Welcome to Gaia! ::

Veiris stared at Claudette, facial expression shifting between confusion and incredulity, "You have bugs that create their own light, and this isn't considered magic?" He'd never met a creature with that ability, aside from dragons who created their own fire, but this was different. A simple insect that created light. He didn't have many insect shifts, but he thought, light whenever needed would be a good ability to have.

He tracked her finger with his eyes as she traced the dark lines that made up his tattoos. "They are a language. Each tattoo tells of a form I can shift in to," he pointed to one at his rest and showed where its edges ended. From a distance, it seemed to weave into the one that snaked around his lower arm. Up close, the tattoos just barely missed connecting. "I've acquired a few," he said with a small smirk. He'd only met one person who had more than him, but that wasn't a meeting he ever liked to remember.

Kira raised her eyebrows. Five hundred years? That was impressive. "I would have never guessed," she said by way of compliment. Her blue-violet eyes were wide as she processed it.

"Tattoos are rather convenient," she added, showing off her arm.

Claudette was rather red as she dug around in her bag. She pulled out a jar containing a lit up firefly. "I keep it for good luck," she said quietly, beyond embarassed. There were flowers inside the jar as well, and the firefly was perched on the largest silver bulb. She pushed it towards him to inspect.

"Wow," she said again, a little breathlessly. "Can you speak that language, or is it ancient?"

She paused to fan her face with a napkin to cool off the blush before she added, "You sound accomplished in shifting. People must look up to you."

She bowed her head, not making eye contact. Why did I bring out Jinn? she berated herself about the firefly, not knowing how he'd react.

Genocide. It takes Sherith a few moments to remember what the word even means. "Who attacked you first?" she asks Svana. Obviously they were almost wiped out at some point. No wonder she seems so...vicious. Flicking her eyes towards Kira for a moment, she wonders if the tattooed magic user has a similar excuse.

She is momentarily distracted by the firefly in the jar. "How pretty!" she exclaims. "May I take a closer look?" After all, it was put forth for Veiris to see, not her.

Before Svana could explain how the eradication started, Baldur cut in. "Both sides would say the other side started it."

"They did start it!" she fumed. "If they didn't want our people to eat their people's hearts, they should have gotten better border defenses."

"Or wiped us all out, which they did."

"They tried," she snarled.

Shaking his head, he turned away from that conversation back to Kira. "Tattoos don't sound so bad." He rolled up his sleeves. His forearms were dappled heavily with scar tissue. "Not a lot of space, unfortunately." He watched with interest as she showed off her little demonstration. He reached up to catch one of the petals, inspecting it for authenticity. "Why do they light up, anyway?"

Kira watched Baldur catch one of the petals. He could inspect it all he wanted; it was a real flower petal. She caught one as well, just for fun. Why not?

"That's quite a lot of scarring," she said. "The tattoos light up because of the magic in our bodies. Apparently it's color coded. Certain magics do certain things, and certain colors are attached to certain magics."

Her explanation was a dumbed down version of how her mother had explained it. If only Dionne were here, she could tell them all about the Immortals. It wasn't like Svana and Baldur would turn against her; if anything, they seemed to be on the same side of two different wars. And that was very comforting to Kira.

Nodding, Sherith took in what Svana was saying and didn't interrupt. "Wouldn't it have been easier to have shorter lives and not eat hearts? I mean, wouldn't that have stopped a war from happening, so that more people could live, instead of just a few for a very long time?" It is clear she is struggling to understand this instead of simply condemning it and moving onward.

Sherith looks surprised by the short answer. She flicks a glance towards the male elf, who somehow seems a bit less intimidating than the woman. Then she looks back at Svana.

"But you could possibly survive, as an individual, without eating hearts? I mean, it wouldn't kill you right away?" she presses. But something in her expression indicates that it might not really be Svana she's thinking of. Not completely, at any rate. There's a distant quality to her eyes.

Svana is not far off in her estimation that Sherith doesn't understand many things. But, it may be some credit to her that she isn't plugging her ears and ignoring the elf under the mistaken impression that this will somehow change reality. Her face is pale, and she's struggling to accept it, but she isn't shrinking back into a fantasy realm in a futile attempt to hide from the truth. Which is pretty good for a young woman who hadn't stepped foot outside her own grounds before yesterday.

"I've never seen anyone like you two before, so I guess it isn't a surprise that I don't understand," she finally says. "You don't see yourselves as monsters, but do your enemies? I mean, I know they're fighting you, but..." She struggles for a few moments, but can't find the words she is looking for. Finally, she gives up with an apologetic shrug.