Ishaza looks over, then back to Crin. She smiles, but it doesn't quite touch her eyes. 

"... We will wait and see him buried, and tend to the people we can," she says. "And tomorrow you will be with us as our guest, and perhaps together we will all find a way to keep this from repeating."

"My guest," Crin corrects absently.

She swallows.

"Yeah."

She's moving too slowly she should race down to the Border Princes and take the power of that Naaru and enter churches and see if that counts as encountering gods and break down the door to the chaos realms and see how they like fighting someone who can do everything each of Them can and is six other kinds of god besides-

She should not, in fact, race off to try to solve all the world's problems as quickly as possible. If anything's likely to backfire it's letting herself be swept off instead of being strategic.

If it's the right idea it'll still be the right idea in the morning.

And, really, she already knows it isn't. Knew as soon as she thought of it. It's just a pleasant thought. A way by which she can imagine solving things fast, and look away from exactly what the world is like in so imagining.

She takes another deep breath.

This is bad. It is a tragedy that someone has died. It's a tragedy that that vampire is dead, and she isn't sure if he even gets an afterlife the way Piotr likely does.

And despite all of that, being her higher self, her self-looking-over-herself, is step one for going about making things better. As it always is.

Piotr was not the only man in the world to die today. Not even the only one killed by a vampire within a dozen miles, most likely. And rushing was foolish when those people weren't in front of her, and it's foolish now that they are. Moving too slowly would also be a mistake, and a grave one. But she doesn't even know what's different about this world, yet. And she landed on two people she can probably trust, who are likely to know rather a lot. The correct next move is still establishing trust so she can get- more fully briefed on things. And get more input on how to make things better fast, and hear what the pitfalls on the obvious plan are, since she's quite sure there are some.

Talking with Crin and Ishaza is the best next move. No running off required. And she also doesn't need to sleep. Probably. Even if her copied vampirism doesn't give her the ability to skip sleep on its own, she already slept some and after something like this wouldn't be sleeping for hours and hours. She feels wide awake, and like sleeping would be completely impossible. It likely wouldn't literally be, given how her abilities work, even if it usually is for vampires. But still, it's not staying awake through to dawn that feels hard, right now.

"I also will not be sleeping. And so I can at least keep you company and ensure you are not simply alone as everyone else slumbers, Lady Illemvich."

Crin smiles a little at that. It even reaches her eyes.

"That is perhaps the best personal news I have had in a very long time. Since meeting Ishaza, anyway."

Ishaza nods. "I am tired from the healing, and there is no reason for me to stay awake now. I think I will leave you two to your night." 

She looks over at Crin. "Unless, of course, milady objects."

"I do not. Get some rest, Ishaza. You will be needed to sanctify the ground tomorrow morning."

"By your command."

She looks over at Nikola. "I will require a room for the night."

"There is one." Nikola smiles as if Ishaza's request is a private joke. 

"Good rest, hyshandra." 

"Good rest, vabrosva." 

Ishaza walks up the stairs to the top landing, hooves clicking against the steps, and lets herself into a room.

"It seems it's just us for the rest of the night, then." 

Crin sits back in her chair. "Let us try to speak of lighter matters if we can."

"I am strongly in favour of this plan. Hmm. I find myself suddenly at a loss for conversation topics. Well, absent a good idea, I will make use of a bad one. Are your hounds of the bone-chillingly-terrifying variety, or are they surprisingly personable if one is their mistress? Or perhaps both."

"Both," Crin replies. "The largest of them are goblin war wolves I 'reclaimed' from the local tribe. They're surprisingly tame, but still fundamentally predators almost the size of you."

"Reclaimed war wolves! And I suppose "both" would be the best option, for someone in your position. Just imagine if it was discovered that your terrifying-sounding hounds were secretly a pack of friendly retrieving dogs."

Crin actually chuckles at that. "Quite." She runs a hand through her hair. "My fellow lords and ladies tend to keep less wholesome retinues, so I have to keep up somehow. I don't use Necromancy if I can help it; the Dhar involved scars the land with sufficient use, and is part of the reason why there's such contamination. And it makes me a person I don't like with continued exposure."

She suddenly finds herself wanting to ask if she knows whether the common belief that raising even non-spectral undead disturbs a soul's rest in the realm of the dead is true, but that is not particularly light conversation.

"I thoroughly approve. It's a clever solution to the problem."

She grins.

"If you ever somehow manage to become truly unassailably powerful you could try having a small group of hounds that are in fact incredibly friendly retrieving dogs and see how long it takes anyone to notice."

"That would be an entertaining experiment, I agree. Perhaps one day." 

She folds her hands together. "What do you think of Ishaza? She's quite the individual, I must say."

"She really is. I quite approve of her principles, even if I don't think adopting rules quite as strict as the ones she argues for is my in-expectation best option."

Also both she and Crin are very pretty but she is steadfastly ignoring the bit of her brain that's paying attention to that.

Crin takes a few moments to speak, considering her words carefully.

"She's quite... unique. I think in a different world she might have chosen a different career with less blood and suffering, but that unshakability of hers is a great asset to a healer. She wasn't born with her ability to control Hysh; she beseeched her goddess for it, through the intermediary of the draenei's guardian, and recieved it as a blessing for her conviction. It's strange to act in concert with one touched by the gods, but I suppose necessity makes odd bedfellows."

She nods.

"I haven't run into many servants of the gods, in my time. Certainly not an abundance of ones who've managed to earn the ability to control Hysh. So I suppose I don't really have a handle on how unique she is, lacking comparisons as I am. Perhaps that someone like her is working with you says something about what at least one of those gods think of your projects. I don't really- know much about what they're actually like, in any real way. You hear things about their servants, if you're me don't actually encounter said servants directly particularly often, and that's really all the information you usually get."

"I think Ishaza would be better to ask for details on the deities. She has some familiarity with the wider pantheon through her work, though she is primarily dedicated to Rhya."

"That makes sense. Perhaps I'll ask her about that back at Konigstein, or on the trip there."

Does this world have the printing press? Are books cheap enough she and Crin could simply bring things along to read, if they wanted? Probably if it has either Crin doesn't read for leisure or else actually good fiction still isn't much of a thing.

Something in the back of her head is saying she should use Dragon Fairy Elf Witch on Crin, in case her vampire lineage has more and more interesting abilities, but that feels- sort of rude, somehow? To do it without permission? And she's going to be an ally, hopefully. Better not to be rude.

"Do you have any questions about broader Sylvania? Nikola mentioned to me that you seemed a little lost."

"I, uh, am, yes. I have some vague knowledge, but- well, you may have heard that I literally did not know who the current Emperor was, or whether there was someone in Drakenhof who ruled all of Sylvania. Or, in fact, where exactly I was in Sylvania at all. The reason behind all of that is, well, part of the frankly-unbelievable story. How is the political situation in general? Are there large parts of Sylvania that are arranged into a hierarchy of nobility, or is it mostly individual independent holdings?"