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Pendour stopped digging or doing much of anything at all to torn all the way to Kami and really look at his face, searching for any sings of shock or disgust. When he mentioned that he had to deal with such awful things, she gave a soft, sympathetic, "Oh." Still, since he didn't seem too overwhelmed by the rudeness, she added, "Well, Irving also used to, um, assassinate people. It's what he's trying to groom me for."

She turned back to shoving packing dirt around her tree. "If you want to help, I'm just filling it back in. Like this, see?" She shoved another handful of dirt into the hole. "I know I need a shovel, but every trip I just end up bringing plants instead." So she'd just end up with her arms covered in specks of dirt up to the elbows and the train of her gown barely recognizable as having been blue once.

"But, um," she turned away away again, "I can warn you about the cove, at least. We can go there. It's the loveliest part of the wonder, I think, but there are some remains there. Skeletons, I mean." Pendour didn't shiver at the thought anymore, but she did give a mournful look to her new tree.

When he asked why she hadn't moved the skeletons yet, even joking as he was, Pendour turned away.

"I know. I should," she said. "It's just heavy work, and I keep getting distracted by the plants." Wouldn't anyone rather dig through fresh, magical soil than through old, sad bones? Also, although she didn't mention it, she'd also noticed that Irving tended to spend more time near the center of the wonder.

"Well, I think we have enough time to head over. We can finish off today's tour there?" As she gave a soft smile and turned towards the cove, she realized that she hadn't really been to this part of her wonder at all since the last time she'd had a guest. Maybe she was avoiding things.

It wasn't such a long walk, maybe five minutes to keep on the twisty garden paths. The cove was visible through most of the wonder, but there was something grand about approaching it and seeing it from its proper angle. It was dry as dry, and even most of the mosaics that made up the shore seemed a bit dusty and lifeless, but the structure remained. It was a large, sloped expanse, and circling around the sides in soft, organic curves, columns and arches rose up like sea cliffs until they reached the upper level. There were passages back there, shaded by the columns, but Pendour chose to stop where the edge of the water would have been, so that it would be easier for her guest to pretend that the odd white shapes a way back were just old coral. At the very top of the very back was a swath of seaweed and algae that almost looked like a stringy waterfall.

"This is it," she said, slowly looking back, and there was still a hint of pride in her eyes. "This is my cove."

Pendour's gaze absentmindedly traced the arches at the back, but really she was listening. The cove had a tendency to be as quiet as the stone it was carved from, and it was always lovely to have someone along to bring a little life back into it, even with things as simple as with their footsteps and their breath. She let his wonder be her wonder and when she closed her eyes for a moment, her lips curled up into a soft smile.

Then, with that first moment over, she pulled an iPhone out of her bodice and began tapping at the screen. "I've tried, but something always seems to go wrong up here," she said. "Though your phone runs on magic, doesn't it? That might work, if it can take pictures. " The screen on her Earth-phone remained black, and she lowered it in order to give a more direct smile to Kami.

"With what I've seen and what I've heard from Irving, it seems like this place was quite the tourist destination. There's even some buildings upstairs in the back that look like those rental houses by the beach, the ones all made with the same floorplan, like cookies." She gestured vaguely up towards the second story. "It would have been a very different life, being knight then. I don't know if I would have preferred it."

Well, the war had taken its toll, too. Crowds were not a fate worse than death. "...Maybe. Anyway, I've been trying to share this place with other people as much as I can. I am glad you like it, truly."

Pendour's smile was soft as soft as she gazed out over where the water had once been.

Her thoughts flickered briefly towards the war, and the sadder things, but it was hard to be with a friend on her wonder and to feel anything other than hopeful. Her smilegrew a little bigger, just big enough that she could feel it tugging at her scars. "We are lucky to be alive now," she repeated, soft and dreamy, and nodded. "Even with all the rest, that's how it always feels when I'm up here. My wish for you is that you can feel that way on your own world."

Then, she trailed off again and just stared down at the mosiacs at her feet for a few silent moments. The one at her feet looked like some sort of seabird made completely of white and silver shells. She hadn't fully studied this one yet, and she almost bent down to start running her fingers across the cracks before she remembered her guest and stood up straighter instead, running her fingers through her hair.

"Well, that's my cove," she said. "I know it's getting a little late. Are you ready to see Earth again?"