"Only Piotr is still missing. The battle was short and the zombies were crude at best. I do not think there is a better use for your time."

Ishaza nods, and sits back onto another of the chairs by the tables. 

"I have a charm," she says, "that will help the horror of battle pass more quickly and leave fewer scars. You are freshly turned, yes? You should have enough life in you still to accept the touch of the Light."

She's slightly displeased with Crin Illemvich for just saying out loud that she's battlesick, but honestly not having to work quite so hard at hiding it sounds nice and she didn't ask for privacy and probably half the reason she cares so much is that it's something she can control.

She takes another look at Ishaza. She doesn't look like something from standard Warhammer Fantasy. She could maybe be a Daemonette? But she's missing the claw-hands, and if she wasn't running around with those out why would she have pink skin? Maybe she's a mutant?

If Ishaza is a Daemonette she would probably be able to tell, actually. She can feel magic, now. She reaches out with her senses.

Ishaza's soul is deeply attuned to something that repels corruption, something clean and bright and pure. The energy that was in her hands seems like it would unweave the undead and drive away the worst influences. 

Okay. Ishaza isn't a Daemonette, then. Is very emphatically not a Deamonette.

Unless her new magic senses are easily spoofable, which they theoretically could be. And if an illusion is failing to get through her defences it could be theoretically not detectable? She isn't sure. Maybe dhar-based corruption is weighty enough she can feel it and a small illusion to change skin colour and hide tentacles wouldn't be. But- she doubts it.

More importantly, she need a response.

Which means she needs to think about that charm. Would it even work on her? She is immune to all attempts to alter her emotional state. She could let it through, she supposes. But if she doesn't know it is what they say it is, that's maybe not the best idea. Maybe she could shape her defences to only let in Hysh-aspected magic? That would let it through if Ishaza were honest, and Hysh isn't shaped right to do something terrible to her mind.

Actually, does she want the horror of battle to pass faster? Should it? She did just kill a man.

Okay, it's been a few seconds of waiting in visible hesitation, she can think about that in more detail later, now she needs to respond.

"I think the charm would work. But- I have reason to think I will not scar, and what does not scar is right to feel for a time, if not to live in. Would it wash even that away?"

"No," Ishaza replies. "I think it would be a dangerous thing, a charm that could do that."

She nods. "It would be."

She reaches and pulls and- yes, she can shape her defences to let in- corruption-repelling energy, and effect her only a little and not enduringly at all.

"I think I would like that charm, then."

Ishaza reaches in, and light blooms from her fingertips. 

It washes over Alethia's skin, prickling a little as it interacts with her vampiric heritage, and then passes. 

The horror is still there, unweakened... but it seems easier for her to set it down, if she wishes. It seems to cling a little less. 

Ishaza lowers her hand, and nods. "There. Now I have other patients."

"Thank you, Ishaza." For the first time a note of warmth comes into Crin's voice.

She takes a seat at one of the rough tables in the tavern, and looks at Alethia again. 

"Would you happen to have a name?", she asks. 

She takes a deep breath and she moves the horror to the side. Time will weaken it some, but it will still be there later. She shouldn't rush herself through thinking about this whole situation, and right when meeting the local vampire overlord is probably not the best time.

"Thank you Ishaza."

And to Crin, "I do. Alethia."

Crin plus a note of warmth is substantially less viscerally frightening. Maybe that's Ishaza's charm making it easier to look at her through a lens less colored by the fact that she just killed someone, though.

"Welcome to my fief, such as it is. It's small but it's home." 

She looks over at Ishaza. "You didn't flinch when Ishaza came at you with Hysh on her hands, and its touch leaves you intact and unpained. Would that it were the same for me." She smiles wryly. "I have a feeling you have quite the story."

"I do. It is- very strange, and I am not certain it would be immediately believed. And so I think it would be unwise to share before we both know we can trust each other."

She expects Crin will understand the face-value statement and also the unspoken thing where beyond just being believed she's worried that Crin could potentially use the information against her if she weren't trustworthy. It's probably a bit strange to be so open about having such a strange story, and about keeping that story back. But she's not risking much, by being so open. And she thinks having it be known you have secrets you aren't sharing makes it less likely for there to be problems later.

Crin smiles wryly. "My own story is complicated as well. Perhaps we'll be able to exchange them some day." 

She looks at Alethia flatly. "Do you intend any harm to me or mine? I won't ask you to look me in the eye, but I want to hear you say your honest answer."

Oh, that is easy. She's tempted to be showy and look Crin in the eye anyway, but that would be silly.

"I intend no harm to you or anyone you protect. I would protect myself or others if I needed to, but do not expect to need to. If I did, unless I had to to prevent loss of life nobody would die or even be too badly hurt if I had anything to say about it."

She doesn't like hurting people.

Crin nods firmly. "You are like Ishaza, then. She has taken oaths along a similar line." 

"Those sound like good oaths. I haven't taken any myself, and likely won't, but I approve of the idea."

She takes another deep breath and puts aside a bit more of the horror.

Does Friends In High Places have anything to say about the correct form of address, here? She doesn't actually know Empire titles, or whether the vampiric nobility of Sylvania would use them or something altered. She's not quite sure whether calling Crin by her first name would be incredibly overly familiar or implied-correct given how she's been talking to her or what, and she'd rather know before it comes up.

"Crin" would be familiar. "Lady Illemvich" is more formal. It depends on whether she wants to act like she trusts her or not.

"Many of my compatriots in Sylvania are... shall we say opposed to people such as Ishaza being in their territory, on the basis that where one healer goes, witch hunters are sure to follow. I think this is deeply shortsighted of them, especially when there are healers such as Ishaza who are looked on with suspicion in the Empire simply for their appearances." She frowns. "You would expect the empire to be able to discriminate between daemons, beastmen and draenei, but all too often their policies are... shall we say confused."

Draenei. Draenei.

What the fuck is she in some sort of crossover-

She guesses she is.

And she guesses that answers the question of what exactly Ishaza is.

Was that the Holy Light, earlier? Crin called it Hysh, but if the worlds were blended it would be Hysh, wouldn't it be. What kind of changes would having that available in a world make-

Wait, Crin can probably read this sudden startlement on her face, vampires have better vision and she's calibrated for hiding things from humans.

Well, hopefully it won't cause problems.

"You would expect them to prioritize getting it right, but competence really does seem in short supply just about everywhere you look."

"But, well, if they and Sylvania's vampires are bound and determined to be wrong, more healer availability for you, I suppose. And a stronger fief results."

Crin doesn't comment on Alethia's surprise. 

"I maintain a border region between Fort Oberstyre and Templehof, more or less. To the west, the empire, to the east, Sylvania. It's an awkward existence, haunted by ghouls and orcs, but I try to do my best for my people."

"Ah. And things are relatively peaceful, now, since Sylvania isn't united under someone attempting conquest, and the new emperor is content to leave it mostly alone, for the time being? Or, well, relatively peaceful for Sylvania."