Welcome to Gaia! ::

Reuven tilted his head curiously. "Everyone?" he questioned. "Are there many people that you came here to meet?"

He wasn't aware of Adonai and Shael having many other friends in the city, and it was obvious that she was acquainted with the King and Queen and their family ...

Reuven blinked slowly. "Elros?" he asked thoughtfully, his mind working to figure out who she was talking about.

"Sir Elros," Amora supplied for him. "The Captain of my father's guard. He worked at Haven for I believe close to forty years, Lin knows him from there."

Reuven smiled back at Lin. "It's all right, really," he assured her. "I haven't seen him in many years ... not since we first went to visit Shael after learning of her survival. Even then, we only saw him once, so it's no surprise I didn't know who you were talking about at first."

He motioned towards a table, so that they could sit while they talked. "And how is he doing nowadays?" he asked curiously.

"It is always a large change to come to a different country," Reuven agreed, "especially when it's a permanent change. And especially when the climate is so different ... the forests of the Borderlands are nothing like the hot desert here. Many people would not be able to adapt. He is a great man for being able to do so."

And when one considered the change in his occupation ... well, he was living an entirely different life now.

"I have never been to the Southland," Reuven confessed, "but it is my understanding that it is not so dry as the Eastland. Aside from that, I do not know, but I do know that the two deserts are in fact two deserts, as evidenced by the fact that this area is always desert, while the Southland goes back and forth between desert and forest."

He really had no idea how that worked, or why, but he was certain Amora would have known. She was legendary in the city for knowing how everything worked - and if she didn't know, then she was sure to find out sooner or later.

Amora smiled warmly at Lin, her hands clasped calmly behind her back, though she was rocking slightly on the balls of her feet, an action that belied her seeming patience wihle the others chatted. Still, she would say nothing until she was asked a direct question - too many times, her brother had called her a know-it-all, and even her parents reminded her that offering her knowledge when it wasn't sought could serve to push people away from her.

Reuven meanwhile was continuing on. "Generally a thousand years, yes," he nodded, "but not exactly. Written records indicate that it can be anywhere from eight to twelve hundred years, nearly a half century of variant."

Amora gave the question barely a thought before she answered, sounding very much as if she had memorized a textbook of some sort (if indeed they had textbooks in that world).

"No one can predict the future that distant," she said matter-of-factly, "not even Mother. But the desertification was brought on by war, not naturally, and it would require natural processes to bring it back to its forest state. The conditions for such a change occur at about the same rate, so unless there's some supernatural event to speed up the process, I would say ... no."

After a brief pause, she added, "And another war would actually push it back further, not hasten it."