"Fascinated," he says with ill-concealed contempt. "Would you say the arts of the rogue are fascinating? The archer? The gunslinger?"

"...yes?"

"He is in fact like that."

"...hm. Then perhaps it is not disrespectful after all."

"We are used to being seen as exotic attractions," explains Taph. "Because of our attire and our magic and some places even our skin colour."

"...that sounds singularly unpleasant, I'm so sorry."

She waves a dismissive hand. "Eden is a good place. Other powerful adventurers do not judge what is different."

"Does Eden not have much of a presence in Umbala?" Wherever that is.

"It does not."

...something tells him that he should definitely not ask anything more about that. He nods and then doesn't really know what to say next.

Taharqi to the rescue!

"I think Vallynn wanted to talk to me about something, though, so if you will excuse us."

Taharqi is pretty great. He'll follow.

There isn't really anywhere with any privacy here (except around Luke, who continues to have a wide bubble around him that no one dares approach) but they can project a little bit of "don't talk to me" with body language and that should be good enough. So Taharqi leans against a wall and raises an eyebrow.

Sigh. "Sorry for snapping at you."

Shrug. "It was nothing. I can deal with slight misdirected anger."

"It was very definitely not misdirected."

He lifts his eyebrow further.

"You're trying to get on my nerves again, aren't you."

"Yeah."

"Why."

"Because it's fun."

"...you're lying."

"Yeah."

"Why!"

"Because you need a thicker skin, my guy. You're a rank zero adventurer with no experience to speak of, no one will give you the time of day if you don't have something to make it worth their while, other people will be incredibly condescending towards you and if you can't handle a friend being condescending then you'd better get that shit out of the way right now!"