Saskia watches for a little while, then goes off to read.

Veron has found an exit, has put away all of his weaponry into his bag of holding, and is walking towards the lakeside village. He's still not entirely sure what he's going to say, but he trusts that he'll figure that out when he gets there.

Most of the cute little cottages give the impression of being empty, or at least of containing someone who wishes you didn't know she was there.

But at the very end of the row, past the last house, there's a girl sitting on the lakeshore staring out at the water. She looks about twenty, and is definitely strikingly pretty.

He has ever met strikingly pretty people before, and the circumstances sort of makes it affect him even less than usual.

When he wants to, he can walk with absolute silence. Actually, he sort of defaults to that, now. Usually it's useful, but in this case he thinks it wouldn't be appreciated. Instead he makes an active effort to keep his footsteps audible, so she can hear him walking.

She looks up when she hears him, and regards him with a mildly puzzled expression.

Veron does not look like a swan. He's not terrible looking or anything, but he stands with a calm and easy confidence that someone that was recently kidnapped by an all powerful sorcerer wouldn't be likely to have. His dark clothes are strange and foreign, he wears more jewelry than is strictly fashionable, and there's something off about his black hair. He looks at her with carefully modulated concern and moves in a way that is easy to read and very purposefully nonthreatening.

"Hi," he says.

"Are you where he's been all week," she wonders.

"Sort of, yeah. May I?" He motions to the empty space next to her.

"Okay," she says, somewhat suspiciously.

He sits, giving her plenty of space.

"So," he says, "if everything keeps going to plan I am hopefully going to be able to spare you and everyone else here from, uh. This."

"...how?"

"I offered to find him willing subjects. I'm from another world and have access to a few others, and I've met a lot of very strange people, so this isn't quite as crazy as it might sound."

"...hm."

"We'll see how it goes. I'm a little nervous about it, personally. But I trust the person that volunteered to know what she's doing."

"...are you sure."

He considers the question seriously. He already had, he wouldn't have come here with Saskia if he wasn't certain she knew what she was doing, but it is the sort of thing that is worth reconsidering. Just in case.

"Yes," he says, with absolute certainty.

"...hm," she says, in a slightly different tone.

He smiles, a little.

"So. Is there anything you need or would like to have? I don't think I could push for everyone to walk out of here forever tomorrow, but I bet if there are things you'd like to have I can make sure you get them. Whether it be material items or a trip to a place that is not this mountain. Or something."

"I'm not sure you can get me the thing I want."

"Is there a reason not to ask? I might just surprise you."

"It's not pleasant to hope."

"That's fair. If you'd rather not, I understand. But if you ask me for something, I will do my absolute best to get it for you, and I make a habit of doing the impossible."

"...if he doesn't do this to anyone else, that's... enough. I don't think there's much you can do for us."

"All right."

He doesn't precisely agree with that statement, but he thinks he'd rather not push.

"...it's not that there's things you can't do, it's that there aren't things."