She sorts through her tree again. 

"I'm taking two nodes from Persistent in this, Extinguish and Held Spell, and Heal Wounds is from Persistent as well so we're making good progress there. In Ranged we take Splash Spell and in Self we take Passive Fire Resist. So the last node is really kind of free. That said, most of my core build items are in Persistent..." 

She hums to herself softly.

"I think I want to take a mana efficiency node in Persistent, that'll let me use my high Intricacy well."

Oh right she should respond rather than being a hopelessly gay dork. "Efficiency is rarely a bad idea if you've got the intricacy to fit it in, and I think you do."

Hyacinth claps her hands together. "Right! That's that settled then. Give me a second, I'm going to buy the improved fire resist and then try the fireplace again."

The purchase only takes an instant, and in a moment the new passive is slotted. 

Then she crouches again. How close to the log can she get now?

Would she like to grab the log? Grabbing log by the coals only stings now. This probably isn't nearly as hot as mage fires can get at higher levels, but it's hot enough to warm an entire tavern, and should be blistering her hand right now.

Instead it stings.

She pats it lightly. Good log.

Then she picks up the fireplace poker and slaps its still-cherry-red end into her other palm with a grin.

"We have ways of making you talk," she half-jokes. 

And then Sable grins and laughs brightly. "Oh you are a gem."

She grins and cracks up laughing, and leaves the fireplace poker behind in the fireplace where it belongs. "Yeah, uh, I kinda got into character there. This is fun." She ducks her head and smiles and then goes and picks up her staff from where it's leaning against the table.

"More seriously, probably it's time to head back to the room and finalize my build. We're both done our stew and I want to take some time to fiddle with making abilities before I turn in."

Sable nods. "Sounds like a good idea." She stacks the bowls and brings them back to the counter for Jorem, thanking him with a smile, and pulls out the room key. "Shall we?"

... Sharing a room with this girl is feeling a little dangerous, the same way holding the red-hot poker felt a little dangerous...

"I would love to." 

Sable offers Sin her arm and leads the way upstairs, and then down the hall to their room.

Eep???

She takes a breath, controls her reaction, and proceeds down the corridor on Sable's arm. She's a bit stiff.

That's okay. Sable can keep up some idle chatter about considerations she's balancing in designing her shadow cutter, on the way to the room, to help her be a bit more at ease.

Soon enough, they're looking at a medium-sized room, big enough not to be cramped but not really spacious either. Two beds sit against one wall, and a desk, two chairs, and a mirror sit across. A sign in the hall indicates that the bathroom is at the end of the hall.

Despite herself, Hyacinth finds herself heading towards the mirror.

It's silly to be preoccupied with her new appearance, but...

But still...

There she is, petite and pretty, with her braids and fuzzy ears and fluffy tail, the pretty little fae fox the outside world tried to deny her.

She finds herself blushing and staring. 

It feels so good to be her. She'd almost forgotten it, it feels so natural. But seeing herself in the mirror, her real herself, makes her feel... amazed. Thrilled. Her stomach is full of butterflies and her whole body seems to tingle a little. The flush on her face is heavy and hot but she doesn't care at all.