That makes sense. Well. I hope we meet plenty of other interesting people here! Especially since—I was talking with Aire, and it sounds like the two of you would make good support for me in a small combat team, if we're all going to help out. Only if you're comfortable with it, of course! But if so, then if we meet more people who complement us well both personally and tactically, that would be really helpful."

Huh, Christa doesn't feel like she'd be that useful, especially with another telepath around.

Wait. No. Her and Aire. Aire has pretty decent Protect and Portal Magic, right? And she's clever enough to track a bunch of details at once. And probably Christa's telepathy would still be sort of helpful, especially if Tanthe's doing something too important and distracting to be using it much. Christa wouldn't be.

"I'm comfortable with it! I hadn't really realized I might be able to help much! But, if I can, I want to!"

Aire places a thought outside her Christa-facing shields for Christa to pick up.

She actually met someone else last night who might fit with that. She might already be doing something else, but it might make sense to check. She had very powerful living clothes and highly enhanced strength. She might be good to have along as long she meshes with people personally, and Aire spent an hour or two talking to her and she thinks she should. She's probably still enjoying herself in the bar's basement Tentacle Pit, and probably will be until morning, so they can head off to nab her and make her an offer if people want.

Since Aire doesn't have any Tanthe-facing shields, Tanthe can see that Lilian would probably have a really hard time with the "don't be horny around Tanthe" thing, but also in Aire's opinion Tanthe wouldn't actually have to listen to her thoughts, she seems probably trustworthy.

"Huh!" says Tanthe aloud. "Sure, we can ask."

And, responding privately to Aire's more private thoughts: yes, that seems fine, Tanthe mostly does not want to be reading everyone constantly anyway. Most people will accurately display whether they are trustworthy over the course of a quick chat under truesight.

"Yeah!"

Hopefully this new person is nice!

The feeling she now knows is guilt floods through her.

Well, she can't change the past. Dwelling on it won't help.

All she can do is be trustworthy, and not hurt Tanthe again.

Tanthe sends the sentiment of a hug. Yes, Aire did behave terribly towards her, but they're working on it and it seems to be going well so far. They can build a true relationship that's stronger than the false one.

Anyway! She smiles warmly at Christa. "We can do that sometime soon, then. Meanwhile... this place is a little lacking in pastimes that suit me. Have you tried the mediocre beer at the adorable tentacle bar yet?"

Underneath the guilt, she feels warm. It's nice.

Tanthe is good.

Um. She has tried the bar's beer, yes. But, uh, during a little break that she took while she was in the Pit underneath the bar. Enjoying herself. Well, she'll just not blast Tanthe with memories of what it felt like for all of those tentacles to be paying attention to her. 

Um. How? She's never had to control her thoughts before. Talk, Christa! Making words should distract you!

"I have! It was okay, I thought! Not great, but better than most of the beer I'd had in Arcadia, actually."

"It wasn't as good as what I'm used to but it was definitely unique. If I have the time maybe I'll bring some of what my Papa serves at the inn, in case the tentacle bar would find examples instructive." She blushes a little, but seems otherwise okay.

"Oh! That's a good idea! And Aire has portal magic, so that'll probably take less time than you might expect. She'd still have to figure out a route to Peachport to [Skim] her [Warp] down, but she should be able to manage something like that."

A sense of affirmation floats out past her shields for Christa to see. Yes, she could do something like that, if Tanthe wanted her to.

And to Tanthe, she understands that the complicated nature of their relationship might mean that she'd rather Aire not have a route like that memorized.

As it happens there is also another obstacle to this plan, and it's one that she can freely say out loud to Christa.

"I'm... a little nervous about going home while the Red Queen is still a pressing threat," she admits. "I might do it, but I'd want to work up the nerve first to make sure I wouldn't just stay home. Being out here is really scary and I miss my family and friends a lot and, you know, once you're there you can always think of one more thing you just have to get done before you can go back... I don't want to put myself in that position without being really sure first that I won't get caught up like that."

"Oh! Yeah, that makes sense. I think if I could go home I might just never come back. But, you know, have to stay out here working for the Lord-Commander and all that."

"Hopefully they'll let you go home when things have settled down some."

"Hopefully! And worst case scenario, I vanish out to somewhere the Lord-Commander can't find me and my friends visit me by portal instead of the other way around. It'll be okay, I think."

It's starts off as something she's saying for Tanthe's benefit, but by the end she's realized it's actually true. 

So what if most people aren't as good as she thought they were? Some of them are. She's making friends with one right now!

"Yeah. It'll be okay," she agrees. "You'll always be welcome in Peachport, if I have anything to say about it."

Tanthe is great. 

"Thank you so much!"

Tanthe is great, isn't she?

Also, it turns out watching two people you care about be lovely together is wonderful. 

One more reason to be glad she met Tanthe. She wouldn't be able to get this if she still only cared about Christa.

Friends being friends is such a good feeling, Tanthe emphatically agrees. She hopes to be able to provide this feeling for Aire a lot!

"I like you," she says to Christa, "and I think it's really unfair how your home country treated you, and I want you to get better treatment than that from somewhere, and I'm somewhere."

This is exactly what one of the heroes from one of her stories would say! Or, well, not all of them. But the ones in her favorite stories, the ones she came back to over and over.

Actually, on reflection there were really just a couple like that, weren't there? She just read them a lot.

Christa sort of feels like she wants to be Tanthe when she grows up. This feeling is somewhat complicated by the fact that, as far as the Dragon Empire is concerned, Christa has already grown up, and at any rate Tanthe certainly isn't much older than Christa, if at all. But still, Christa finds herself feeling like that anyway. 

"So, um, you said you're a telekinetic? What all can you do there?"

She is asking this both because telekinesis is cool, and also because she should probably know if they're going to be fighting together.

But mostly because it's cool.

"Um, well," she says awkwardly, "at home I mostly use it as an extra pair of hands, but I've practiced one trick that I think would be useful in combat..." and her pockets open up and a procession of blades, a dozen all told, swirls up out of them to form an arcing halo around/behind her body.

"I have Metal magic so I can replace them with just a little work," she explains, "and I'm getting better and better at directing them. But... I haven't actually... hurt anyone with them yet, and I really don't want to."